2015-01-03 51 -1

Location

A farmer's waterlogged field near Ampney Crucis, Cirencester, UK

Participants

Fatman UK

Expedition

This was my first geohashing expedition. I intended to make Cirencester my base camp and strike out from there. I knew of a large services area with a Tesco which would serve my purpose. Restlessly I set out an hour early. I got on the A419 North and off again a few junctions later. It wasn't the large services area with the Tesco I remembered but rather a tiny services area with a Little Chef. Close enough. I had lunch and got back in the car.

It was at this crucial point that my Apple phone's GPS failed completely. It had performed perfectly the first 15 miles or so, when I didn't actually need it. After several stops for cursing and physical violence against technology I somehow worked out a route (using my own intuitive ability and having persuaded the surly Apple phone to show me a zoomed-in Google map).

I drove from heavily trafficked rural land into almost deserted English farmland, the roads thin and windy with hedgerow either side, and the occasional dog-walker standing to one side and flicking V-signs at passing motorists. I found my way by occasional cottages and road junctions.

I never made a wrong turn but I did eventually intuit that I had just driven past the hash point. Not exactly sure what to do next, I just stopped the car dead in the middle of the road. There was nothing else coming in either direction, so this was reasonably safe. I sat there and wondered what to do next.

I drove on for a bit. Wonder of wonders, a gate appeared on my side of the road. Not a large open gate, a small closed one, but it made enough of a dent in the eternal hedgerow that I could just ease my car into it without blocking the whole road, and without tipping the car into a muddy ditch. I folded in the driver's side mirror just in case.

At this opportune moment the Apple phone's GPS decided to spring back to life. It confirmed that, no, I wasn't actually at Phoenix Way, Cirencester (what?!) but that I had indeed driven past the hash point a few moments earlier.

Dared I leave the car out here in the middle of nowhere, at the mercy of any passing yokel? Who knew what they might do to it? Let's face it, I don't exactly love this car. It's distinctly average at everything. Therefore, with hardly a backward glance at the hapless motor vehicle, I hiked back towards the bend in the road, past which I knew I would have to hike approximately the same distance again. The car would be alone for no more than ten minutes.

As I got close to the point at the field's edge which was closest to the hash point (as near as I could make out; this Apple phone's GPS really is crap), another surprise: someone had already trampled the exact patch of hedgerow that I would have had to trample to get into the field. Without hesitation I hopped over the ditch and into the field.

I had hoped for a few others to turn up, but unless the dog-walkers and joggers were xkcd fans (unlikely) there was no one else around. There wasn't much left to do apart from take a few pictures and write a Tweet, then go home. I was alarmed for a moment when the car's ignition sounded a bit watery, but there was nothing I could do about it, and besides it got me home.

Some people might think that this expedition was a waste of time, but I don't know. It's true I spent the best part of two hours concerning myself with getting to and from a muddy field, but what did you do today?