Weather conditions were looking very iffy here at the weekend a variety of planned walks were rejected in favour of something safer.
Kellie Law in fife was an enticing little trig, located just inland above Elie and Anstruther. There was convenient parking and a nice couple of km walk in with 100m ascent or so. In addition, as well as being very useful to my winter activity score it was in NO50 (with TP0676)- one of the WAB golden Jubilee special squares
It proved to be a pleasant walk, with just enough effort to keep you warm and occasional steep pitches to decoke the heart.
It has stunning views over the East Neuk of Fife
But most annoyingly a small VHF transmitting station (Shipping?) with a very very noisy mini wind turbine! That coupled with the hoolie that made us very glad that we hadn't attempted anything more serious made it very difficult to hear the radio.
Which we did manage to do, and quite effectively! Karl (now) 2E0FEH was first in the log as he usually is! A number of regulars followed, m0hem, on2wab, m0bkv, g0fvh, g0fgi and some new friends - F4HZN - welcome to WAB Laurent! Great to get gm6zak on groundwave. On 80m there was a good WAB reception, including GB50WAB (paul mi1aib) and GI7WAB (you can't hide Esther). I'd heard Dan sm6cnx very weakly so made it known we were going back to 40, where Dan was waiting for us plus g0ajh. So it was very successful.
By the time we'd packed up it was only 1230 so I suggested that as we were so near why not pop down to Elie and do some of the coastal trigs we'd done before?
There's a couple of trigs one in NT49 just west of Earlsferry and one in (prized) NO50 at the east edge of the map. But very interestingly is that tiny bit of NT59 just east of Sauchar Point. The only bit of NT59 on land, sad there's no trig in it, but there is a comfy bench:
40m yielded Karl, 2e0feh (who else?) and Lionel mu0gsy in Guernsey, big signals but no-one else. 80m was far more productive with 11 qsos.
Next along the coast to the East was that other NO50 - worth only the winter bonus points for the trig to us (TP2303), but worth a lot more to the Golden Jubilee chasers and it's a stunning walk with a bit of history on the way!
We tried to add Dave g4iar to the list of 40m qsos but failed :-( Karl 'feh and David g0fvh were there again, but we did manage a few new on 80m (I think).
If the walk in had been stunning the walk back against the setting sun was even more so, we decided to axe nt49, it was getting late, AND there was a good pub in Elie...
And this is where the epic fail happened.
Two thirsty activators went in to the Ship Inn in Elie, somehow, we'd managed to walk 13km with 300m of ascent on this nothingness walk AND had not managed to have any lunch due to it being too windy.
"Two pints of Ossian please, gasped the weary travellers"
"Oh, I've just changed the barrel, it will have to settle, can't serve you". If looks could kill. We walked out in disgust. Did I say Shi* Inn?
<TIME PASSES (and a curry and a bit of wine)>
The next day dawns sunny and only a bit blustery. The carrier of the heavy thing was available for duty and so I proposed a visit to a trig with a bit of a walk and great views.
NO74 with TP5625 has only a small land section
An easy walkin from Ethie Mains takes you to fantastic views very quickly
It's a great place to operate with a handy trig to put everything on. 40m yielded very big signals but not a lot of them, nice to have a chat for a while "hogging 7160" with local gm0kdo down in Crail (just near where I was yesterday) but even that didn't bring anyone else. 80m was very productive with 11 qsos with big signals.
By 1500, it was starting to look very like evening
but first a wander further around that headland to admire the goats. Yes, Goats... dozens of them:
And then a leisurely wander back to the car (only 5km round trip!)
And at last that Pint!!
Cheers!
No comments:
Post a Comment