Essex Qualifier 18/07/2010

Start Manningtree
Map 169 - Ipswich
Txs Philip and Richard

Yet another unexplained mystery in Rendlesham forest, Suffolk.

Well known for it history of UFO sightings and hovering alien space craft, further mysterious events took place on Sunday 18th in Rendlesham forest. Several teams that set out to find a hidden transmitter were lost in a sea of bracken, strange lights and bad language.

It did not have to be like that. All you needed was the merger of three national teams, a Subaru Forester off-roader and a determination to stay on the fence!

Start signals to the sea wall at Manningtree were not strong for the B station, but good for the A. The plot for B going through a very large wood surrounding the now disused Woodbridge airbase. Most teams decided to take the A station first to avoid a long run out of the more distant wood.

G0NXH was in a lovely spot on the north side of the Orwell Estuary at Sleighton Hill, Trimley St Martin. This steep sandy cliff had commanding views of boats sailing by on the river below. A number of teams though fancied the view from Shotley, just the other side. Not all used this excuse, but for one reason of another were delayed from finding Philip until 2.51 pm, with Ian Butson the first in, making short work of the otherwise tricky site.

Rosie/Colin and Phil/George were right behind. Other teams made better use of the cover, aerial array and cliff face to explore the scenery before clocking in as a batch around 3.30 pm. Tim Parker coming in some ten minutes later behind son Gary.

Rendlesham forest: Richard takes up the story:

The "improvements" to my signal following the "S0" reception report at the start involved me climbing a tree, the hard way of course as I had already strung out the aerial, tied it off etc so all I could do was to free the far end and pull hard, hoping it wouldn't break. It didn't and neither thank the Lord, did the tree branches.

I had hoped the wire would simply pull down at the end of the event. Of course it didn't and having all afternoon to ponder the situation and also complete a health & safety audit, climbing up the second time wasn't quite so easy!

Richard: There were no actual "close encounters of the third kind" but I did meet the legendary "Wild man of the woods" (complete with purple DF set) I also offered interested passers-by a demonstration of my "state of the art camouflage" as deployed during the event (Fern).Other strange goings on included Tim and Ian who apparently were so pleased to arrive after time that they spontaneously started Morris dancing in readiness for Colin's musical entertainment.Tim and I both spotted snakes in the area. I did take the precaution of shouting this warning to Ian as he waded through the deep undergrowth. He will thank me later no doubt.

Philip: Too difficult, a near impossible event was the cry from the Unidentified Lying Objects lost in Rendlesham forest!

Fear not, the USAF had sent in the new ‘A’ team to show the world how it could be done. They attacked the airbase in strength outflanking the wood, bracken, snake and other defences. They first knocked out the machine gun post, went in low under the watchtower radar, skirted the main fence around the nuclear bunkers and forced Richard out into the open. He was dead and buried by 2.32 pm. Re-grouped the top guns of the ‘A’ team were extracted and led by Brian in the charge across the no-mans land between the Deben and Orwell estuaries. Approaching the cliffs they showed no mercy as they bluffed their way past the long aerial, steep cliff paths and thorns, heading straight for the A transmitter, which they knocked off in a short burst just before 3.30pm. Easy.

The lost souls were eventually rounded up from Rendlesham forest and taken for rest and recuperation at the Essex Arms where tea, salad and ice cream were administered by nurse Caroline with entertainment from Colin.