On Thursday afternoon, the 2nd May, 2013, I activated the Mount Remarkable summit, which is situated within the 16,00 hectare Mount Remarkable National Park.

Mount Remarkable is 963 metres ASL and is worth 8 points.

Mount Remarkable is located about 277 kms north of Adelaide, and about 45 kms north of Port Pirie.  The small town of Melrose is located at the base of the mountain.

The explorer Edward John EYRE named Mount Remarkable in June, 1840.  The native Nukunu people, who called the mountain “Wangyarra’, (‘arra’ meaning tunning water), inhabited the area before the arrival of European settlers in 1844.

My wife Marija came along with me.  The hike to the summit is 12.2 km return – 5 hours return).  The climb to the top took us about 2 & 3/4 hours from the walking trail which commences at the War Memorial monument carpark.  It is hard going !  Although the track is well marked, you need to pass over a number of rock slides / screes.  Really sturdy footwear is highly recommended.  Even with proper hiking boots I ended up with some really rippa blisters !

And don’t be disapointed by the lack of a view when you reach the top.  There really isn’t one.  This is because the vegetation and trees on the top of the summit are really thick.

There is a trig point at the top, along with a pile of stones/rocks, which you can use to support a squid pole, which is exactly what I did.  And also a lot of gum trees if you want to hang an antenna.

I used my Yaesu FT-817nd, 5 watts, and my BandHopper 20m/40m linked dipole on the 7m squid pole.  Conditions were okay.  People were hearing me at least.  Most signal reports coming back were in the 5/5 – 5/7 range.

I managed 14 QSO’s, including some DX on 20m into the Canary Islands, France, & the USA.

Unfortunately because we did not get to Melrose until lunch time, I ran out of time on the top of the summit.  We had a 2 hour climb to get down, so I unfortunately had to pull stumps which was frustrating because I was working into Europe quite well on 20m.

Stations worked were:- Tony VK3CAT; Ernie VK3DET; Ron VK3AFW; Bernard VK3FABA; Larry VK5LY; VK5XB; Peter VK3PF; Rod VK5KFB; Darren VK3FDJT; Bill VK5MBD, EA8YT; Pierre F8DHE; Bob K4MZU; and Jack VK2XH.

The climb down took about 2 hours and the ‘screes’ rock slides took their toll on my feet despite good hiking boots.

Keep an eye out for the plane wreckage on one of the screes.  In 1980 a light plane crashed into the side of the mountain in poor visibility and all on board were killed.  Believe it or not, people have been scavanging parts over the years, but there is still a significant amount of the fuselage and the tail remaining.  Not the sort of souvenir I would like on my bar at home !

More information on Mount Remarkable can be found at PeakClimbs at…..

http://www.peakclimbs.com/peak/Mount-Remarkable/47/view

p.s. the meals at the Mount Remarkable Hotel (the middle pub) are brilliant.  The beer is not too bad either !  Very well priced and big servings.  Highly recommended.  And our accomodation, the Melrose Holidays Units were also well priced and comfortable.  Also recommended !

Below is a video I put together using my iphone & Moviemaker on my Mac.