Final activation in Fuerteventura EA8/FU-008 Montaña de la Muda - 689m

My plan was to activate two Fuerteventuran summits on 2nd December, but I ended up settling for one very wet activation instead.

I arrived at the parking place for EA8/FU-017 at 0730z in terrible weather. Weighing matters up my second planned summit seemed a better option in such conditions, so I drove for around 20 minutes to reach a parking place for EA8/FU-008, which Victor GI4ONL had told me about after his previous visit. The last 400m of the unpaved road up to a good turning point was rough, but good enough to get traction from the Citroen at low speed.

My GPX Track:

Parking Place:

Car park shown above after the rain and mist cleared when I returned after my activation.

 

Waymarker for the Camino route that passes over the summit:

Undriveable track up to the military comms site:

Bank of three low VHF log periodics on the military comms site below the summit:

A cable duct and a climbing rope to a microwave link further up the mountain. I used the climbing rope as an aid coming down as I had no walking poles on this trip:

Microwave link at stone hut just below the summit, note the climbing rope is well fixed into the rock:

The operating position at the eroded trig point, with the KX3 inside the rucksack to protect it from the rain whilst operating:

Apologies for the rubber stamp type no name CW operation today, which was down to the weather, it led to a good rate though. The 44 Flora & Fauna crowd found me again, but the operating today was much improved than my last session.

74 completed QSOs on 20m in dire weather with the radio in the neck of my rucksack - so I was very pleased with the number of contacts completed, which included S2S QSOs with Ben @GW4BML on G/WB-022 and operating couple Ioan @YO5IA and Mihaela @YO5MCM on YO/MC-246.

I was far to wet to contemplate going back to the start point for EA8/FU-017, so with the weather uncertain, I drove back to the holiday complex for a cuppa and Twix, followed later by a nice all inclusive lunch!

Thanks to all chasers for being brief today and filling up my log book in a most satisfying way! No more ops from me on this holiday in Fuerteventura. It is most unlikely that I will ever return there, as I do not like the barren volcanic terrain.

73 Phil EA8/G4OBK/P