Brown Willy from the Jamaica Inn direction

G/DC-002 Brown Willy QRV 1223z - 1303z 10 MHz-14MHz-18 MHz CW-SSB 144 MHz-FM

After our thunder and lightning Hensbarrow Beacon activation we drove in convoy up the A30 to Bolventor, near to Jamaica Inn. We left the A30 road there to reach our parking place at the drive end to the small farm at Blackhill, grid ref SX 181782. The friendly lady who lived there had no problem with us parking there. 

Parking at the lane end near Blackhill Farm, 1 Km from the A30 SX 181782

The reason we chose to walk across Bodmin Moor to Brown Willy (using the access land from the south east) was the convenience of the A30 to our arrival and departure points. 

We took an alternative route to the usual one to the summit

After this Brown Willy HF activation I was heading back to Bristol via the Somerset SOTA of G/SC-002 Wills Neck in the Quantock Hills for a VHF activation. Geoff 2E0NON on the other hand, needed to head straight back to his waiting XYL at their holiday cottage near Dartmouth.  

As we reached Catshole Tor we could see another storm coming in. There are a few large boulders on the Tor, near to where the Cairn is marked on the map, and we took 40 minutes shelter behind one of them (SX 16946 78463) whilst the storm passed us by:

We were wet but it would have been worse had these boulders not been there...about to leave for Brown Willy in the background

The preferred route from Catshole Tor would be to head for the gate access to the summit and walk along the ridge. Grid ref SX 15901 79250 is the gate. When we arrived on the top the storm had passed and we enjoyed a pleasant activation. VHF was good enough for Geoff to qualify with 4 contacts on 2m FM using 40 watts, and in addition he made a handful of contacts on 40m SSB.

2E0NON/P operating on 2m FM on Brown Willy Yaesu FT-1500M 40 watts and an end fed vertical dipole

We returned virtually the same way back as we came and went our separate ways. 

Brown Willy was my last of the far flung summits of Devon and Cornwall and I was a step nearer to bagging and activating all Marilyns in England.  After parting company with Geoff I headed for the Quantock Hills for a solo activation of G/SC-002 Wills Neck before returning to Bristol...