Walking along the wide and flat (ish) Offa's Dyke Path track to Moel Famau GW/NW-044, I was starting to feel absolutely worn out! This was not a good sign at barely 40% of the way through the day's schedule. I tried to quicken my stride, but it was already clear that I was getting behind time. At the summit, this was exacerbated by me having a good look round the renovated Jubilee Tower. A lot of the rubble and soil from around it had been removed and it was now possible to look inside the structure, through locked gates. Sadly the inside is still mainly rubble - and litter - but a very nice new stairway has been built to the upper level and the whole thing is a lot neater and tidier.

       

I chose the East facing side of the tower for maximum shelter and set up the 12m GP to allow me to huddle right in against the stonework. Nonetheless, the rain now came, for the first time in the day, and operating inside the bothy bag was required. When the first reply came in from VK2DAG on CW, I was confident of better conditions, but it was not so. The only other three contacts were all SSB into North West England - except for another call from Matt VK2DAG on that mode.

       

The activation of Moel Famau had taken longer than intended, and walking down, I realised that I was going to be very late on my next two summits. I altered my alert times accordingly in order to give the RBNgate the best opportunity of "getting it right". Most of the descent from Moel Famau was in heavy stinging rain, and my jacket "wetted out" for the first time in the day. The saving grace was the wind, which dried my clothes quickly every time there was a break in the rain.  My lateness was now compounded by the tricky navigation to the parking spot for Penycloddiau GW/NW-054.