Mallorca 2023 Day 15

Long before our trip I was dreaming of a "special" activation, one I couldn't do in 2017.

I'm not a real mountaineer, so I wasn't looking at the higher summits in the Serra de Tramuntana, but I was attracted by a small island that has just one SOTA summit, and is a POTA park at the same time.
So this was the one !

SOTA  EA6/SD-001 (Na Popia)   

also valid for POTA  EA-0204 Sa Dragonera Nature Park

NOTE : there is also a DVGE vertice on the island, but at a different location than the SOTA summit, so you can't activate both at the same time.

Before the trip, I reserved two seats for the first available transfer, at 09.45 local time, on the small ferryboat of the company Cruceros Margarita. See their website for reservations here.

In the early morning we drove to the small village of Sant Elm, and I found a free parking spot in the Carrrer de sa Malea, pos 39.579894, 2.350932.

From there it was just 170m to the ferry. Someone from the ferry company was waiting there, and you pay them for the tickets before embarking (at the time of writing , it is 15€ for the return trip).

Surprise, surprise ... I knew that Stefan, HB9HCS, was also on Mallorca, but not that he would also show up at the ferry at the same time. He's in the middle of the picture below.

(NOTE: I had met Stefan before, in Friedrichshafen, and we went on an activation together, see that story here)

The ferryboat is rather small and can only take up to 60 people. The crossing took barely 20 minutes.

Stefan is a 'bit' younger than me, so we agreed that he shouldn't wait for us, and so we both went our own way. Stefan did the walk to the summit in just 50 minutes, amazing !

We struggled with the heat (28 °C when we started walking at 10:07 local time, and getting over 30°C at the end of the walk).

First we wore some hats to protect against the sun, but the hats also keep your head warm ... so after a while we changed into using our umbrellas, so whenever there was a little wind, it would cool us a bit.

With frequent drinking and picture stops , we arrived at the summit at 11:45 local. By that time Stefan had already finished his activation, so there was no problem with mutual interference.

Also on the way up, I stopped to work Stefan on 2m FM, and when he came down, he also worked me on 2m, so both of us would have the summit complete on the same day. 

At the back of the ruins of the old lighthouse Far Vell, there is a lookout space with a railing, and it's in the shade, so that's where I set up my station. 

The carbon pole was fixed to the railing with some bungee cords, and I was sitting on the ground on a plastic bag.

The island is populated with thousands of lizards, and these little animals are very curious, but they don't do any harm. They come crawling on your arms and legs, and all the stuff you carry. So it's best to carefully close all backpack zippers, etc.

As a test, I put a paper from a cereal bar on the ground , and this was the result !

Of course I took the paper back home when we left !

Here's a lizard looking at his reflection in my sunglasses ...

I had a good activation, 47 QSO's in the log with 4 S2S, and even two DX on 12m CW (thanks N4EX and N4RKK). Here the map of my QSO's.

Stefan had already made 44 QSO's before I arrived, so together we have made 91 chasers happy to work this rarely activated summit (actually that's 89, because we both also worked the summit as a chaser , hi).

After the activation, it took us about one hour and a half to get back down, and we had just 15 minutes left to quickly get our feet wet at the small beach.
Stefan had of course plenty of time to spend, and was already happily swimming!

We took the same boat back to Sant-Elm, and this was the end of the beautiful excursion to Sa Dragonera, one we won't easily forget !

 Continue reading ... go to DAY 16 

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Go back to overview HERE