2nd January 2014

It was a bit of a trial and error method of finding the right road out of Minehead up to Exmoor's highest point without the "JimNav" in the car, but we eventually made it to the parking spot at SS904420.  The path opposite led straight to the large burial cairn at the summit. It was very windy at the top, with significant windchill. Liam and I huddled on one side of the cairn to get the best shelter we could.

The activation was much easier than earlier on Selworthy Beacon G/SC-005 from a radio point of view. 18 QSOs were made, all on 12m CW, and inside 21 minutes. 16 of the 18 contacts were into North America, and all with regular chasers familiar to my logbook.

       

We walked down to the car in the last of the daylight, but it was dark by the time we drove back into Minehead. We did a couple of pubs for refreshments, which included a spectacular pint of mulled cider in the first - delicious! In the second, The Hairy Dog, we played some table football and watched some freestyle motorbike stunt riding on the big screen.

       

This killed sufficient time for us to start thinking about our evening meal. The Alcombe Tandoori was conveniently situated about halfway between Minehead and our accommodation at Carhampton. It had a very stimulating menu, and my meal of mussels in Bangladeshi gravy followed by steamed fish in potato and aubergine broth was superb.

Telly viewing in the pub room this evening was a documentary about scammers which seemed to have Liam laughing his head off.  I struggled to stay awake through the programme. In fact I failed to do so, but did manage to get a sound nine hours of sleep.  Poor weather in the South West meant that we would head over to Walbury Hill the next day.