Wednesday 7th August 2013 saw me up at 5.15am and preparing the flask of Baxters Lobster Bisque soup. This is surely the greatest soup of all time - it is divinely delicious.
The plan was for three simple ‘fringe’ Lake District summits. A blast up the M6, via breakfast and diesel at Charnock Richard services, landed me at Junction 37 and Lambrigg Fell G/LD-046. After parking as usual in the wide entrance of Roan Edge Quarry.
After going through the gate opposite, I walked up to the highest point of the access road that weaves around the wind turbines. Thence I weaved my own way up the undulating rough ground to the wall across the highest part of the hill. Contacts were made on 12m CW and SSB, but nothing on 2m FM.
I was back at the car before 9am, so a good prompt start to the day. This would not last! But now it was off to Arnside Knott G/LD-058.
The second objective on Wednesday 7th August 2013 was Arnside Knott G/LD-058. From Lambrigg Fell G/LD-046, I drove to the next junction south on the M6, and then made my way to Arnside via Milnthorpe.
Arnside Knott is well signposted from the seaside front at Arnside. There seemed to be plenty of National Trust warden activity in the car park when I arrived. I exited the car park through the far gate in order to take a longer and slightly less steep approach to the summit.
It was already a hot day and I positioned the 12m groundplane antenna in order to allow me to sit in the shade of a tree. Soon one of the NT wardens was approaching me, but he was just genuinely interest, and we had a nice chat. He said that he had met several SOTA activators up here before.
Again it was a nice 12m activation, with contacts made on SSB, CW and PSK31. The descent was simple and quick, and there was now two summits activated, and still mid-morning. So far so good. But next was Hutton Roof Crags G/LD-052, and the start of the problems!
Route finding from Arnside Knott G/LD-058 to Hutton Roof Crags G/LD-052 was taxing. I was keen to progress quickly to my third summit of Wednesday 7th August 2013, but the lack of my principal navigator M0HGY, lack of SatNav, lack of OS map and lack of memory of these roads began to tell. All in all it took me far too long to locate the car park at Plain Quarry, and some road closures and diversions didn’t help either.
Once kitted up and walking, it was a most enjoyable stroll up to the summit in still lovely weather. It was another easy qualification using 12m CW and SSB, and an equally easy polishing off of one litre of Lobster Bisque for my lunch - delicious!
Now it was back to the M6 and down to J31A for Longridge Fell G/SP-014, a bonus summit to the three I had planned and alerted.
Summit number 4 on Wednesday 7th August 2013, and the first issue was that the target J31A on the M6 was a restricted junction with no southbound exit! Thus I had to continue to J31 (Tickle Trout) and return north to make it. That was not the only issue though. I now really suffered without Jimmy navigating, and for the second time of the day wasted a huge amount of time making wrong turnings and having to stop and consult the road atlas many times.
It was with some relief that I saw the sign pointing uphill to Jeffrey Hill, as I knew my preferred parking spot was on the road beyond that. The walk up Longridge Fell G/SP-014 was longer than I recalled, but I was into a good stride and feeling strong and full of energy, so I enjoyed it.
12m from the summit did not start promisingly. It did not help that I couldn’t establish any network coverage on my phone - it seemed the summit of G/SP-014 is a real “Orange blackspot”. Unspotted, I drew blanks on both 12m CW and 12m SSB. I didn’t even bother to try 12m PSK31!
2m was quiet as well, but eventually I raised an M3 station in Burnley. He also worked me on 12m SSB, but I still needed three more. I managed to find some network coverage in one particular spot by the stone steps in the wall, and managed to self spot. Thus the summit was qualified, and I could move on. It was already early evening, but I fancied a cheeky activation of Winter Hill G/SP-010.
From Longridge Fell G/SP-014, I returned to the M6 southbound, and then onto the M61. I exited at the Reebok Stadium (Bolton Wanderers FC), and then got back into the day’s MO of making several wrong turnings as I tried, unresearched, to recall my routes of years past.
Street names like Claypool Lane, Georges Lane and Matchmoor Lane all rung bells and got me into the right sort of area. The access road with the Arqiva sign was the one I wanted, and this took me up to the transmitter buildings on Winter Hill G/SP-010. Quite a lot of drivers and cyclists were using this access road on this evening to attain the summit for activities from dog walking to paragliding.
I parked on a rough area by a sharp corner of one of the summit roads. From here it was a short walk of about 500m to the trig point where I set up the 12m gear. Contacts were made on PSK31, CW and SSB from this summit.
When things went quiet, I happily packed up as I was tired and hungry, and keen to get back home. Many thanks to all the chasers that called in during the day, especially those that worked me on a second different mode within a single activation.
…preparing the flask of Baxters Lobster Bisque soup. This is surely the greatest soup of all time…
I certainly don’t disagree, but we can’t give it away! Means I have to eat it. Conversly, the best seller is Royal Game and (despite being almost on Baxters doorstep) we cannot get it from any of the usual wholesalers!!
