2009-08-09 57 -2

From Geohashing
Sun 9 Aug 2009 in 57,-2:
57.4929400, -2.0338846
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Location

Hash was in a field about ten miles north of my girlfriends Aunties house where we were planning to spend a couple of nights. How could I let a hash like this go to waste.

Participants

Jones

Plans

Having just (mostly)repaired my bicycle from a winter of pain, this would be a brilliant chance to test my ability as a mechanic and as a rider. It would also be an exercise in Navigation, as my gps logger was still shipping from the US.

Trying to seem prepared I filled my bag with a couple of days worth of clothes ,apples, electronic toys and money. Meaning to get a puncture repair kit(that went out the window) and water.

Expedition

The route google gave me, was to head for Ellon on the A roads(dual carriage way) then on to country roads for some hard slog on hills. The first 16 miles through Aberdeen and out to Ellon took around an hour, it was real easy going on well paved and relatively smooth roads.

I made a stop in Ellon to acquire some beer. The plan was to have a nice (though warm) beer once I reached the hash. Out of Ellon I went onto small country B roads. The roads were really good, the hills weren't. Turns out not cycling for weeks has a real effect on leg strength and with the first 20 or so miles I started to slow right down.

Getting closer to the hash saw me checking my OS map more and more often. The confusing number of roads off to the right and left made navigation really difficult. As I started to loose certainity of my locations, a large and inviting hill loomed a head. It seemed the hours of slogging up hill finally resulted in fast reward.

Bombing down the hill, tears filling my eyes I flew past a sign I was convinced Read Stuartfield 13 Miles. This was quite a blow. As the momentum from the hill started to loose its hold, another sign came into vision facing down off a T junction was another sign. Lucky I came across another sign quickly, instead of the next one bringing new fear, It proved my navigation was spot on. Stuartfield 1 1/3 Miles. Turned out I was almost on top of the hash.

I pulled in at the entrance to the field to find it being worked. It seems my adventure would have to stop 50m short of the actual point. I sat and took some photos as a Grey cloud thundered in. Instead of a relaxed beer I grabbed an apple and set off for the journey to the girlfriends

Photos