2011-03-28 53 -1

Location

A particularly attractive-looking traffic island just south of Hemsworth, near Barnsley/Wakefield

Participants

Monty. And loads of other road-users who (again!) probably thought Monty was setting up a speed-trap. Must take a yellow jacket next time. :)

Plans

Similar to the night-time trip to 2011-02-18 53 -1 (that one considered a failure, though lack of access), this after-work journey out into the area was to be during daylight thanks to the double-bonus of seasonal advancement and the clocks changing to British Summer Time. Pre-reconnoitred as early as Friday afternoon, there was ready obvious and access to the point, as described by all the usual on-line mapping (and Street-Viewing) utilities.

Expedition

Drive, drive, drive. By the end of the day I would have to fill up again with fuel (back down to 129.9 p/litre, or around 7.86 USD/US gallon, at time of writing, for those who are interested). So far I've managed very little geohashing in which the car was not either an essential mode of travel, or was being used in an manner extended beyond that day's normal required journey. The environmental guilt weighs heavy on me, while my wallet weighs rather a lot lighter. But it's hardly my role to be proselytising about that when there are so many other ills in the world.

Anyhow, the area last seen during increasingly darkening twilight was lit by a sun more than an hour away from setting. Tempting as it was to wander back to the scene of 2011-02-18 53 -1, I thought it best to get this one under my hat, first, and then forgot all about the possibility when making my return trip. Also, on the way out, I had seen a police speed-camera van parked up (should not be an issue for me, I'm an habitual stickler for the limits) while a new Speed Camera sign was being screwed to a bit of existing road-furniture, and saw a brand-spanking-new speed camera housing shortly afterwards, so was more dwelling on the idea of taking a picture of that on my return. (Not something I'm in the habit of doing, but it just looked so temptingly interesting.)

I approached along the road directly out from the south end of Barnsley (the A628) towards Hemsworth, before skirting around the town by-pass upon which the hash's nearby island was situated. Turning right at that point, I found a (rather bumpy) dirt at the bottom of the valley that this new road (B6273... South Moor Lane? Must re-check the map to see if I have that name right) immediately dipped into. It was a short walk back, up the hill, but carrying the camera tripod, other equipment and various paper printouts I had already realised that I may well be performing an unintentional traffic-calming roll.

Comparing the various shots (overhead and StreetView) available to me, the spot was marked either in the middle of the northbound carriageway or by the hedge, but roughly at the same lateral point at least. I 'hedged' my bets by putting my extra-large timepiece upon the pavement (i.e. sidewalk, in case any trans-Pondians are reading this) and then proceeded to set up the camera, on timer, to take a photo as roughly equivalent to the main StreetView image I had at hand as possible. Traffic was noticeably more wary all the while I was setting this up. Can't complain about that, though. :)

From previous self-snapping attempts on other expeditions, I knew ten seconds on the camera would mean me rushing to get into position, so waited for a gap. Attempt number one worked a charm, except for the next car along becoming nicely framed right in the foreground... Reposition the camera (for no good reason) and attempt number two worked nicely, except that I rushed over to a slightly different spot. Still, it counts. :)

Running around reminded me that I'd got loads of stuff in my cargo-pants pockets. Various membership cards, 3D cinema glasses, a number of USB memory drives, an external USB HDD and a whole lot of... hang on... yeah... That gives me an idea. So, laying out a set of "XK" CDs, one more tripod-assisted picture. (Slightly cropping the top of my hat off of the picture, but never mind.)

And that, as they say, was that. Apart from a quick photo of that speed camera, for no good reason. Although just as I didn't mention many of the other interesting features of the previous day's travels (not the least being a jogger seen out exercising whilst juggling, and a whole armada of 'Mods' gathered at the roadside on and around their mopeds), a number of other things escaped the gaze of my own camera lens. I couldn't tell exactly what kind it was, in the short time available while driving by, but early on in my journey I had seen a 'hawker' with some bird of prey or other hooded and sat on his glove, and was wandering along that stretch of road-side path with a dog also at heel. Later on, the sun was to be seen setting deep and red, and shortly afterwards (still in good light) progress was impeded when a Sheffield steelworks, straddling the main road, sent one of their many-wheeled load-carriers across from one side to the other bearing a huge casting of indeterminate purpose up to two stories high and balanced, seemingly precariously, upon the flat-bed of the vehicle. Photos of that were all-too-quickly taken, but were unfortunately a bit blurred due to the lighting levels and the rush (despite the slow speed of the haulage monstrosity) to get the shots.