It would be nice to be able to open this report with some grumble that "we went all around The Wrekin to find the parking spot for this activation...", but it would be totally untrue.  In fact, I had selected this summit specially for its ease of access to the start point.  Having a gig in Southport on the Saturday night, combined with wanting to provide summit-to-summit contacts with the gang on the North Wales SOTA "do", combined with not wanting to compromise with a repeat activation, pointed us firmly in the direction of G/WB-010.

The route was Macc - A536 - Congleton - A534 - Sandbach - M6(S)J17 - J11 - A460 - M54(W)J1 - J7, turn right and about a mile to the start of the track up through the woods, obvious due to the hordes of cars parked in the vicinity.  No splendid isolation on this summit today - G4JZF was at home in his shack but the remainder of the population of the West Midlands, together with their innumerable dogs, were on this hill.

   

The track is easy going, gently ascending as it winds around the lower contours of the hill, but to one's surprise, one has quickly gained height above the surrounding land.  The end of the meandering is marked with a tea rooms that was signed open all day, although we did not partake.  From here, the track follows the line of the ridge up to the summit.  The weather was lovely; clear blue skies and bright sunshine; a little cold but nothing that could penetrate thermal base layers, performance fleeces and walking jackets.  In fact some of our gear remained in the rucksacks until we arrived on summit, when it was then utilised to keep the cold northerly wind out.

Once on summit, a high layer of thin cloud replaced the previous clear blue sky, but that was as bad as it got all day.  We were in a very different weather system to that being described a short time later from the Snowdonia activations.  We set up and bedded down a few metres south of the trig point, ensuring that by sitting down we were out of the wind.  My forecast timings had been spot on, so we now had the opportunity to enjoy a full two hours on summit.  A substantial lunch of flame roasted red pepper and tomato soup, with pepper steak and spicy chicken slices, prawn, chicken and all day breakfast sandwiches, Boost chocolate bars and water was devoured gradually between the three of us, but the real fun was on the radio.

       

A total of 19 contacts were made in leisurely style, but these included 12 summit-to-summits!  When including two further "chased" summits during the descent, this amounted to 13 distinct activations worked, across 6 different SOTA regions (NW, MW, SW, SP, WB, LD) racking up 68 chaser points.  Even at this, I had missed several of the activations that had taken place.  Particularly pleasing DX were Frank G3UQK/M on Black Combe G/LD-030, and Peter GW0FIM/P on Fan Brycheiniog GW/SW-003.

Thanks to the following stations, all worked on 2m FM, the first two with 2.5 watts, the third and fourth with 500mW as my battery began to wane: