Ardennes and Luxemburg SOTA Tour - Day 4

For my trip back home, I had selected 4 easy summits.

First I went to

ON/ON-016 Les Aisances

I parked at pos 49.767429, 5.207851, and walked up the slope until I was in the AZ.

Some light rain didn't stop me from activating, I had an umbrella and rain coat, and to protect the KX3 and logbook, I used a large shopping bag on its' side, on my small table. That worked well enough to put 13 contacts in my logbook.

ON/ON-006 La Croix Scaille

This is also an easy drive-up summit, and even better, just across the French border is another one, so you can do two summits with little effort.
I parked my car a bit further than the official parking lot at the "Tour du Millénaire", where it was very busy. My parking spot was here : 49.954300, 4.844630.

I set up my station just across the road, but as it seemed, many walkers passed by, and of course I had to explain several times what I was doing. Also a car with two rangers stopped to check me out, but they were very friendly and made no objections.

The weather was a bit better here, so I could stay a bit longer, and made 22 QSO's.
After a quick lunch, I drove the forest road just across the border, to arrive on another summit ...

F/NO-047 Moulin de Thilay

Parking position was  49.948765, 4.841334, and I walked a bit further along the forest road to set up.

Also here, a car from the "Garde-Chasse" came by several times, they didn't even stop ...

But I got a funny question here.
Two people, a mother and her son had already given me some strange looks at the previous summit.

Now, by coïncidence, they had walked the same road, so they came by my station again, and this time their curiosity was too much and they asked what I was was doing , so I explained all about ham radio and SOTA.
Ah ... said the mother, I thought you were listening for the birds ...
I didn't tell her that we have indeed many "strange birds" in our ham community, hahaha.

I made 21 QSO's here, and also got 3 S2S !

After this activation, I drove back to the Belgian side, and quickly visited the Tour du Millenaire.
Read some info in English here.

A view from above on the parking lot, quite busy for a Tuesday afternoon ...

Now only one summit remained on my list ...

ON/ON-021 Plantis de Mesnil

If you drive slowly to this point, 50.177220, 4.916878, you will see where you can drive into the woods and find a parking spot for just 1 car (or maybe two if you're careful).
This is what it looks like in Google Streetview.

The parking spot is already in the AZ, but I walked a little on the path beyond the barrier to set up.
I didn't take any table or chair, so i just used some plastic bags as a "ground shack".

18 QSO's later, I packed all my stuff, and then it was time to take the long drive home ...
On the way home I saw a nice sunset, with some air balloons flying over ...

That's all folks ... a short but very enjoyable SOTA trip ... and 41 activator points added to my account ... nice.
See you all on the next trip !

Luc, ON7DQ