I trust having this rich broth relieved the evil humours of the previous day - your report left me feeling quite down.
It sounds like Barry runs a shop…I didn’t know that.
Thanks for your report of your round in the north west Tom. It made an interesting read. Thanks for the QSOs yesterday when you were on Rombald’s Moor (2m) and Sharp Haw(12m). I will be looking for you today when you are in Wales if you do HF on your SOTA Staycation week.
I’ll be in the Isle of Wight next week myself for a couple of days and will activate the two summits there and hopefully do CE-005 Wendover Woods on my way back up north.
73 Phil G4OBK
PS Never having eaten lobster I think I will leave the litre flask of lobster bisque soup off my packed lunch menu…seafood can give me problems. A mixed fish plate in Madeira gave me urticaria for almost a year and I had to go on steroids in the end to get rid of it.
It’s good stuff lobster, but you can have too much. A litre of soup sounds close to the limit. I remember being priviliged to fly 1st class UK to Hong Kong on a Cathay Pacific flight. Wow! That was a real step up in service as the last flight before was Manx Airlines to Douglas IOM! I had lobster for one of the meals on the flight. A few days later I flew to Taiwan, 1st class with Cathay Pacific. Yet again lobster was on the menu. Then a few days later I did Taiwan to Singapore. Yep, 1st class, Cathay, lobster. Finally I flew Singapore to UK. Not Cathay but Singapore Airlines. Still 1st class. And yes, lobster was on the menu. Every flight had lobster! They change the menu every day on the flights but if you time it right and take the flights spaced suitably you can follow the menu about the different flights.
It may seem a bit ungracious to moan about being flown 1st class about the Far East when it’s not costing you anything but it did go beyond a joke when every flight offered lobster. However, in those days flying was still glamorous and exotic to a large degree, especially long haul flights and the trolly dollies made up for the unrelenting onslaught of lobster!
Although since a work colleague had a bad experience with oysters in Seoul when we were out there doing stuff for Samsung, I have steered well clear of shellfish when abroad. You wouldn’t imagine a human alimentary system could accomodate so much “matter”. But it did.
In reply to G8ADD:
Yes Brian, I wonder about Tom’s guts sometimes have read in such great detail of what he consumes…best not think about it too much, but he must have a strong constitution.
It was a step down in class today with Baxters Cock-a-leekie. But delicious nonetheless and a great way to round off our summit stay on Arenig Fach. The new one Mynydd Anelog is an absolutely lovely little hill and is highly recommended. We finished off today with the very easy Mynydd Rhiw just to add a bit more credit to the 12m Challenge account. Excellent curry in Porthmadog this evening and now time for some zeds.
It sounds like Barry runs a shop…I didn’t know that.
The station manager runs the shop; others will know that my least favourite job in the whole world is having to take over and be nice to the general public. My marketing skills need honing: “Buy something or s*d off!” is my approach!
I just play about designing electronics for the rather large industry based in Aberdeen - and repairing rigs when my fellow amateurs have released the magic smoke.
Tom:
Cock a’leekie - a really fine hill soup, one of the best in the range as far as I am concerned.
“Buy something or s*d off!” I like it! Reminds me of a certain pub landlord near Aston university, he didn’t like students and had a number of ways of making them feel unwelcome!
I never take soup to the hill, I tried it many years ago but they put too much salt in it and I always ended up thirsty!
The thermos flash is a wondrous invention. It can keep your soup hot and/or your ice cream cold. The question that has always baffled me is how does it know to keep the soup hot or the ice cream cold? It’s not like my electric coolbox which has a switch to select hot or cold. If we could transfer the intelligence of the flask into a computer, we’d never have to tell the computer what to do, it would just know and do it for you.
Years ago I used to go on the hill with about half a pint of water - and brought most of it back with me. Now I need a thermos of Earl Grey to get through the day, and though I agree that the thermos is a wondrous invention, its a pity that the Earl Grey always tastes of plastic.
I think the mountaineering club that I grace with my presence has it sussed: an annual ritual is spending the solstice overnighting on a summit, and cooking a full English at dawn to go with a fresh brew-up!
wondrous invention, its a pity that the Earl Grey always tastes of
plastic.
When I use a flask, I just put hot water in it, and take tea bags. It doesn’t make perfect tea, as it is less than 100c - but it seems to taste more normal, and flask washing is unnecessary. Also, I’ve weaned myself off milk in tea, which simplifies the process greatly :o)
Sadly tea with milk in a flask does degrade and better tea is had when you make it yourself albeit with water at less than 100C. I still prefer degraded Earl Grey from a flask than coffee though.
With all that said, a hot drink is still very useful on the hills if nothing more than helping you soften a frozen Mars bar. Many times it’s been so cold that my Mars bar has taken on the consistency of concrete and I’ve had to dip the end into a cup of tea. Sacrilege indeed, but if you lick the tea off the Mars Bar, the Mars Bar’s taste is not affected!
