2010-08-13 52 0
| Fri 13 Aug 2010 in 52,0: 52.4590373, 0.3103065 geohashing.info google osm bing/os kml crox |
Location
At the edge of a cornfield in Littleport, just behind some houses.
Participants
Expedition
This was definitely a spontaneous expedition, as I'd looked at the coordinates the previous day and decided not to bother going as I had too much else to do. However, in the event I spent less time shopping after work than I'd thought, so I ended up with a spare hour or so. Why not go, then? I did.
I drove out of Cambridge north on the A10, through Stretham village and past Ely with its cathedral. Littleport was just north of Ely, and the hashpoint was just north of Littleport, so I circled the village and drove in from the north, which made navigation a bit easier. Just as I got into Littleport, it started to rain. I parked the car about 120m from the hashpoint and walked up a private road which led in roughly the right direction.
There was what looked to be a vacant lot on the aerial map, with paths running through the vegetation. This led right to the edge of the field where the hash was. Unfortunately, when I got there it was fenced off. Why it is necessary to fence off an overgrown piece of empty land, I do not know. I walked past it and into the allotments next door. These were a good bit less overgrown, and also had easy and unfenced access to the empty lot a bit back from the road. Paths did indeed run through the brambles, which were full of ripe blackberries. I ate some, but then it began to rain harder, so I abandoned the free food.
Unfortunately the paths didn't seem to go far, and ended in a mass of undergrowth which I wasn't too keen to fight my way through, so I turned back to the allotments and crossed a small ditch into the field at the back. I walked around the vacant lot, along the edge of this field, and then had to cross another small ditch into a second field. It was about this point that I realised I had dropped the camera, somewhere between photographing blackberries and arriving here. It is not my camera. I spent a good few minutes retracing my steps and looking in wet undergrowth before I, happily, found it again.
I was now quite wet, and the weather saw fit to worsen even more as I practically jogged along the side of the field. I got about six metres from the hashpoint this way, then turned and carefully picked my way through the corn for the last bit. Proof photos were taken in a great hurry, and then I finally retraced my steps and legged it back to the car. Of course, as soon as I arrived home, it stopped raining.
Total distance about 70km by car, a bit under 1km on foot.
