Part 1 of our trip to Europe can be found here: Part 1
Part 2 of our trip to Europe can be found here: Part 2
Part 3
Now one week into our trip around Europe and we had one more day in the campsite by Lindau before heading back towards home. We had so far managed to hit our main targets while in south Germany by activating in three new regions (DL, OE and HB0) and discovering a few special geocaches; so what to do next? Helen had chosen the campsite because of its proximity to the border with Austria (with Liechtenstein close by too). We had focused on the hills east and south of where we were staying and neglected to look at the DM/BW summits that were towards the north-west. We also had not realised that we were close to Friedrichshafen where the large radio rally is held each year. What a brilliant excuse to go back sometime in the future.
During the week we had chatted to Michael (DJ5AV) and he mentioned he lived nearby to Friedrichshafen in the small town of Heiligenberg. He suggested that we could meet on one of his local summits as he could cycle from home to one of them. Originally we had looked at a couple of summits on the Austria/Germany border area (mainly as back-ups in case of bad weather) but a plan was hatched over our evening meal to activate the three summits near Friedrichshafen and hopefully meet Michael during the day on a summit. The first hill of the day would be Gehreberg (DM/BW-348) followed by Aacheck (BM/BW-349) then finally Rinkenburg (BM/BW-350).
While researching the summit of Gehrenberg it appeared that some stations had activated near the vicinity of a look-out tower which could be driven to. We plotted a potential route and made our way to where we thought it was. The location we found was over a mile away from the coordinates of the real high point. Being pedantic about at least getting to the place that is the highest I was not happy about being so far away. We were certain that the tower we found was the wrong one and attempted to find the elusive structure. Eventually, after driving all the way round the hill and trying various dead-ends that had no vehicle access we concluded that the tower we first found was probably the one which had been talked about.
Parking at the edge of the forest we used a GPSr to find our way to the actual summit. However the trails on our mapping didn’t always coincide with what was on the ground and after back tracking a couple of times we eventually found the summit in the centre of the forest marked by a plaque and a large boulder. We were now two hours later than we planned and had updated the alert pages trying to keep up with the slippage. As we were so late we decided to do a very quick activation but as it was propagation was not very good and contacts were slow. I managed 12 contacts on 20 metres in 30 minuets; very pedestrian for me.
Helen set off half way through my activation to get a cache but had similar problems with missing trails. She finally found a way to her target, a cache by a rock with stone carvings that had been added to over the years, and then returned later than expected. We met up back at the campervan ready to head off to the next target.
On our way up Gehreberg (DM/BW-348) we found a sculpture with a cache hidden behind and proof we made it to the top
Carolyn activating the summit and the carved rock Helen visited for a cache
Aacheck originally looked as if it was going to be a gentle walk in from the small village of Betenbrunn where we had arranged to meet Michael. Using 2 metres we quickly negotiated the lanes to find where Michael was patiently waiting. After introductions and securing his cycle he said if I was happy to drive up a farm track we could get closer to the summit. As it was we could get right to the top of the hill after going up a bumpy track, crossing a grassy field and heading into the woods. We set up our equipment and antenna in a tiny clearing and started the activation. While I started making contacts and qualifying Helen made afternoon tea in the camper; very civilized. This activation was a lazy affair because of chatting to our company. Meanwhile Helen had a very good run of contacts on 40 metres. The only down side to this activation was the mosquitoes and other various biting bugs which really made a meal out of me. Even after smothering with bug repellent they were still determined to attack us. Getting uncomfortable and beginning to react to the bites it was time to make a retreat. I only logged 9 stations on 20 metres and two summits to summits on 40 metres. It is very unusual for me to have less than 10 contacts but I was distracted.
Michael (DJ5AV) helping Carolyn to set up the antenna on Aacheck (BM/BW-349) and then posing in front of the campervan after tea
The third and last summit of the day was Rinkenburg. Parking just below the summit in small parking area surrounded by fields being worked with tractors, we walked past a wood store and then another 100 metres to a junction of tracks where the antenna could be set up out of the way of any farm vehicles wanting to get by. It was now getting late in the afternoon and propagation had dropped off but still a good spread of contacts made it into the log. As it was now early evening, 40 metres was used. 43 calls logged in just over half an hour; normal service had been restored. The bugs again were biting and we were getting itchy so time to pack things away and head back to the campsite for our final night’s stay in Lindau.
Carolyn activating the summit of Rinkenburg (BM/BW-350) just of the track surrounded by trees
Thursday had been a good day in a beautiful area with easy driving between the three wooded summits. It was difficult to distinguish where the actual tops were in amongst the undulating landscape and ridges and none had views of the others because of the trees but it was an interesting area to explore and hopefully one day we will come back.
Friday found us up fairly early to have breakfast and pack away our large drive-away awning and then reload the van for the longest stage of our trip over some 350 miles. As with most of the longer stages we drove, we planned to make stops for caches, at least one SOTA or anything touristy that caught our eye. We had plenty of time or so we thought.
We were enjoying the high speed autobahns until we got to Stuttgart and then Karlsruhe. It seemed that every junction round the cities had a queue and on top of that there were a couple of lane closures while accidents were cleared. The worst we saw was two coaches that had a coming together. We planned to do one summit along the way but we had to delay the alert by a couple of hours; it became obvious that we might not even have time because we did not want get to the next campsite too late. We finally reached the junction on the A62 that was nearest to the hill and took the short drive up the twisty roads to Potzberg (DM/RP-432).
The summit of Potzberg has a nature reserve, a hotel, a bird of prey centre and a tall observation tower. We set up the station in the shadow of the tower on a patch of grassy ground next to the main car park. The activation by necessity had to be of a very limited duration. Only 20 metres was used and working well providing 29 quick contacts, including a couple of summits to summits. Helen ran up the tower to take photographs although the view was not that exciting. We left happy knowing we had activated in yet another new region.
Carolyn activating the summit of Potzberg (DM/RP-432) in front of the viewing tower
The view from the tower of C operating and looking towards the hotel
Another four summits activated in two days and now we were in Luxembourg after a much longer day than expected. I had chased the four summits in Luxembourg and was hoping to complete them all. We were confident that we could drive around and activate them all on the one day left before heading off to Calais on Sunday so that was the plan. The trip had gone smoothly up until now, but there was drama to come… our plans were going to be in disarray.
See more pictures on my flickr pages
Carolyn (DL/G6WRW/P)