If you struggled through last week’s activation report where I wittered on about my childhood, good news! This week is GB-4056 Pug’s Hole, I’ve never been there before and didn’t even know it existed until it popped up on POTA.

I parked at the Branksome Hill Road end of the site, happy that the mere presence of my 20-year-old shitbox was passively lowering property prices in this posh neighbourhood of Bournemouth. The entrance is signposted down a narrow alleyway between two houses.

The southern entrance to the site

The sign board touts a local theory that a smuggler known as Captain Pug once stashed his illicit goods here, without any evidence to suggest it wasn’t entirely made up. But certainly from the 1850s it was, like the rest of Talbot Woods, part of the Talbot sisters’ land. At that point its pine trees were probably used as a crop, before houses began to be built in the 20th century and this site became a local nature reserve in 2001.

It’s a forested valley of only 10 acres, with a single muddy main path and a couple of benches. If you imagine what you think an English wooded valley looks like in winter, it looks exactly like that.

Sunlight peeking through the trees at Pug’s Hole

I found an out-of-the-way spot towards the west side of the site for my POTA activation, but with no real clearing to speak of this was really just a point on a path that was high up and looked like it didn’t get much use. A dog-walking couple stumbled upon me at one point and looked quite confused, but otherwise I saw no-one at all the entire time I was there.

I kept things brief with only 30 minutes on station, and stuck to the 20m band. 52 was the total, with a map that pretty well illustrates my location on the east slope of a hill. While I heard one US station work another activator, they sadly didn’t work me, so it was Europe only today.

Map of contacts from the activation

Many thanks to all my contacts this morning. See you on the air next time!