A family trip from Pamplona to Alicante (abt 650 Km) from last Sunday to Wednesday this week,
gave me the oportunity to check before departure for potential SOTA Completes in the EA5/AT area.
I found pretty close the 1 pointer EA5/AT-099, which I had chased once in February this year, so this would clearly be my target for a complete:
A closer look on SOTAmaps revealed something like a road or some type of track which I may be able to drive with my car and then hike just the final part to the summit:
But the satellite view showed something like a quarry and I feared that the access might be restricted:
We travelled on Sunday and I agreed with my children that I would try a quick SOTA activation on Monday morning while they would still be sleeping and slowly waking up at the hotel.
I had previously taken the Lat/Long coordinates of the point where that road started its ascent from the base of the mountain, so I drove from the hotel the 11 Km to that point after having raised an Alert on SOTAwatch.
My fears got confirmed and there was a gypsum quarry there with machines and trucks working inside, plus a clear sign at the fence gate of the access road forbidding pass to the quarry to any non authorised people. So I parked my car outside of the quarry perimeter fence and started walking around looking for a possible approach from the side.
My car got parked where the red star is on the following image and the dashed lines show the access route I wanted to try:
This is how the mountain looked like soon after having started my hike:
The landscape is very different to what I usually have in the EA2/NV area at the North of Pamplona and it resembles pretty much the one in the Bardenas Reales desert at the South of Navarra (EA2/NV):
As I gained some elevation, I took this view looking back to where I left my car parked:
But I could only hike the green dashed line track shown in the following image…
…until I found a new forbidding sign:
Here I decided it would take me too much time and effort to descend and ascend back through a different path, even without having any guarantees about a possible success, so it was time to withdraw and get back to the hotel.
A couple of panoramic views before descending:
After descend, I drove back to the hotel, to rejoin my children and forget SOTA for the rest of the day and all our time in the coast. All we did was enjoying the warmth, sunshine and some of the beaches in the area:
as well as the always delicious seafood paellas in some of the many nice places by the sea shore:
It wasn’t possible for me to activate this summit this time, but I guess I’ll be back there some time in the future and I’ll try it again after having contacted with @EA5IYL for advise, as he has already activated this summit 3 times.
73,
Guru
P.D. the drive back to Pamplona was fine yesterday and we passed from the warmth and sunny coastal weather to the cloudy sky and 15º C of the Pyrenees area:
At least you had a nice time with your kids. Great photo of you, you look well. Take care.