07 April to 16 April 2021
We decided on a SOTA road trip during April, our planned trip was to the Underberg region, as can be seen from the photo our first summit was Sneezewood ZS/KN- 151 on the 7th April 2021 which is situated in the Sneezewood forest which belongs to the Sazeric Timbers Group. The drive up to the forest area was not to difficult although in some places the road had been washed away
The view from the top of Sneezewood is so beautiful, the plants a flowers blend into the landscape.
During our activation we were able to make 10 contacts, we thought we would be able to activate two summits that day, but not taking the long 2k/m walk up and then the two down again we left the forest to late, so we headed straight to Underberg, on our way we discussed, the next days activation, we decided on Qulashe ZS/KN-168.
To get to the base of Qulasha you need to ride right through the town of Qulasha which forms part of the surround area of the summit, the local towns people were very friendly, waving and smiling as drove past them.
we found what we thought would be a safe place to park our vehicle at the base of the mountain next to the towns water tanks,
view of Qulasha
The climb to the summit was not to difficult, although looking at the photo you can’t see how long the grass is which does hamper your walking, by the time we got to the top the sun was really hot so we decided to erect a shade shelter, using our yellow tarpaulin, which is made of parachute material and is very light, and waterproof.
Adele under the shade cover
After activating Qulashe ZS/KN-168 we decide to move onto our next summit which was ZS/KN-158, When looking North from Qulashe we were only about 5 or 6 k/m from KN-158, no name summit, with packing up and descending and ascending KN-158 it was a good 3 hours later before we back on the air. In photo below you can see Qulashe in the distance.
After making 11 contacts we decided to call it a day, we packed our equipment and descended the mountain and set our course for Underberg where we were staying.
Thursday 9 May2021
we decided to have a rest day so we choose the Friday, this gave me the opportunity to play a round of golf at the Underberg Golf Club. the reason for the rest day was that we planned to activate Hlokomo.
Hlokomo is situate basically in Underberg , we had made arrangements to leave the 4×4 at a guest House at the base of summit, we decided to start early so that could cover a fair distance before it got to hot. the first 300 meter climb was reasonably difficult until you reach the first plateau, where it levels out for about 1,5k/m before you start the climb to the summit.
once on the summit we set up station and made 17 contacts before we started down from the summit we end the with coffee at the Lemon Tree coffee shop
Until next time , hope to make contact with you from the next summit
73 Sid and Adele