2020-10-20 -36 146

Location

In a cow field late at night east of Benalla, Victoria.

Participants

Felix Dance

Expedition

Like many a geohash I noticed this achievable one in the morning before going to work. For most of the day I assumed I wouldn't go for it - I do long work days these days and had an online Zoom meeting in the evening. But when the meeting finished a bit earlier than usual at 8:30 I thought, Stuff it, I'm off.

I donned my cycling gear, grabbed an extra light and headed out of my Benalla motel room heading hashwards. The sun had just set so I prepared myself for a couple of hours of night riding.

I headed to the bridge over the Hume Freeway, across Holland Creek and away from the setting crescent moon. Within a few minutes my main front light indicated it was about to run out of batteries so I turned it off and used my low-power, secondary light. At this point I suddenly realised I'd taken the wrong road out of town and would be adding an extra 5kms to my trip. Just as I rounded the turn to get back onto the direct path my second light started flashing empty.

When I reached the junction with the original road I'd intended to take, about 45 minutes from home, I had a serious think about whether I should continue. But the moon was providing just enough illumination that I could see where I was going and the traffic was sparse enough that I could switch on my light when something came up.

Riding into the gradually increasing gloom heading into the hills I found myself much more spooked out than I was expecting. I've done dozens of these sorts of hashes but this one seemed more menacing for some reason. Possibly it was the dark valley, the strange haze engulfing it, or the thought of traipsing through wet grass in a dark, unknown field at the end that worried me.

Occasionally, a car would pass me and I'd turn on my lights. It would take a long time to disappear through the trees ahead of me to the extent I wondered if it was waiting for me. Strange shapes followed me along the fenceline that could have been cows, rabbits or just shadows of no discernible origin.

After possibly an hour (I couldn't look at my phone without being blinded for a minute) I reached the turnoff. There was a solitary, illuminated CFA shed to show me the way. I felt myself rolling downhill and then over the bumps of a bridge's expansion joints over the valley's river. Another turnoff shortly afterwards took me to the hashroad and alongside the destined paddock.

When I reached the closest approach the obvous impediment (apart from the fence) was a large herd of cows. They all stood up and got agitated over me checking them out. I froze in indecision over what to do. What if they trampled me? What if there were bulls? I messaged my friends for encouragement. Just putting my situation into words was enough to spur me on to hurdle the barbed and electrified fence.

Walking purposefully towards the hash through the, yes, long, wet grass, holding my rapidly de-powering phone in front of me like a divining rod, I approached the hash. I could hear the cows mooing in fear and confusion off to my left and a dog barking at the closest farmhouse.

Suddenly, the hash was upon me. I spun around many times getting a good reading, looking only at my phone. I took the necessary photos and headed back. For a good couple of minutes I was totally disoriented and had to use the GPS's dopplar shift to get the direction of the fence. The horizon was uniform in its unfeatured hilliness.

The brisk walk soaked my socks but I was soon over the fence (surprisingly difficult the second time, dodging the electric wire on the near side). I mounted the bike and retraced my rolling.

The return ride had a very different feel - I was heading towards home rather than away. The multiple lobes of diffuse underlit haze in front of me marked the towns along the Hume all the way to Melbourne.

I arrived back at the motel after 11pm and took a good hour before I'd de-agitated enough to get to sleep.

Here is the route I took.