Saturday 15th March 2025
Dufton & Cross Fell G/NP-001- I woke at 7ish. A beautifully clear day and a couple of degrees below freezing in the car. The car park next to the village toilets and a caravan site is a favourite parking up site for me if I’m spending the night out. But the clear weather had attracted several cars and their noisy occupants who were exchanging loud comments about their respective walks that day.
A short drive to the small carpark at Kirklands (645326) to the SW my days’s outing started and a steady plod uphill saw me at the the summit of Cross Fell (G/NP-001) 1hr 45’ later. The lower slopes were frosty and there was a small but regular covering of snow for the last hundred metres.
On the way up the track I noticed the farmer had been depositing sheep fodder and associated ironmongery immediately on the bridleway. There is plenty of room to deposit the feed bales alongside the path, but for whatever reason he chose to block the path creating a rather muddy and unnecessary detour.
However the sun shone brightly from a clear sky and there was hardly a breath of air… I arrived at the summit about 9.45am local time and set up office in one of the 4 quadrants of the summit shelter.
A self spot on 7mhz and on the air at 1104z my first caller was Phillippe/ON7GO immediately followed by Paul/M0CQE and five more UK stations, including TOM of this parish, M1EYP/P operating from G/SP-004 Shining Tor. After several minutes of sending out CQs without reply I switched to 10mhz. and got a a further 5 callers before that too went quiet but not before I noticed that I’d yet again forgotten to drop a link on the dipole but still got replies. !!
As I was undoing the last link on my 3 band linked dipole I had my first visitors of the day who politely asked me what I was up to and I replied briefly explained my purpose. Pointing to a distant village one of them asked me which village it was. We spread my map out and after carefully orientating the map we identified several places of interest before they went on their way. Switching to 14mhz I was immediately faced with, for me, a rather long and steady pile up with little respite resulting in 35 callers in 35 minutes. Phew!! I could hear Colin M1BUU/P on G/LD-018 (Stoney Cove Pike) on my radio on 10mhz. He was quite busy and I listened for a few minutes before sending ‘/P’. This had no effect on some of the callers who continued, although I could just hear Colin respond to the /P through the QRM, but they kept calling so I waiting until he’d worked a couple more before, again sending ‘/P’. To my amazement he answered me using my full callsign. I later discovered he recognised my morse (I never knew it had a distinct fist), and he’d seen my spot too. In total 49 QSOs in a total of 90 minutes operating. By now the clouds were being blown up the hillside and blotting out the sun. I was starting to feel cold and as I glanced towards the east and the radar station on Great Dun Fell, I could see about 15 more walkers approaching. It was time to go, but not before one of them asked me; “Is that your fishing rod?", pointing to the dipole which was still up. It was time to go, and for a change I descended via the path which goes over WildBoar Scar where I found several small ruined shelters or enclosures.
(Below = Great Dun Fell and Civil Avaiation radar station)
I stopped for a bite to eat and a coffee in Appleby before driving back to Kirby Stephen.
After some decisive procrastination and time wasting I thought I’d activate 9 Standards/ G/NP-018. Yes I knew it would be dark for a large part of the activation, but I had an excellent head torch and at least one ‘micro’, light if needed. I’ve spent a lot of time walking the hills and mountains in the dark but I’d never set up radio in the dark and was slightly apprehensive how I’d manage.
The weather was as perfect you might wish for the time of the year… Parking at the end of the tarmac road above Hartley I was soon on my way and arrived on top 45 minutes later.
Now the Coast to Coast path is a ‘National Trail’, there was a fair bit of work going on to upgrade the path. Where the summit path leaves the rough track and heads across the moor , there were pallets stacked with large stone paving slabs every few yards all the way to the summit. Delivered by helicopter, I pondered how some of these slabs would ever be moved into position. Many were the width & length of the pallet!.
At the summit I quickly set myself up in the ruined shelter/sheep bield just below the ‘standards’.
To my horror I discovered that every bit of 7 mhz was buzzing with contesters. As fast as I found a free space, someone jumped in, sending ‘Test’. I did get one chaser on 7 mhz, though - MW0IDX/Paul who is the Welsh Association manager, the the frequency was immediately taken over by another contester. There’s only one winner if you’ve only got 5 watts.
(below) My office in the dark
A qsy to 10mhz got me 14 more callers before I decided to pack up and get my torch on and carefully accounting for every bit of kit as I put it in my rucksack. A couple of photos in the dark and I headed down to the car in the dark. In my hurry I took a step down expecting to land on two large stones. Mislead by the reflection of my head torch these turned out to be two large puddles in a large patch of wet marshy bog and i got rather muddy to say the least…
Arriving a at the car in darkness a little later I discovered I’d walked 20km that day. A good day in the hills and a good outing in fine weather.