Mount Greenly, VK5/ SW-033, was my 2nd summit for Friday 14th June, 2013.

Mt Greenly is 305 metres above sea level and is worth 1 point.  It is located about 5 kms north west of the little town of Coulta on the lower Eyre Peninsula, and about 705 kms from Adelaide.  The summit overlooks the large salt lake, Lake Greenly to the east and the Great Australian Bight to the west, and is surrounded on 3 sides by picturesque sheep and cereal farming country.

I brought forward the activation time of this summit by one hour, simply because of the weather which was pretty lousy.  Rain and showers had been hanging around all day, and I was quite keen to get the summit under my belt and head back to the motel room.

Mount Greenly was named by Captain Matthew Flinders on the 16th February, 1802, after the fiancee of Sir Isaac Coffin who aided Flinders in the selection and fitting out of the Investigator.

The summit itself is located on private property owned by Peter & Louise PUCKRIDGE.  I contacted them prior to climbing the hill, and they were very friendly and helpful.

There is a hill, located 4 km to the south of Mount Greenly, which can be confused for Mount Dutton.  The hill is named Frenchman, and is 168 metres high.  It takes its name from the French whalers who used it as a lookout during the early 1800’s.  Although imposing in itself, it does not qualify for SOTA as it does not have sufficient prominence.

Access to the Mount Greenly summit is via Coles Point Road, which runs off the Flinders Highway,about 3 kms before the town of Coulta.  You can’t miss seeing the summit, as it is an imposing figure in a relatively flat lanscape.  The name ‘Coulta’ is derived from the local Aboriginal people who called a nearby spring ‘Koolta’.  Travel west along Coles Point Road for a distance of about 10 kms, and then turn right into Greenly Beach Road.  Almost immediately after turning right you will find another dirt road on your right which leads you to a parking area.  I parked the car at the end of that dirt road, and walked the rest of the way to the summit, which was about 3 kms to the top.

Prior to climbing the hill I drove down to Coles Point to look at the rugged coastline and the Great Australian Bight. There is a monument here to a young gentleman who drowned here back in 1941.  There are also terrific view back to the western side of Mount Greenly.  It is well worth a drive down to the coastline to have a look.  The beach is often frequented by surfers, although the area also has a reputation for its man eating Great White sharks.  Greenly Beach made it into the top 101 beaches of Australia.

The first part of the walk to the summit is certainly not easy.  There is no track.  You need to make your way through some pretty thick scrub to the low ridgeline on the southern side of the summit.  This was certainly the hardest part of the walk.

Once I reached the ridgeline it was much easier going from there, but still a challenge.  The ridegline is very rocky and has quite a bit of thick vegetation in parts.  But it is a slow and steady incline up to the actual peak of Mount Greenly.  There were quite a few plants that were in flower on the summit.  They included correas, grevillias, wattles, flame heath, and gums.  And the rock formations are truly quite amazing.

Once you reach the actual summit, there is no trig point.  There is a pile of rocks which has gradually been growing, as more and more people climb this hill.  There was very little room to move right up the top, so I climbed back down a little bit and set up on the southern side of the summit.

The view on the top is quite impressive.  To the south you can see Mount Dutton and the nearby Frenchman & Mena Hill, and beautiful lush green crops in between.  To the north are also lush green crops.  To the east you can see North & South Block and Lake Greenly, lying just below the summit.  And to the west you have the wilds of the Great Australian Bight and Greenly Beach.

The weather on the top of the hill was pretty wild and woolly.  I guess that’s what you would expect when it is the middle of winter, and you have the Great Australian Bight just over your shoulder.  I managed to secure the squid pole to a bush using 2 octopus straps, but the wind was so strong that at one stage it collapsed on itself.  Apparently they hang glide from this hill.

Sadly I didn’t get any summit to summit QSO’s.  I was carefully watching SotaWatch hoping that Ian VK1DI was going come up.  Ian had planned to activate The Dutchman’s Stern in the Flinders Ranges, whilst over here on holidays in South Australia.  Ian did give me a call but advised that he had not reached the actual summit of The Dutchmans Stern, so no s2s.

During my time on the hill I had a friendly Wedge Tailed eagle constantly soaring in the wind above the summit.

I managed a total of 19 QSO’s on 40m SSB.

The following stations were worked:- Col VK5HCF; Brian VK5FMID; Paul VK5FUZZ; Tony VK3CAT/m; Andrew VK2UH; Ernie VK3DET; John VK2YW; VK3JP; Rik VK3KAN/m; Bernard VK3AMB; Glenn VK3YY; John VK5FTCT; Ron VK3AFW/m; Ian VK1DI/5; Peter VK3PF; Rhett VK3GHZ; Jim VK5JW; Bill VK5MBD;  and Mark VK7FMPR.

More information on PeakClimbs…..

http://www.peakclimbs.com/peak/Mount-Greenly/206/view/#climb_id_321

The following is a video of my activation which I have uploaded to You Tube.