[ Home ] [ Up ]

Click HERE for the Amazing Online Ham Radio Flea Market

6.7m fibreglass poles for sale click ***HERE***

In the morning while I got the porridge on I spoke to G0SVX and at 0830 I managed my sked with G3IOR, Pat in Norwich. It turned out that he had missed the previous night's sked as he came home late. After the sked I packed up the gear and the tent and was walking by 0915.

The weather was wet. Heavy showers and overcast conditions made the going slow and damp. I continued along to the west, heading for Loch Eilde Mor. After a few hours I arrived, just in time for lunch. I saw that there was an old boathouse alongside the loch and was able to shelter inside. I heard a low whistle and realised that for the first time that day, I was not alone. Before long, across the end of the loch I saw a great gang of people descending to the pebble beach. They looked an unlikely bunch for this remote place. There were about 20 of them, some with day sacks and others with carrier bags. Some had waterproof jackets while others had cheap plastic ponchos. They sat on the shoreline and ate their lunch rather nosily - somewhat spoiling my wilderness experience. After a while the showers turned to rain and the group got up and headed my way. They had obviously seen me sitting comfortably in the dry and decided that they wanted to come in too. "Can we come in?" one of them asked. "No" didn't seem appropriate so they all filed in to the muddy and dark recesses of the boathouse. There were 20 of them and we were all crammed together in the little boathouse - there would have been enough room if it wasn't for the boat. They were French and seemed to be students aged about 17 and were indeed ill equipped for poor weather in the Scottish mountains. The boathouse was so small that I decided it was time for me to set off again. I packed my lunch things away, donned my still damp waterproof coat and trousers and set off. My original plan was to head off to climb to a corrie between Sgurr Eilde Mor and Sgor Eilde Beag via Seana Gbahail to the north west but in the event I decided to climb via a steeper and more direct path. The ascent was easy enough but after a few minutes I saw to my horror that the French party had decided to follow me up. This worried me as the weather was poor and the path lead to potentially difficult terrain - especially for an ill equipped group such as the one following me. I continued to ascend and met a party of four descending. I explained the French connection and asked them to suggest that they turned back before they got into difficulties.

The path steepened and the weather gradually improved. Eventually I reached the top and was rewarded with a magnificent view of  the lake Coire an Lochain surrounded by magnificent mountains - all over 300 feet high. Some 2400 feet up, this was a truly magic place. By now the sun was shining and I was looking forward to finding somewhere to camp alongside the lochan. There were a few people milling about in the corrie, presumably having climbed the mountains. I traversed alongside the lochan until I reached the north end. I then left the path to look for a campsite.

The ideal spot was a small promontory projecting like a finger into the lochan. I left my rucksack and wandered about looking for a flat spot to pitch the tent. There was a little patch of billberry plants that was flat and before long I had the tent erected. This was camping at its best. It was a wonderful spot and I just basked in the warm sunshine for a while, admiring the soaring peaks around me. I erected the aerial - somewhat quicker this time since I was getting the hang of erecting it on uneven ground. With water on three sides and an elevated position, I was looking forward to some good radio. A quick test on 40m gave a QSO with G4GDR.

My broadcast radio was receiving good signals on the FM band and I lay for a while in the tent listening to Radio Scotland. Then, to my surprise, it was completely wiped out by a Spanish FM station! Tuning around the FM band I realised that there was a sporadic E event in progress - perhaps conditions on 40m wouldn't be so good after all.

[ Home ]