2024-09-15 31 34
| Sun 15 Sep 2024 in 31,34: 31.9435660, 34.9466165 geohashing.info google osm bing/os kml crox |
Contents
Location
In the Ben Shemen forest.
Participants
Yerushalmi (talk), his wife, #3-5
Plans
I originally intended on just going by myself, but when I asked the kids if they were interested in going #3-5 all said they were interested. So I put off the expedition until they came home from school.
The plan is simple either way: Drive to the forest, walk to the point, have a picnic, walk back to the car, drive back.
Expedition
Unfortunately we forgot that we had arranged to have a neighbor kid over, during the half-hour between school ending and when her parents being able to pick her up. And by the time the neighbor kid went home, #4 and #5 were already firmly ensconced on the computer, and #3 didn't want to be the only kid to come with her parents.
It took some effort, though, and us pointing out that their computer time was over anyway and staying home wouldn't help, and eventually they all agreed to come with.
We prepared food and drink and drove to the forest. We were a bit nervous, because sundown would be in less than an hour. And the map took us down one well-maintained forest path, then another, then another, until I noticed we were less than a km from the point and we could get out and walk the rest of the way. This we did; I had wanted the kids to try navigating by themselves, using paper maps I had printed, but decided there wasn't time; we'll use GPS and be done with it.
We discovered, while walking, that we had actually driven right past the point on the way to where we parked; I'm not sure what OSMAnd had been thinking. But it was an easy stroll to the point (no thorns!), and after marking it with XKCD we sat down and opened salami and sandwiches and water and potato chips.
Then the bees arrived.
We relocated to a hundred meters away, then a hundred more, then two hundred more, until finally we were far enough that the bees stopped bothering us. Then back to the car. We got a bit lost on the way out of the forest but eventually figured it out.
On the way home we got stuck in a massive traffic jam on route 433, right ahead of the military checkpoint; clearly they had caught somebody trying to infiltrate the country. An hour of not moving at all. But it could've been worse; the kids kept up their good humor by shouting "Praise god, it's a new baby!" to everyone who cheated the traffic jam by driving past in the shoulder (a reference to a comedy sketch in which somebody assumes that every lawbreaker must be doing so to get to the hospital quickly).
Photos
The gateway to the point
Proof
Panorama at the point
Scratching out XKCD in the dirt
