2013-03-02 -37 144

Location

In a paddock near Broadford.

Who went

Expedition

Cam, Tom and I agreed to meet at Southern Cross Station at 10:30 am for the 10:52 train. Tom lived further away from the station than Cam and I so he was catching a train in while Cam and I were planning on riding to Southern Cross Station. At 10:00 i received a text from Tom saying he had made it to the train but almost missed it due to a lack of air in his tyres. The trip was off to a bad start before it even started. Cam and I were getting ready and just about to leave at 10:15 when I discovered that I too had a flat tyre. There was no time to repair it so i went to the closest bike shop and then walked to Jewel station hoping i could still catch a train in on time and change the tube on the train, Cam hadn't brought his myki and had a perfectly functioning bike so he rode to Southern cross anyway. In the fuss of flat tyres and running late I forgot to put my saddle bag on my bike meaning I had no tyre leavers or any other tools which I was planning using for some last minute bike maintenance on the train. Cam and Tom made it to their train fine but my train would be too late getting to Southern Cross so i got off at North Melbourne and caught the train out to Broadmeadows where i could get on the train with Cam and Tom. As soon as i got on the Broadmeadows train i set about changing a tyre with no tyre levers, I managed to get the tyre off using my keys but before i put tyre back on some cyclists got on who kindly lent me their tyre levers. The Broadmeadows changeover went smoothly and i joined Cam and Tom with a mostly functioning bike.

The Bike ride from Broadford station to the hash was only 7.8k if you went the direct route, 10k if you miss a turn and have to double back. We reached the closest point on the road to the hash which was only 60m away, ditched our bikes and started looking for a good place to climb the barbed wire electric fence into the paddock. The paddock had several horses in it and of course where there are horses there's horse poo. The geohash was right on a pile of poo(does this count for the geocache achievement?). We took some photos and started heading towards our bikes and on the way back I took a short detour because I wanted to pat a horse. After a quick sniff the horse and i decided we liked each other so we took a selfie together to immortalise our friendship. Hash reached at 12:31pm.

As well as the obvious reason of geohashing being awesome we were doing this ride to train for a cycle (geohashing) tour of Indonesia in July so instead of taking the boring option of riding to Broadford and going home we rode to Woodend where there was a train station and a brewery. The ride was just over 70k all up through pleasent country side mostly made up of farm land and gum trees with undulating hills most of the way with no serious climbs but some nice fast down hills. We stopped for lunch at Kilmore Coles where we all ate far too much pasta salad. After a few rest breaks along the way we arrived at the brewery at 4:55. I walked in about a little bit before the others and ordered three tasting paddles, the barman and two tourists next to me seemed a little surprised until i explained I had friends joining me shortly. We didn't have much time before the train and there were eight beers per paddle so we started drinking the beers as the others were being poured. Felix is famous for having completed one of these tasting paddles in three minutes in similar circumstances, we weren't in quite as much of a rush so we took about 10 minutes before catching the train back to Melbourne.

Photos

GPS.
Pile of poo on the hash point, our shadows and a strategic thumb bombing by Cam.
Us at the hash.
My friend Phillip and I.
Hanging Rock. I hear it's a nice place for a picnic.