2013-08-04 52 0
| Sun 4 Aug 2013 in Cambridge, UK: 52.5899243, 0.2398594 geohashing.info google osm bing/os kml crox |
Contents
Location
On the west bank of a canal near Outwell, in Norfolk. The canal goes by the catchy name of "Middle Level Main Drain" and is one of the drainage channels that empties water from the Fens into the River Great Ouse near Kings Lynn.
Participants
Plans
Given that the previous day's hashpoint is so near here, Ben plans to combine both into a nighttime expedition, driving up from Cambridge and visiting Saturday's hash just before midnight, and Sunday's hash just after. He's very happy to change those plans or to give other hashers a lift if anyone else is interested.
Expedition
(Continued from 2013-08-03 52 0).
Benjw and PaintedJaguar returned to the car, and headed off for the next hashpoint. Benjw decided to start trusting PaintedJaguar's GPS navigation directions more than his memory, and they took one completely unnecessary detour down a ridiculously tiny country lane. However, they arrived as close as they could by car to Sunday's hashpoint just after midnight.
Although the road appeared to continue in the direction of the hashpoint, there was a sign suggesting no access, either by car or on foot. They decided to drive around the area looking for alternative paths towards the river, and eventually found a path that looked promising. However, there was nowhere to park, so they had to return to the sign prohibiting access, where there was at least plenty of space to park.
They then proceeded to walk back to the river access path, along that path, and then back along the river - basically covering three sides of a square instead of taking the prohibited direct route. Along the way, they walked passed a fisherman who was sound asleep (or just very good at completely ignoring two strange people wandering around a riverbank after midnight).
They also stopped to find a geocache - a pasttime which was entirely new to PaintedJaguar, but Benjw seemed to know what he was doing here (and can probably expand on this part of the story).
Eventually, they reached the hashpoint, which was not difficult since it was right in the middle of the path. They took some more middle-of-the-night photos, including some nice shots of the stars now that the earlier cloud cover had entirely disappeared. An "XKCD" marker was left in the middle of the path, which was largely dried mud, so easy to make such marks in.
On the way back, they "discovered" a path away from the river that the GPS tracklogs seemed to suggest was heading directly to where they'd parked the car. There was no indication that this path was private, so they headed down it, since it would be much more direct than the route they'd taken to reach the hashpoint. Not entirely unexpectedly, the car was indeed parked at the end of it, and this path turned out to be the road that they had not been allowed to use when travelling in the opposite direction.
It was now about 1am, and although PaintedJaguar was tempted by Benjw's suggestion to head to Peterborough to grab another hashpoint in the neighbouring graticule, they decided to head back to Cambridge instead.
This expedition was the second day of three days of consecutive geohashing - see also 2013-08-03 51 -0 (PaintedJaguar only), 2013-08-03 52 0 (both) and 2013-08-05 52 0 (both).
Photographic documentation
No access via the direct route
At the hashpoint
XKCD marker left in the path, with Hammersmith the hashscot
Silly grins, with lots of stars behind us
Tracklog
http://www.wikiloc.com/wikiloc/view.do?id=4964364 shows the tracklog from just north of Ely, to the 2013-08-03 52 0 hashpoint visited earlier, and on to this hashpoint.
Shiny ribbons earned
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Benjw and PaintedJaguar earned the Land geohash achievement
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Benjw and PaintedJaguar earned the Hash collision honorable mention
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Benjw earned the Consecutive geohash achievement
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PaintedJaguar earned the Consecutive geohash achievement
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