2015-09-12 51 -1

Location

A field in Wiltshire, just north of Salisbury and the ancient fortification of Old Sarum, just south of the even more ancient monument Stonehenge.

Participants

SpiritofMaurice

Plans

I drove up for an airshow nearby where I hoped to see XH558, the world's last flying Vulcan bomber, on her final flight ever down south. Noticing this was just a couple of kilometres away... "how hard could it be?"

Expedition

Followed Google Maps as close as I could to the lat/long point, where I noticed three things as the hashpoint zipped past on my left: a), nowhere to stop the car on a fast road; b), some pretty big hedges

Drove around to a small English country lane, eventually parked up and started walking along a public footpath. Across a pig farm!

Eventually lost track of the path, started following my nose (and GPS app) across two fields. Conditions were great, with sunny weather and firm, dry soil underfoot; the crops had just been harvested so there were no worries about causing any damage.

Skirting some woodland, I saw the hashpoint! It looked easy enough to get to.

Alas, when I dodged the farmer in his tractor to reach the final field, I saw two things: thick, tall corn that was totally unpassable without damaging it (and probably getting lost horror-movie style), and totally overgrown verges.

If you can't go through a crop on private land (because of not wanting to damage it) and you can't go around the edge (because you're too scared of the 4ft tall undergrowth) does that make your consolation prize "No trespassing" or "Mother Nature's Bitch"? I went ahead and awarded myself both, it was my first time!

Photos

400m to go and things are looking promising...
The view from this point looks awesome. As far as I can tell the geohash is on the next ridge ahead, happy days!
OH GOD THIS IS NOT PASSABLE
Dejected, turned for home, admiring the view and a great walk outside nevertheless.