Watch Croft, G/DC-007 - 252m ASL - SW 420 357 - OS Explorer 102 - 1 SOTA point        

I see in the RHB book that this appears as "White Downs", so I guess it must have been one of the earlier name changes in the list.  This would be the most distant of our target summits in our holiday, so Jimmy and myself got on the road by 6.30am on Tuesday 26th July 2005. 

This time, we followed the A30 all the way down to Penzance, but instead of continuing onto Land's End (as we had done two days earlier), we turned right up a minor road and drove up to its highest point.  Here there was some space to park in by a cattle grid, and opposite was the start of a wide track.  This had a sign saying something about "Private - no vehicles - access to ... cottage only", but my 1:25000 OS map had it as a PROW, so we walked confidently along it.  The map did not indicate any tracks to the summit, which was only a short distance away to the right (North), but experience informed us that there would probably be some kind of track from the highest point of the current path.  Indeed there was, but it was not well established, and was impeded virtually all the way by either trouser-wetting waist-high ferns, or shin-snapping bracken.  The choice of long trousers was inspired, but the inspiration should have extended to the early adornment of waterproof overtrousers too.

The rocky summit was pleasant enough with a trig point and large stone shelter.  The sea view was only murky due to the morning mist as we set up the SOTA Beam.  Only two stations were worked on this band, so after a long period of unanswered calls, we brought the 40m antenna into play.  Immediately, I had a QSO with F6DXW in the South of France, and then, to qualify, G4OTJ/P - in St Ives!!!  The nearest town to the summit I was on, and to rub it in, he told me how he had been listening to me on 2m and thinking of calling in!  We completed the 15 minute "descent" (not much height difference between the parking spot and the summit) and returned to the caravan by 11.50am.  Marianne and Liam had left a message saying that they had gone to the local beach.  It was now hot and sunny (one of the only two occasions - the rest of the time it chucked it down) so Jimmy and myself collected our towels and swimming costumes and joined them down there.

Many thanks to the following stations worked: