I enjoyed your stories and photos. I would love to go back one day, but there are just so many other places to go too!
72, pat - ww4d
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Hi Fraser -
Beautiful report of a lovely trip. Pleased and surprised to be your first QSO. Hope to work you from many other summits.
73, Tom, W4JKC
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Fraser,
Thanks for the very detailed report! Congrats with your adventure! I’m planning EA8/LA at the end of februari. Your report is an inspiration for me when I want to put my experiences on the SOTA Reflector.
73, ON4ROB
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Winter sun + SOTA cannot be beaten Fraser. The Canaries/Madeira are excellent destinations as there’s plenty of non-SOTA stuff for other family members leaving you to have SOTA fun. Or have SOTA with Mo in your case. Climb hill, activate, back to hotel, eat, drink and repeat.
You have the choice of high scoring hills on Gran Canaria and Tenerife. But I find that driving about them is fairly slow when you get onto those roads with so many hairpin bends. So I prefer Fuerteventura and Lanzarote. They’re much less green but you can get from A to B much easier. And as I am no longer a points monkey but a uniques/completes seeker, quicker to climb and activate 1 or 2 pt summits are worth more to me.
Add 10 years to that and consider it again Tom ! Hence my plans for CT, EA2, EA3, GW, HB9, DL this year plus the usual GM stuff. And if I can find a very last minute (depart in 48hrs) type of thing for EA8/LA I’ll jump on the plane. Having worked for 40 years with only about 5 weeks being unemployed in that time, it’s time for me to spend some of my hard-earned cash on me 
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I daren’t stop to take a photo! All I remember is our brand new hire car screaming in protest. Most of the descents were 1st gear engine braking!
Matt, I read your report several times, so thank you for posting. I can see why Tenerife is a paragliding Mecca. One afternoon, we counted over twenty in the air near our hotel.
I didn’t realise there were gradings on sotl.as. As for the scramble, I climbed a steeper route for a bit of sport and then came down the way you came up. If anyone takes on El Sombrero, I suspect by the time they have got to that point they won’t be deterred from gaining the summit.
Rob, I wanted to write an “idiots guide” to these mountains. Hopefully anyone who wants to go can find one to suit them. I’m glad you found it helpful.
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I’d say the roads on Madeira were worse than Tenerife, which has a great dual track road (TF-38) that goes from the coastal motorway (TF-1) to the high plateau. It reminded me of driving in the Rockies or forests of Utah. Of course the Masca valley road that @WW4D mentions above is the exception, however I thought you’d be up for a bit of sport Andy!
I’ve been to Lanzarote (pre-SOTA) and found it pretty dull. Of course, with my KX2 in my luggage, my opinion may change in the future. I’d like to visit Gran Canaria next though.
That’s not my motivation either. On this trip it was enjoying the stunning mountain scenery with Mo, seeing new places, the DX and using the upper bands that ticked the boxes. Of course 8 or 10 points plus winter bonus in the sunshine isn’t to be sniffed at…
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When we were on Gran Canaria, the hire car was an 18mth old Mokka with 26000km on the clock. The first thing I did after checking for dings in the bodywork etc. was to see if there was any meat on the pads and metal on the discs. There was some but not much. It was an amazingly gutless car that spent much time in 1st or 2nd gear. It also had 4 bowls of jelly for shocks so I wasn’t planning on any Juha Kankkunen style driving 
I liked Lanzarote because it was somewhat how I expect Mars to look, Aloe Vera excepted.
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Which explains (when we diverted to Tenerife) the comment by one passenger, who had only ever been to Lanzarote, : “Isn’t the countryside green”
Fall about 
by stout party - wait till you see Madeira!!!
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It surprised me too Tom! Shows what can be done with 10 w into a bit of wire. Thanks for the QSO.
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Here is the first of two videos I shot on this trip.
Winter Sun & 10 m DX from Roque del Conte EA8/TF-010 SOTA - YouTube
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Another great activation video, Fraser. Splendid views and wonderful to activate in a T-shirt for once! Amazing you were able to pull my QRP signal from 2,000 miles away out of the noise. Excellent work - but unlikely to be a complete for me anytime soon…! 
73 Mike
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Hi Fraser,
Terrific report. I only got around to reading it this morning and it gripped me to the extent that my coffee had gone cold by the time I had finished. Well done both of you.
Nice to see 10 m and 15 m in such good shape. Can you use12 m?
73
Ron
VK3AFW
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Nice one Fraser. I enjoyed your Book immensely and the photos were stunning I’m only sorry I missed out on the contacts, anyways am glad you and Mo had a good time.
Best 73
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Hi Ron, I haven’t got a specific antenna for 12 m but I can use it with a random wire. I should probably build a delta loop.
Sorry about your coffee going cold. 
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Mike, An amazing job with 8 w* at my end and QRP at your end.
*I only just realised that the KX2 outputs 8 w PEP max on 17 & 10.
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Here’s the second and final video from Tenerife. The ascent and activation of El Sombrero.
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