VK2/HU-007, Mount Royal

Mount Royal, VK2/HU-007 and VK2/HU-024 27/May/2017 David, VK2NU and Tony, VK2WFT

Summit number 3/4... The SOTA bug is beginning to take hold, so we thought we would try something  a little more off the beaten track..and have our first go at tackling two summits in one go...

VK2/HU-007

Mount Royal is in the Mount Royal National Park, North of Lake St.Clair. It's about a 2 hour drive from my home on the Central Coast, via Singleton. The road through the park is OK for 2WD access, and we parked as shown on the map below.

  Car Parking...

The map does not show it, but there is a track that runs east of the car park area. There is a Information sign at the parking area and picnic table. When we visited, Mount Royal Road north of this point was blocked off, due to being washed out (not sure if this is still the case)

The route to Mount Royal is pretty much a straight line from the 'parking area', following the spur until you reach the summit. The track is very rough, steep, rocky and pretty no existent in places. the only saving grace is that it is not much more that 1km as the Crow flies, although it seemed much more. Towards the end there is a rock ledge section, with step drop offs on the right. BEWARE...

   Tony doing his best pack mule impression (seriously, it was all fours in several areas of the climb)

   View to the East

   View to the West

    Tony pretending to check his phone (really catching his breath)

   Rock Ledge of Doom.

 Finally at the Summit (at least in activation zone)

 Trusty KX3

 404UL on Haverford Pole

 View to West, with dipole leg

Lake St.Clair on Drive back home

Station: KX3, 15w, 404UL Antenna, LiFePO4 battery.

Contacts: 11 QSO's all on 40m SSB or CW

VK2/HU-024

This was very much a secondary activation, and the 'summit' is basically just off Mount Royal Road as you enter and exit the Park

There is a track with a small barrier to the West of Mount Royal Road, and the whole area is flat and in the activation zone. Time was short so we basically set up, made the required 4 contacts (all 40m SSB) and left within the space of 30 minutes. 

No photos taken as there is not a great deal to see here, but it seemed a shame not to activate it, as we basically drove straight past it.