2024-02-25 -37 144

Location

On the footpath outside Al-Taqwa College, Truganina.

Participants

Expedition

Another hot day today, forecast 32 degrees. In order to beat the heat, as they say, the crew started early(ish) - 8:30am/9am. Cam and Lachie departed from Lachie's house, and attempted to chase John down who had left earlier. From the comfort of my own home, I (Felix Dance) noted that they had some success in this, or so it seemed from observing shared locations on Google Maps.

And at 10:43am, the success photo was published to the gchat. Celebratory drinks were had post-hash, as is tradition.

Pwc's report

Cam, Lachie and myself agreed to meet on bikes at Lachie's at 9am. John was heading separately by foot-power. I set off for Lachie’s house fashionably late. As I was crossing Flemington Bridge Station bridge, I saw Cam below and realised that if I arrived with him, we would be such a substantial fraction of the party that we couldn’t be late, so I immediately accelerated after him. Unbeknownst to me, he had spotted a cyclist ahead who he thought was me, and had also set off at a cracking pace. So there we were, steaming up Mt Alexander Rd: me chasing him, and him chasing a random cyclist who was confused about why he was being stalked on a beautiful Sunday morning. Thankfully a red light intervened before any crimes were committed.

We arrived at Lachie’s without further incident, and set off, heading for the Federation Trail. Speaking of stalking, John was heading on foot and we had his position on Google Maps, so we rapidly crept up on him. Lachie announced we were 4km from him and would overtake soon. However, I pointed out that in the time it took us to get 4km, he would have gone further, and we would have to go that distance, but he would get further still away... reaching him was impossible.

We soon reached him on the path and exchanged pleasantries like “get a car loser” and sped off to the hash, confident that we would easily beat him there.

Fate intervened, as we realised we were beerless. We immediately assembled a crisis council, Cam looked up the nearest open bottle shop, and we diverted towards the local purveyor of morning-alcohol. Crisis averted, we returned to our route and were soon approaching the hash-containing footpath. Disaster! Despite a distinct lack of mechanical assistance, John had beaten us there. We had restorative beers at the hash.

The next task was to locate a pub for more restoration. Thankfully the Phoenix Hotel (open 7am to 3am, seven days a week) was nearby and we were certain to beat John there. And indeed we did, so we did a victory lap of the carpark and then spent so long finding a place to lock up our bikes that John beat us inside.

After an early lunch, we set off back home. It was now the middle of the day and extremely hot. Nonetheless we made it back without incident, excepting a few stops to refuel water bottles.

John's notes

I would have joined the above cycling adventure but alas my bike was off being repaired. Luckily, these days, I am not averse to travelling long distances on foot. However, if I was to arrive at the hash at a similar time to the others, I would have to give myself a bit of a head start. But it wasn't until after 8 that I was alerted to their 9am departure plan; to get a head start I would have to get myself out of the house in a real hurry. I was out the door by 8:35, but I was certain I would be overtaken quite soon.

I headed down towards West Footscray station through some quiet back streets, but after crossing the train line, I then went along the opposite kind of street to a quiet back street, it was the Princes Highway, aka Geelong Rd. I noticed, looking at Lachie's shared location, that fortunately, the pedal party were taking a pleasanter but more indirect route via Sunshine so I wasn't about to be left in the dust.

I soon left the highway and joined the Federation Trail, which I have used for several previous geohashes. This time I was not redirected off the path at any stage which was nice, but it was still as smelly as always. I was almost at the point to leave the path and head down Sayers Rd towards the hash when I was finally overtaken by the riders, with about 2.5km to go. It would only take me another 15mins or so, so it didn't feel like an imposition asking the others to wait around at the hash until I arrived. Even better, they diverted to obtain brewed barley-based beverages, meaning that I took line honours in the end.

Even though my original plan had been to continue up to the Skeleton Creek path and rejoin the Federation Trail and head into Hoppers Crossing for a train home, I was easily swayed into heading to the Phoenix Hotel instead, where Lachie Bridget and I had also celebrated a successful geohash late last year.

On the way over to the pub the air was getting disturbingly smokier from the fires in western Victoria, and I questioned the wisdom of strenuous exercise in these conditions, but I also didn't want to hang about, so I kept running. Going past a lake/wetlands area, I saw pelicans in flight which was a nice surprise.

At the pub Lachie and I quenched our thirst with a Hard Rated/Hard Solo, while Cam and Patrick stuck to beer. After a lunch, with some live music adding to the ambiance, we parted. I went to close-by Williams Landing for a train home, while the others rode home along the coast.