It’s taken a while to get here. That’s because when I was striving to get to Goatdom I was happy to repeat a lot summits with low scores but with a Winter bonus. Then I was happy to bag many of the wee summits I’d avoided. Then we had COVID and it required a mental shift after being confined to near home to actually travel. That’s because the more summits you activate, the uniques get further and further away. Anyway a bit of concentrated effort got me very close to 500. I did Beinn Dubh GM/SS-090 just recently. Then the WX turned for the worse, when I could activate the WX was poor. Jimmy M0HGY asked if I was planning some exceptional for #500 and whilst I said no I did think it would be nice. However, Friedrichshafen 2024 came near and I thought I’ll grab uniques on that.
And lo it came pass
#500 F/JU-102 Fort de Planoise.
This was on our route from Lyon to near Mulhouse. It’s a simple drive on with a massive 500m wander through the woods till you come out to a nice opening and viewpoint! Also popular with Paragliders. Anyway the lack of effort aside, myself and Paul W6PNG shared a station. I did some CW and then we used Paul’s tablet on FT8 on 10m. My ODX was ZS6FY which was nice DX for #500 even if FT8 
#501 FL/VO-167 Wessenberg.
Not far from where we stayed, activated on the way to Tettnang. Thanks Armin DL6CGA I had chased this so it would also be a complete. A simple walk without much effort. We met a WW I/II relics collector who was digging up pieces of WWI debris, he had just found a large piece of shrapnel. It’s a simple walk to the AZ where we ran 2 stations. I thought conditions were rubbish on 30m CW then noticed I had not erected the antenna, it was laying on the ground. Oops! Paul energised his tick magnet and they all flew towards him from where they were hiding. He found one at the site and several more later in the day.
#502 FL/VO-092 Kohlberg.
We had activated 2 drive ons in Germany, I’d done them before, they were uniques for Paul. This and FL/VO-090 Le Petit Donon and FL/VO-023 Donon are all on top of each other. Simple short walks with a bit of climbing but easy really with 30 points on offer for little sweat expended. However, the WX was for heavy rains. We parked and walked to the further summit Kohlberg. We shared the station and managed to both activate it. I liked the fact at about 1000m ASL there was lots of conglomerate rock which had once been seabed. We started down as the rain started. Boy did it rain on our way back. We aborted to the shelter at the car park and ate fresh baguettes and cheese with some fruit. The rain stopped after 45 mins and we set off for the next.
#503 FL/VO-090 Le Petit Donon.
A short walk and climb and we amongst the clouds and the many WWI memorials to the units that fought and died here. It’s not the first time I’ve been activating amongst modern war wreckage but there is a different feeling to seeing battlefields in the UK from 500 years ago to recent battlegrounds even if recent is 80 or 110 years ago. Single station shared by both us. Conditions rubbish both WX and ionosphere. We could see FL/VO-023 Donon appear in and out of the mist but we decided to miss it as we had lost lots of time waiting for the rain to stop. Next year for FL/VO-023 maybe.
#504 F/JU-087 Fort de Montfaucon
Another simple drive on we visited on the way back and another summit popular with Paragliders. Again a shared station. We still had long way to drive to Lyon so it was a smash and grab.
Hey Andy, if you are going to the German/Austrian border why did you fly to Lyon ? Well Basel is the best choice as it drops you in The Vosges for collecting many points/uniques but the flight times are crap for Edinburgh. Next is Geneva. But I’ve done that the last 2 times and whilst Switzerland is a nice place I fancied a change. The flight times and prices to Lyon were good too. But boy it’s a long way there and back. We did 1700km in our hire care in total.
