Marianne gave us a pass-out to go walking at the start of half-term, which we gratefully accepted.  Jimmy in particular saw this as an opportunity to knock off an entire SOTA region and draw level with his father's Marilyns score.  Before setting out, I had bagged 136 Marilyns, with Jimmy one behind on 135.  The one of mine that he was missing was Cringle Moor-Drake Howe G/TW-002 that I had done CWI style (ie en route to/from a business trip, not morse code!).

Not a story to tell here, but a concern meant that we only left Macclesfield at 1110 BST on Sunday 28th May 2006, a good 4 hours behind schedule.  The knock-on effect of this was to ultimately cost us two of the intended eight summits. We drove across through Buxton, Chesterfield, Worksop, Gainsborough and Market Rasen before heading up the hill to Normanby-le-Wold and the nearby golf ball radar on the summit plateau of G/TW-005.  This summit used to be called The Wolds in the Dawson Marilyn tables, but was renamed Normanby Top in the most recent RHB revision.  On the internet, it appears to be referred to as Wolds Top in several places.  In any case, it is the highest point in the Lincolnshire Wolds, a very easy Marilyn to knock off, but boring and uninspiring, and certainly not meriting a repeat activation in future years; one for the uniques score only!

We parked in a large fenced area to the side of the radar compound, already well within the activation zone, and walked along the side of a field.  This was an almost flat quarter of a mile to where the summit is according to the map, but no amount of peering through hedges could reveal the indicated trig point to Jimmy and myself. We set up for 2m SSB, which Jimmy indicated to SOTAwatch Spots via SPOTlite on his mobile 'phone.  However, this segment of VHF did not appear to be in good shape, something which was unfortunately to remain throughout our trip away.  We did work two stations on 2m SSB, but they were only a few miles down the road in Lincolnshire, and reports were either 51, 41 or 31.  Nothing else was heard on this mode.  2m FM brought in the remaining required contacts, and with a surprisingly cold and strong wind blasting across the summit plateau (something else that was to continue for the three days), we elected not to set up for HF. We waved a final farewell to this dismal summit and set off north for Bishop Wilton Wold G/TW-004.  

Many thanks to the following stations: