After a dash down the hill from our hotel in St Peter Port, we hastily arranged long-stay car parking in the harbour.  This was pretty steep at £22, but it was the only option realistically.  Monday 25th June 2018 was another lovely sunny day in the Channel Islands, and the boat crossing from Guernsey to Sark was very pleasant.  When we landed on the island, we didn't take take up the option of having our bags transported up the hill to the hotel by tractor.  We had everything in our respective rucksacks, and we wanted to walk up ourselves anyway.

I fell in love with Sark from almost the moment I set foot on it.  It was quiet and tranquil, but welcoming and interesting.  There was so much to see and explore, and not a car in sight!  Already I knew I wanted more than the 24 hours I would get, so I resolved there and then to return with Marianne for our silver wedding anniversary in July 2019.

Jimmy and I walked up the hill to the village and hunted around for our accommodation.  The Clos de Vaul Creux hotel was a very pleasant establishment, and we left some of our luggage there before donning our rucksacks again and making our way to the summit of the island.

The village on Sark was a fascinating place with a selection of little shops, hotels and businesses lining the gravel track streets.  It was short walk of about 1km to the summit point where the windmill is.  There would have been no actual need to get there, with most of the island being on a plateau around 100m ASL and therefore easily all in the activation zone as far as SOTA is concerned.  However, we were keen to reach the official "summit", and there was suitable space there beside the windmill and track to set up our antennas.

We had all the time in the world for this activation, so kind of "bedded in" for the afternoon!  We spent just over three pleasant hours operating our radios, making plenty of contacts on 20m CW and 20m SSB.  Jimmy only managed a single QSO on VHF on this one, so needed HF SSB in order to qualify the summit.

Many people passed the summit either on foot or pony-and-trap - or even tractor - and took an interest in what we were doing.  A chap on a bicycle introduced himself as a radio amateur and posed for a photo with Jimmy!  As the time approached 4pm, we decided to pack up and use the time before supper to have a bit of a walk and explore Sark.

From the windmill at Le Moulin, we continued away from the village and made our way towards Little Sark.  This was connected to the main part of Sark by a spectacular causeway, affording some even more spectacular views in all directions.  Over on Little Sark, our unique adventure continued even more!

We decided to head right down to the southern tip of the island and Venus Pool.  As we turned a track corner beside some houses, an old golden retriever, who we later learned was called Rover, spotted us and began wagging his tail excitedly.  As we passed him, without invitation, he began walking with us!  We found out later that he often does this with passing walkers.  He was clearly familiar with the route down to Venus Pool and led the way for most of it.

As we reached a bench at the top of the headland, Rover stopped and lay down.  Jimmy and I carried on down to near the water.  I said to Jimmy "I bet the dog will wait for us there, then walk back with us" - and that's exactly what he did!

Sure enough, as we climed back up the hill, Rover stirred from his rest and started to walk back home with us!  As we got to within 100m of his house, he scampered off ahead, and that's the last we saw of him.  Talking about him later in the pub though, it was clear that everyone on the island knew Rover, and Rover was an appropriate name, as he loved to explore the island and knew every street and route on there.

That night we went to the nearby Bel Air Inn for drinks and food, and to watch that night's World Cup football action.  It wasn't to be a very late night though.  We needed to be back in the guest house for that night's broadcast of Late Night Liam.  Of course, we were a long, long way out of the 102.8MHz FM service area, but I'd taken my internet radio and hooked it up to the guesthouse Wi-Fi and received it that way.

As an experiment, I also used the Wi-Fi and my smartphone to simulcast Liam's show via Facebook Live.  This proved popular and attracted quite a number of extra listeners to the show.  Jimmy and I really enjoyed listening in to Liam's show from Sark!

As is often the case with me, I was wide awake shortly after dawn on the morning of Tuesday 26th June 2018.  I simply couldn't resist the opportunity to get on air as MU1EYP/P from Sark Island again, so went out to do an early activation before breakfast, leaving Jimmy in bed in the B&B.  This time, I didn't hike all the way up to Le Moulin, but made use of the activation zone - which I was already in!  I walked to the end of the street that my hotel was on and set up beside a bench with a lovely viewpoint, close to the village centre.

I operated entirely on 20m SSB due to my 3.5mm jack lead for my CW paddle breaking, and made fifteen QSOs before it was time to return for breakfast.  Jimmy was now up and about, and somewhat delightfully, breakfast was served outside in the Italianate garden, under hot Channel Islands sunshine.  A really fine breakfast it was too - very enjoyable and highly recommended.

I started to make my descent down to the port ready to catch the boat back to Guernsey.  Jimmy hung back, also wanting to record one more activation of Le Moulin GU/GU-001 before leaving the island.  He wasn't setting any aerials up though, so I turned my handheld on to monitor how he was getting on.

He called CQ over and over again, but on this occasion did not secure any QSOs.  When very nearly down at the port, I replied to him myself, so he could at least have a one contact activation - and I could have a chaser point and unique!

The previous day's boat crossing from Guernsey had been busy, and we'd been near the back of the queue, resulting in us not getting a decent vantage point for photos.  This time, the vessel was not as full, but we also made sure we were near the front of the queue and able to get ourselves outdoor seats at the front of the boat.  As such, we got some great shots, especially as we were first sailing away from Sark.

Once we'd arrived in St Peter Port, we first looked for a shop where I could buy a 3.5mm cable, necessary for me to operate on CW again on this trip.  With this sorted, we had a few hours to kill before that afternoon's ferry crossing over to Poole, so we took a drive back up to Guernsey Airport GU/GU-002 for another activation, even though this time it would not score us any points.