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Esgair Ddu, GW/MW-020 - 464m ASL - SH 873 106 - OS Explorer OL23 - 1 SOTA
point
Sunday 27th September 2020 - Esgair Ddu GW/MW-020 & Foel Cedig GW/NW-034 This would be the penultimate outing for Jimmy M0HGY and myself before we could plan an activation of out final unique SOTA summit to complete all of Wales. GW/NW-034 actually had been activated before, but under its name of Cyrniau Nod and old summit position. The new name and new position did not require it to have a new reference, so it wasn't really a new "unique" that needed collecting, but we both felt it appropriate to 'bag' before being in a position to claim the last one!
It was the usual 5am get-up, but we had breakfast at home rather than at a cafe en route, preferring to 'play it safe' and avoid mixing during these Covid times. After a long drive, we arrived at the parking spot at SH892105. Initially, I drove through the ford to park off road, but we then found that the ford was too deep to walk back through, and there was no access to the path we would be taking, so I took the car back out to park roadside. We set off walking along the track, heading west. The track on the ground continues further than what is mapped on Ordnance Survey.
A left turn was taken, avoiding the temptation to follow the track to the top of a small hill, and this led up to the main plateau. This was a vast and remote area, and we followed firebreaks in the heather as we edged further upwards towards the summit of Esgair Ddu.
The "summit" was entirely featureless rough moorland. There was a stiff breeze blowing, so I chose to descend slightly on the lee side and set up at a convenient fence corner. Jimmy elected to do likewise after some deliberation.
I operated on 30m FT and CW, while Jimmy did 2m FM. We both made more than enough contacts without difficulty.
We reversed our outward route to walk back to the car. We then set off, following Jimmy's directions, for Foel Cedig GW/NW-034.
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