Day 6 - Friday 30th July 2010 (part 2)    

From the campsite in Minehead, we drove down into the town, onto Bleinheim Road and then onto the turning for North Hill. There are several parking area along this lovely lane which overlooks the Bristol Channel and weaves between the many wild ponies up on the edge of Exmoor. We parked in the start of the track at SS923478 and walked to the summit - about 400m along the track with only about 25m of ascent involved.

       

I really liked this spot, with nice paths, a cairn and a trig point, and commanding views of the sea and to South Wales. Jimmy, as ever, set up the 2m SOTA Beam, while I decided to go for 20m CW. I never really got going, and fumbled my way to just eleven contacts in 31 minutes. Jimmy had little difficulty in getting five calls on 2m FM.

   

Back at the car, I tuned into 102.1 Bay Radio, which was booming across from Swansea. It had been too long without my staple diet, so it was down to the Taj Mahal in Minehead for a curry fix. A leisurely meal was punctuated by exchanges of several calls and texts with my XYL Marianne on our anniversary; she was out at a friend's 40th birthday party.

   

Yet again, it was another late night at the tent - and they were set to get later! I was now getting into the habit of taking the VX7 into the tent at bedtime so the four of us could doze off to the sounds of BBC Radio 2 or BBC Somerset, reminding me of when I was a boy and camping with my dad in the 1970s, and discovering The Grumbleweeds on Radio 2!  A good night's sleep was now required ahead of a long 3-summit day tomorrow, so the radio didn't stay on too long - or moreover, Jimmy turned it off once I had fallen asleep after a few minutes!