2009-05-25 -37 144

Location

Under a palm tree, right in the centre median of Normanby Road, near where it connects onto Clarendon Street, South Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. This is just off the southern corner of the Melbourne CBD and thus a very coincidental geohash location.

Participants

Felix Dance
(Stevage passed within 25m, but didn't bother to leave public transport for the occasion.)

Expedition

Felix Dance

Finding this one was quite a shock. The location is within 500m of my construction site where I work as a site engineer (and the site is quite compact), only a couple of hundred or so metres further from my office on the same street: Normanby Road (qualifying me for the Cubical Geohash Honorable Mention Award), and within only 1.5kms from my own house - allowing me to just miss the Couch Potato Geohash Honorable Mention Award. What a find!

Of course, the day is a Monday, so not the celebrated Saturday Geohash - but this is compensated by it being within striking distance from my place of work on a work day.

To cap off my geohashing luck, the day before I went on a separate geohashing expedition, also successful, to the adjoining graticule. Read about my exploits at 2009-05-24 -37 145.

My original plan was to have a shot at it at lunch time, but I went to the city for dumplings with my workmates instead. On the drive into the city I passed the geohash location by within 5 metres.

Soon after lunch I made a real attempt. With my GPS and camera in hand, and my safety gear to get onto site, I trudged down the road to get to the location at about 3:30pm. Just as I got there the heavens opened up and it started to rain fairly heavily, but I persevered. Crossing the road - a fraught activity in itself and not without danger - I managed to reach the location, taking many photos some of which are displayed below.

After walking back to my office and finishing the day's work, I got on my bike and rode home, thus qualifying the geohashing expedition for a cycle geohash achievement as I achieved the point through only walk and bike.

Since the geohash location is also virtually dead on my usual route to the city I plan to reach the point twice more as I go out tonight.

Felix Dance 2

When I got home from work after dark I checked the website again before heading out for my evening's activities (on the other side of the hash point) and found that there was a separate geohashing achievement for walking to the geohash location from home. Seeing this I realised that there would not really be another opportunity to bag this one in the future without incredible good luck. I was going out already and to a place not really reachable on foot so I contemplated making a separate trip by walk. Of course, I quickly realised that I could just walk my bike up to the geohash point and ride on from there.

Heading out the door it was clear that it had not stopped raining since my last hashing expedition earlier in the day (unusual for Melbourne's drought), so I had to wear overpants over my jeans and a yellow cycling rain jacket. I'd left the camera from the last expedition at work so there is no photographic evidence of this one.

Walking/Running through the heavy rain the 1.5kms back to the centre median of Normanby Rd I felt a bit of an idiot - wondering what I'd say to people asking me why I was walking my perfectly working bike in the rain rather than riding it.

Anyway, I got there, staying very briefly, before heading on my way. I visited the same point at 5 minutes to midnight that same evening on my way home, too, when it had stopped raining, although I didn't bother walking home this time and just stayed on the bike.

Photos

GPS at hashpoint
Felix at hashpoint
View of the Eureka Tower
View of the centre median
Crown Casino across Clarendon Street
View of Normanby Road
A tram passes my field of vision


Mon 25 May 2009 in -37,144: -37.8255090, 144.9563807 geohashing.info google osm bing/os kml crox