Well I was off on another MC/SOTA trip with my buddies the “Old Gits on Tour”. This time for two nights based at Inchnadamph and one night at Invershin.
We travelled up the A93 through Frasers (MM0EFI)back yard and stopped in Braemar for scones and coffee. The hills were a glorious soft purple with the heather in bloom.
It stayed dry until Ullapool but was very windy up on the high roads.
Saturday was still windy but not so wet. The rest of the gang headed northwards to Durness while I went out to Polbain for GM/NS-153. I found a place to park and set off up the track to the comms masts below the summit. There’s a wee bit of hill to climb beyond the masts to get the trig point where it was almost impossible to stand in the wind, fortunately there was a sheltered spot about 5 yards down on the Lee side to set up the antenna. It was initially dry but a nasty wet squall came in whilst I was unpacking so I set up my shelter and hid from that for a few minutes. I started on 40m and my only qso was Mike 2M0WNA who was quite loud. No replies on 15m or 2m, but another 14 qso’s on 20m and 17m including 4 s2s to Germany and Switzerland.
The sun came out and I got a couple of pictures of the summer isles and the view towards Stac Pollaidh.
I packed up and descended back to the track down the hill, slipping once but fortunately only losing my dignity. The walk back was dry until I was back at the bike getting changed.
On the ride back past Stac Pollaidh a group of motorcycle caught up with me and I realised that the rest of the gang had come south for the latter part of their outing.
Sunday dawned less windy and drier for the run up to Scourie for fuel then inland to Lairg, Altnaharra, Kinbrace and stopping at my Mum’s for soup and scones with home made jam. After that we had a run down to Helmsdale and Brora for fuel and Ice cream at Capaldi’s before arriving at Invershin for the night.
Monday’s forecast showed thunder and lightning to start so we opted for a delayed run south and the full Scottish breakfast helped pass the time as we watched the lightning flash.
Setting off south it was initially wet and most of the gang went west to miss it, I went down the A9 to Aviemore to go up Ord Ban GM/ES-074. The very helpful chap at the car park showed me where the path started and after switching outfit I set off. The bracken is quite dense at the start but thins out as you climb up through the trees and the trig point was a welcome sight as it was quite warm out of the wind. I set up th station a little to the North of the trig and called on 40m without success I saw a spot for DF7TF on DM/BW-841, it took few goes but we got the s2s in the end, and that was it. Despite trying 40m,15m,17m,10m and 2m for an hour and a half, no more qso’s, not such a glorious twelfth for me !
I packed up and headed back down to the car park. By this time the sun was out and I had a dry run home, 738 miles total and I now have a bit of the John Wayne walk. The rest of the gang had a good run back down through Glencoe. I need to get new tyres though for the next run up to Plockton in a couple of weeks for some more MC/SOTA activity.
Andy
MM7MOX
Then gets more exciting to Arnish especially when you meet bigger lorries coming the other way. It’s worth it as the walk from Arnish to Torran through the woods and then round the unamed 201m peak with Loch Mallaichte on a sunny day is one of the best I’ve done for the views and feeling. It was blowing a houlie when I was there and the noise of the wind in the trees was sublime. If you get the WX it’s stunning.
