After spending a cold November night under the stars near Alfriston, I packed my camping gear and stopped in the village store for a Latte and some food.
After which I could put off the hike to Firle beacon no longer. I headed out of town and in the direction of the bridle path to the summit.
The path runs from the end of North Road in Alfriston, and in winter it is quite muddy. Carrying a 25-30 kilo backpack up it was no fun at all, and I was rather pleased there was nobody around to witness my undignified stumblings and cursing. I uttered some of the very worst swear words, and even made up a few new ones during this first climb.
Once at the top of the path and joining onto the South Downs way, the going gets much easier across the undulating hills towards Firle.
The weather at this stage was slightly breezy, but sunny.
I reached the Bo Peep car park sometime after midday, and met my friend who arrived to give my phone battery a boost and some moral support. Having lugged my camping equipment up onto the hill with me, it was a pleasure to be able to offload several kilos of unnecessary gear into his van before we completed the hike to the summit for the activation. The weather was starting to look a little gloomy, so we headed up towards the summit and got the antenna set up anchored to two gorse bushes. Unfortunately we were in a rush to get spotted and make our calls, because by this time the wind was blowing around 30 knots and there was a bank of rain coming our way. We were set up, responded to as many QSO’s as we were able before the first drops of rain started. We had the equipment bagged and the antenna down in record time, only stopping for a quick photograph at the OS Tumulus before the dash to the car park.
