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Guaza, EA8/TF-016 - 428m ASL - 28 03 02 N 16 41 38 W -
Tenerife Hikers' Map - 1 SOTA point
Determined to make an even earlier start than for
Rojar EA8/TF-019 four days
earlier, we didn't stop off for breakfast when we drove out on
the morning of Monday 12th September 2016. As such, we
arrived at the parking spot, behind a farmhouse on the road out
of Los Cristianos well before dawn. The first two photos
below showing the early and middle parts of the route were
actually taken during the descent; we completed these sections
on the ascent in darkness using the light from our headtorches.
The long farm track continued beyond the large wall on its left,
and eventually reached a sharp hairpin bend, and this was where
it began to climb, gently. The track then curved around
the side of the mountain, while still ascending, but only very
gradually. We were looking out for a right turn to take us
more steeply uphill and to the summit, but in darkness on this
largely featureless barren hillside, this seemed quite tricky.
We did find it though, and it did take us to the summit.
The summit was nowhere near as pleasant as that of Rojar four
days earlier. This one also had sea views, but not as
commanding or as aesthetically pleasing. It also had a
ramshackle collection of ugly summit buildings, as well as many
masts and power lines running right across the highest point.
We hoped this wouldn't cause a destructive level of QRN to
contend with on the HF bands.
Thankfully, after setting up and switching on, there didn't seem
to be prohibitive noise levels. I insisted this time that
Jimmy started on the HF station; I wouldn't take over until he
had achieved his qualification. Jimmy still grumbled that
this took too long, but today it was 1 hour and 5 minutes,
immeasurably better than the 4 and a half hours on EA8/TF-019!
With the four contacts in the bag, Jimmy went over to his 2m FM
station to try and get some local action, while I set to work on
20m CW.
HF CW was, again, easy. 14 QSOs made in 17 minutes, all on
the 20m band. One of these was a summit-to-summit QSO,
with Jan OK2PDT/P on OK/OL-009 in the Czech Republic.
Jimmy was having no joy on 2m FM though. I packed up but
suggested Jimmy carried on calling on VHF. If nothing
else, he could have a contact with me once I had descended
sufficiently far.
The good thing was that he didn't need this contact to qualify
the summit this time; he had already got his four.
However, it was nice for him to get at least one VHF QSO in the
activator log again - and nice for me to get another SOTA chaser
point, another SOTA chaser unique - and another SOTA complete!
(A summit both activated and chased).
Although I was already well ahead of Jimmy, and then he would
have to pack up before beginning his own descent, he still
caught me up well before the hairpin bend onto the farm track.
And this time, we were back at the apartments by mid-morning, so
back to business-as-usual. Later in the holiday we took a
family tourist trip up the cable car up
El Teide EA8/TF-001, but did
not continue to the summit (for which a permit is required) or
activate.
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