2012-08-09 52 4

Location

Behind a container-like building in some shrubs in an urban area in Hoofddorp

Participants

Plans

To reach the hash somewhere between 10.00 pm and 00.00 am hours by bike, using only a hand-drawn map

Expedition

Around dusk I set out on my very first expedition. I was not sure if the hash was accesible, I had a squeaky bicycle that desperately needs servicing, I only had two hours to reach the hash and I don't own a GPS device, so it was not the most well-planned of expeditions, but everyone has to start somewhere. I took only my camera, my phone, my hand-drawn map and my water supply (or so I thought) and set out around dusk. About 10 km in I attempted to grab my water bottle, but couldn't reach it as it was still in my kitchen. However, I was an adventurous geohasher now, so no turning back for me - I would have to drink my own urine if it came to that.

My perilous journey took me through narrow paths where the sky was thick with mosquitos and streetlights were nowhere to be found, which was rather inconvenient as my headlight was hardly working. With my goal clearly in mind I endured the torture and went on. After about 20 km, the road started to force me to go everywhere but where I wanted to go. I had to take several underpasses that went under the road that I tried to follow and in one of them I encountered a dangerous herd of scooter people. [insert drumroll] They were between me and the goal of my epic quest, so I bravely rang my bell and lo and behold: they moved out of the way. Moral Victory Achievement earned.

The road continued to wind and after a while I was hopelessly lost and my hand-drawn map was of no use whatsoever. I rather enjoy getting lost, because you tend to encounter unexpected places, but I had to reach the hash in time. By divine intervention I then encountered a map on the road-side. I happened to be very near my destination, so I enthusiastically went exactly the wrong way. Five minutes later, after realising my mistake, I was back at the map, but I severly overestimated the scale, so within minutes I had to turn back again. The third time I found the street I was looking for and after a while I even recognised the park that harboured the hash from Google Maps. I felt as if I was closing in on the holy grail...

Alas! The park/sports field was populated by another herd of scooter people. I considered shooing these away too, but these were bigger and I remembered to quit when you're winning, so I approached the hash from the other side of the park, tramping through the bushes. I reached the hash at 11.03 pm and sneakely pulled out my camera, making sure the scooter people did not notice me. Then I flashed my camera a few dozen times, undoubtedly gaining the scooter people's attention, while my stupid camera refused to take a picture (as it turned out because the lens cap was still on...). I then switched to manual focus and flashed a few dozen times more (for the record: my camera, not the other kind of flashing). I dare you all to use manual focus in complete and utter darkness. Luckily, I got the picture in the end.

After that, I quickly rode off before the scooter people could find me or the people from the neighbourhood could call the police about those strange ongoing flashes in the bushes in front of their house. On the way back I found a Mysterious Object, which I packed to subject to Scientific Evaluation later. I also encountered some wildlife: another herd of scooter people, about a thousand ducks and a very chubby man, who was very naked, raiding his fridge in a very well-lit house with very large windows. The house was not too different from a television displaying a porn channel.

A million mosquito bites, a falling star and a near death of dehydration later, I finally arrived back home (after midnight) where I could investigate the Mysterious Object. It appeared to be a LED-light attached to a piece of a balloon, but for the time being that makes it no less mysterious.

I got into geohashing because I liked the concept of an instant adventure generator. This first expedition fully lived up to my expectations.