A couple of days recovery, and spending some time with my Wife she was having a tired afternoon, and wanting to do nothing more than relaxing in the recliner, with a the TV and a pile of snacks! "why dont you go and play some radio" she said, followed up with "you dont need to sit here and be bored beacuse im tired"! Well, I dont need asking twice! I already had an outline plan for Kirkby moor so the maps were studied, radio stuff thrown in the car and off I went! Now Kirkby moor is probably the nearest (by road) SOTA summiot to my parents house, so half an hour later I was parked up and staring at the quarries and Wind turbines of Kirkby moor.
I actually ended up taking the wrong path up, according to the map it was more direct.. According to the ground, it was a nightmare trudge through the waist high ferns, heading in the vague direction I thought I needed to go! This led to more navigational nightmares, and eventually I found a path, that led towards the quarries... hey ho, at least when I get to the quarries there is a track heading up for the wind turbines I can use!
I actually enjoyed the Quarries, there was plenty of industrial stuff for me to poke around at, and the track heading up was good and well made, and the Views were fantastic!
As I rounded the track to the first turbine, I got a bit of a suprise, a metal road! they must have laid it to do some work on the turbines, but this led neatly to the summit cairn.
Not much up here to secure the mast too, so made something up using the cairn and wedging the pole with the rocks, quite typically for Cumbria it was again blowing hard, and getting it up much higher would have been a problem!
Mast up, and spot away to SOTAwatch it was time to get down to business! Cals were somewhat slow, with 5 over 25 mins on 2M, somewhat dissapointing if im honest, and if I were to try it again I would definately be going straight onto HF, but 5 is enough and it was time to set off back to the car. Just beyond the 1st turbine there is a park bench laid in memorial, and accross the front of this is the path i should have taken! It takes you down through the old quarries on the inclines, and leads you round the waste tips and back to the road, definately will going that way if I go back up there again! 1 for 1 point, and Actually a pleasant little mooch.
Part 3 will be out tomorrow!
73, Alan
