Gisborough Moor, G/TW-003 - 329m ASL - NZ 634 123 - OS Explorer OL26 - 1 SOTA point            

Saturday 1st September 2018 - Gisborough Moor G/TW-003, Urra Moor-Round Hill G/TW-001 & Cringle Moor-Drake Howe G/TW-002

Gig: Joe Longthorne

Venue: City Varieties, Leeds

I was wide awake at 0530 BST in the YHA at Osmotherley.  I hadn’t ordered breakfast, so decided to get straight out on the hills.  I had eaten quite late the night before, so wasn’t too hungry anyway.  I popped the researched postcode in the satnav and allowed it to direct me up onto Gisborough Moor.  Which, strangely, is not spelt like the nearby town of Guisborough…?  I pulled the Dacia into the side of a wide farm drive entrance, and started walking along the track opposite. 

There is barely any ascent on this track.  Well there is, but it goes on for such a long way that it feels almost flat.  In fact, it went on for a much longer way than I remembered when I did this hill previously, many years ago with Jimmy and Liam when they were kids.  I started to wonder if I was on the right track (as you do)!  Anyway, I plodded on and eventually got to the right turning on the track that I was anticipating.  I could now see the large summit cairn and shelter.  I started on the handheld, hoping for a quick and easy activation, but only managed two QSOs, one of whom was a leading SOTA chaser and activator in Phil G4OBK. 

It was necessary to deploy the 20m GP in order to qualify the activation, which I did easily by adding four QSOs on FT8.  The walk back “down” to the car seemed quicker, and I was soon on my way to Urra Moor-Round Hill G/TW-001.