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At last! Good weather. We awoke on the morning of Saturday 29th August 2009
to clear blue skies and warm sunshine. The main agenda item today was to be the
highest mountain in the Brecon Beacons, Pen y Fan GW/SW-001, 886m ASL, and what
a day to do it. The second half of the plan had been changed though. I realised
that following it with Fan Fawr GW/SW-005 was too ambitious with Liam in the
party, and so replaced this with The Begwns
GW/MW-025. I sorted out the rucksacks and bladders for all four, while the other three
had a bit of a lie-in. When we were up and about though, we drove off, calling
at the site shop for lunch and energy/bribe items. Jimmy directed me west towards Brecon, and then south down the A470. We past
the Storey Arms Centre - the other main start point for Pen y Fan - and
continued down to the large free car park, with refreshments and toilets, at
SN987198. It was extremely busy. For the expedition newcomer Craig, it was to be
a total contrast to Black Mountain GW/SW-041
and Waun Fach GW/SW-002 where we hadn't seen
another soul all day on either. Jimmy and Craig and, as usual, gone off ahead. Liam was in good spirits, and
a Dad that had pork scratchings in his pocket had been elevated in status from
persona non grata to superhero! Other walkers looked on with concern at
this episode and asked me if I wanted an energy bar to give Liam. I replied that
I had plenty of energy bars with me and explained the bribery and motivation
technique! On 40m CW, I had a good activation, working 18 contacts including a S2S with
DK5WL/P on Bosenberg DM/RP-499. I did have to break off a couple of times to
answer questions from interested walkers about amateUr radio and SOTA. The descent was straightforward, and still a busy ant-trail. We all agreed that it had been the best mountain outing of the trip and that the views were fantastic. The JimNav was told to take me to The Begwns GW/MW-025, a fair drive away, but an appropriate summit to round things off on the third day of our tour. Thanks to all the following stations worked by us on this activation:
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