2012-10-31 52 0

Location

The north bank of the River Cam, in Chesterton, a suburb of Cambridge.

Participants

Plans

Benjw lives a mile from the hashpoint and is planning to walk there in the afternoon, aiming for 4pm. He is more than happy to aim for other times instead or as well, if other people would like to meet up.

Transhumanist is planning to walk there for 4pm to meet Benjw... my first hash!

PaintedJaguar will try to reach the hashpoint after work at about 7:30pm, and will try for the Tron achievement. Given that he lives and works to the south of the river, and the hashpoint is on the north bank (necessitating bridge crossing near the hashpoint), this is not the most obvious expedition to choose to try for that achievement! However, there are enough bridges nearby that it should be easily possible with a little bit of planning.

Benjw will aim to be there at 7:30pm (as well as at 4pm), hoping to meet PaintedJaguar.

Expedition

Transhumanist

The weather was typically British for the entirety of Transhumanist's ~40-minute Google Maps-directed walk to the hashpoint - i.e. giving the strong impression that it was tempted to rain heavily, but couldn't quite be bothered - and he'd quite possibly have called it off had he not arranged to meet Benjw there at 16:00... although, given the almost absurdly accessible location, he'd have regretted that! In fact he persevered and reached the hashpoint on foot at 15:51. Benjw joined him shortly thereafter and the two had a pleasant chat while walking back towards town, before parting ways with a promise of future joint expeditions.

Benjw (the first time)

Ben, as is moderately typical, left the house slightly late, which left him seven minutes to get to the hashpoint. This was not quite enough, even at a jog, but he did at least manage to get there a mere three minutes after 4pm. Transhumanist was already there, and after a brief chat at the hashpoint the two walked back along the river towards town, before parting in Chesterton to go their separate ways.

PaintedJaguar

PaintedJaguar reached the hashpoint on foot shortly before 7:30pm in light rain and almost complete darkness, having carefully planned a route from home, via work, to the hashpoint. The route crossed various bridges (both railway and river), and allowed for a route home on either foot or by bus, neither of which would cross the outward route. He only managed to get his GPS to say he was 1 metre away from the hashpoint (any closer and he would have been in the river), but that was well within the accuracy level of the GPS. Benjw joined him at 7:30, and the two chatted for a few minutes, watching rowers go up and down the river. Photos were taken, but you couldn't see very much in the dark.

As we started to leave, we realised a potential flaw in PaintedJaguar's well planned route for the Tron achievement: having walked along the riverbank to get to the hashpoint, he assumed that he would be able to cut across a field to get back to the planned road for the return journey. Sadly, this was not immediately possible, with access to the fields being blocked by fences and containing animals (unidentifiable in the dark). We continued along the riverbank path away from the hashpoint, looking for any possible route through the fields, which later became separated from us by fences, brambles and a very wet-looking drainage ditch. As the path got darker and the rain got heavier, we were about to give up and turn back, when luckily a cyclist went past us, and shortly afterwards we saw their bike light turn away from the river to the left. We hurried along the river to where the cyclist had turned off, and found that there was indeed a path back to the road we were aiming for.

We were now able to head back to civilization and rejoin PaintedJaguar's planned route home. We were further delayed by about five minutes waiting for a train to pass at a level crossing, where an unfortunate driver asked us for directions - not the best move since neither of us knew the area particularly well. Benjw provided some "entertainment" [he can fill in the details if he wants to! ;-) ] whilst we waited for the train to pass, and shortly afterwards we went our separate ways. The rain had now stopped, so PaintedJaguar decided to complete the journey home on foot, resulting in what turned out to be a rather surprising grand total of 17.35km walked in the day, placing him sixth in the list of distances covered on foot for a Walk geohash.

Benjw (the second time)

Having already walked to the hashpoint once, and since it was now raining, Ben elected to take the bicycle this time, and joined PaintedJaguar on the riverbank at or around 7:30pm. The usual short chat was had, and PaintedJag mentioned that he was aiming for a Tron achievement on today's expedition. This sounded interesting, so Ben joined him for the first part of the journey -- walking further down the river path, away from town, Ben wheeling the bike alongside. The non-river side of the path was lined with a ditch and thick, impenetrable undergrowth, which didn't seem to be going well for the Tron achievement, when suddenly we spotted a cyclist turning off the river path ahead, and discovered a path which led to a road which headed back towards Chesteron -- ideal!

A short distance along the road we stopped at a level crossing and a driver who pulled up alongside us asked for some directions. Benjw stepped backwards to better talk to the driver, but tripped over his own bicycle and ended up falling over it backwards onto the grass verge! Happily, no injury was sustained (except, perhaps, to pride) and once everybody had stopped laughing we explained to the driver that we didn't actually have much clue where we were ourselves, let alone where he wanted to be. Fortunately for us, after the train had gone through and we were able to cross the railway line, we found ourselves in part of Chesterton which seemed more familiar, so the Tron achievement was still on. Ben elected not to follow PaintedJag all the way home, and the pair parted in Chesterton.

Tracklog

http://en.wikiloc.com/wikiloc/view.do?id=3550768 shows PaintedJaguar's movements for the whole day, from home to work to the hashpoint and back home, successfully completing the Tron achievement. He also managed a total of 17.35km walking (if you join the gap between the start and end of his road).