Well, Meteoblue had been forecasting a day of clear skies and sunshine for the the Northern Lake district today so it seemed like a good day for an activation. I didn’t fancy a 300+ mile round trip drive for a day trip so hatched a plan to get there by public transport.
The train service from my local station isn’t super frequent so I drove the first leg to the outskirts to Chester then walked across the city to the station under clear skies.
Ticket purchased and boarded the train at 0721 which got me to Penrith for 0940 with 1 change.
The weather remained nice until around Lancaster where the sky turned dark and threatening.
When I got out at Penrith and got the bus stop, the heavens opened. Checking Meteoblue it was still showing clear skies and sunshine all day!
The bus timetable at the bus stop said the bus was due at 0950 although it arrived 15 minutes late and departed even later. The X4 and X5 buses run from Penrith to Keswick (and beyond) every 30 minutes on Saturday which is handy. The railway timetable shows a bus from Penrith Station to Keswick, operated by Avanti West Coast (the train company) although I can’t find the price and it seems like it’s just the same X4/X5 bus but with a through ticket.
My plan was to activate Blencathra and the bus only stops at Threlkeld (not at Scales) so I got off at the village hall in Threlkeld and as it was still chucking it down I headed into the coffee shop to hide and decide what to do. Although pricey, the breakfast baps were beautiful.
The rain stopped, then started again several times.
After wasting as much time as I thought I could justify: using the facilities, faffing with shoes and my rucksack I headed back out into the drizzle. The rain wasn’t too bad so thought I could at least wander up the road to the field studies centre and probably find some shelter from the rain under the trees if necessary. About half way up the road, the rain eased off and there was even a small patch of blue sky although the mountain was still covered in cloud.
I got to the car park, found absolute chaos with a full car park, cars parked all along the road, more cars queuing to get in so nobody could get out, cars and vans getting stuck on the mud/gravel. Made me glad that I hadn’t driven.
The path was easy to follow, the rain held off, the sun made a couple of brief appearances and the wind kept picking up then dying down.
The summit summit was reached in 90 minutes and was pretty windy. Despite the wind the summit was very busy - mainly with people standing around shouting to each other. I touched the ‘trig’ and backtracked slightly to find somewhere slightly out of the wind to set up.
2m FM was first using my FT817 and flowerpot dipole (my slim Jim has a bad connection/break in it somewhere). The summit was qualified with summit to summit contacts from just tuning around before I called CQ and logged a few more contacts with Dave G6AEK putting a spot on for me.
After 2m went quiet I set up 23cm and getting the Yagi antenna up that I had bought with me was proving a challenge in the wind with the travel pole collapsing and the antenna spinning round the wrong way several times. Only 2 contacts were made on SSB: G4NOY was a very strong signal all the way from the West Wirral despite us being cross polarised and my antenna blowing around the wrong way constantly. G4BLH/M was also logged but I couldn’t make out any others although I could tell there was at least one other station trying to reach me. Helvellyn and several other hills were in the way.
After an hour on the summit, I worked another summit to summit on 2m while packing up then headed back down. The descent was much quicker, only taking 60 minutes which got me to the pub 2 minutes before the bus was due (unfortunately!).
Departure time came and went, and the Stagecoach website wasn’t even showing the bus on the live tracking with the next bus delayed and not due for another 60 minutes. Fortunately it turned up only 5 minutes late and I was on my way back to Penrith at a glacial 30 mph up the A66 a bit earlier than expected.
There was just time to pop to the shop next to the station for snacks before heading back south on an earlier train at 1550 getting back to Chester at 1810 with 2 changes this time. Again, south of Lancaster the weather brightened up significantly!
Once through the chaos of the ticket barriers at the station, it was a quick walk though the city back to the car in some late evening sunshine.
PT:
Total: £90.30 (Fuel to Chester and back, train ticket, bus fare)
Time: approx 9 hours including changes but excluding hiding until the rain eased
Driving:
Approx £50.00 fuel only, probably around £85 including wear and tear.
Time: approx 6 hours including comfort break
Going by train was certainly less stressful and in my opinion was worth the extra time and slight extra cost. The disadvantage was the lost time which could have been used for another activation/other activity afterwards which would make the trip more worthwhile.
I noticed some signs at Penrith advertising a local car club (where you can hire a car 24/7 parked on the street) which would allow me to head up north by train for a weekend and just use a car locally if needed. I’d looked into renting a car but in a lot of places the traditional car hire outfits are only open for half a day at the weekends which isn’t much use for a short weekend trip.
Until the next silly adventure…