My XYL planned this trip to La Gomera and La Palma as a surprise 70th birthday event for me, with a combination of hill walking and some SOTA activity.
Garajonay is the highest summit on La Gomera and is a relatively easy 10 pointer (my first btw), which I activated on Friday 28th. Its located in the middle of the island about 45 minutes drive up the excellent GM-2 highway from our base in San Sebastian.
The day before, I had carried out a recon trip to the summit as part of a circular walk with my XYL which took in lunch at the La Laguna Grande restaurant, in the recreational area to the North of Garajonay. The paths were easy walking through the cloud forest, which lived up to its name, being shrouded in mist all day.
From accounts of previous activations I knew that the actual summit area was taken up by a paved and walled visitor viewing area, so I wanted to investigate options for mast and hf antenna deployment. These I found to be very limited on the summit itself - around the viewing platform are wide paved pathways and the unpaved areas are covered in bushes, small trees, long grasses and flowers, trampling on which would probably not be viewed sympathetically. There is also a constant stream of tourists to contend with in a relatively confined space, so not great. However, after reviewing the activation zone on the IGN ( Instituto Geográfico Nacional - the Spanish equivalent of the Ordnance Survey) map, I realised that the secondary summit to the South with 2 comms towers was an option and found an ideal set-up spot close to the most southerly comms tower, to which I returned the following day.
Garajonay location (X marks the spot) map courtesy IGN
Garajonay Activation Zone map courtesy IGN
The SOTA database states the summit height as 1484m, the summit marker post states 1487m and the IGN map has both 1484 and 1487m, so I’m unsure why there is that discrepancy. Either way, the col low point is recorded at 1463m, so the AZ extends to the southern culmination.
My starting point was the small parking area of Cruce de Pajarito,located on a roundabout on the GM2, where the most direct route up to Garajonay starts. The weather as I arrived was brilliant, blue skies and sun in marked contrast to the day before.I parked at about 0915 and there were already a few cars present. There is some additional roadside parking opposite the main car park and further down the CV13, but in high season I think getting there early would be a must.
The path up is signed and well-maintained, consisting of steps for the most part, with intervening ups and downs and took about 40 minutes to ascend.
Summit marker (1487m)
Summit viewing area
Surrounding pathways
The comms masts on the southern culmination
Activation
Equipment: KX3, 1/4 wave verticals for 20/15/10, delta loop for 10m, Spiderbeam 7m mast
There were no issues due to the nearby comms towers. The activation spot was also largely hidden from the main summit by bushes and I was not troubled by visitors.
I had planned the activation to coincide with a summit activation day in my home area GM/ES in Scotland and was hoping to make a few S2S with the guys. I was ahead of them, so I started on 20m with a S2S with EI6IRB and a spot brought another 12 chasers, including Denis MW0CBC.
15m was in good shape and I got some very nice reports from a number of EU chasers including Tim G5OLD. PY1KJA was best DX, plus S2S with HB9IIO/P, EA8/DL2DXA/P on GC, EA1FTW and finally the GM/ES chaps Alex GM5ALX/P and Fraser MM0EFI/P.
I tried the vertical first on 10m but switched to the delta loop, getting another 17 itl including S2S with MM0EFI/P, GM5ALX/P and DL1CR/P. Denis, MW0CBC was last itl at 1256.
30mins after I was QRV, the weather returned to the cloudy normal, so I was operating in cool mist for the remainder, with hardly any views. Ordinarily I would have stayed QRV longer but I had to get back to San Sebastian to pack up and catch a ferry to La Palma.
Views from the top before the cloud returned
Mount Teide on Tenerife in the distance
Unfortunately my plans to activate on La Palma came to nothing due to adverse weather and me going down with a chest infection, which is still keeping me off the hills at home.
73 to all.
(guess we don’t want to upset someone… 
)