2024-11-25 31 34
| Mon 25 Nov 2024 in 31,34: 31.7269909, 34.9214530 geohashing.info google osm bing/os kml crox |
Location
This Geohash is located in a forest near Sdot Micha.
Participants
- Yosef
- Fireworkeng (First time)
Plans
Yosef
I'm considering going to Sdot Micha tomorrow.
Yerushalmi
According to Moovit there's no good train route from Jerusalem, but the bus trip isn't too arduous. I have some errands to run but at some point at midday I'll take the bus to Sdot Micha, walk to the point, walk back to the bus, come home. Shouldn't be a problem.
Expedition
Yerushalmi
This expedition was a spectacular failure from start to finish.
Let's start with my errands. I needed to do four things surrounding the geohash:
- Get a vaccination
- Pick up a print of my wife's photography from a store in Jerusalem
- Bring some barbecue skewers to the mikve keilim (a ritual bath for dishes)
- Buy something at the supermarket
I didn't want to drag my wife's photography print with me to the geohash, and it was only 10:00, seven hours before the print store closed - plenty of time, I thought. So I decided it made the most sense to attempt the geohash between 1 and 2. And that's where it all started to go wrong.
First I went to the doctor's office: all vaccinations today had been cancelled over a month ago and somehow I failed to notice.
Then I checked Moovit for the ideal route to the geohash and discovered that a train route was viable after all. Which is annoying, because I could've taken a shacharit train had I known. I had very little time before the train left, so I ran straight for it. Moments after sitting down, I discovered that I had forgotten my USB-C charger at home (having assumed I wouldn't be taking the train into which it could be plugged in) and that I had packed the wrong book for the train ride.
I took the train to Tel Aviv then switched to a train to Kiryat Malachi. And there I needed to take a bus - which I discovered was one of those buses where you have to order it two hours in advance because they only run the route if someone needs it.
So I had to wait over an hour for a non-invitation-only bus that left from a different intersection and that would drop me off in the town of Sdot Micha. Still, though, its only 14:30. I still have two and a half hours to make it to the print store back in Jerusalem, right?
I walked through Sdot Micha to the path that leads north out of the town towards the air force base and the point just outside it. (AmudAnan says there's an interesting ruin nearby, which I had wanted to check out, but I knew I wouldn't have time.) Unfortunately, OSM had the borders of the air force base wrong: the fence included the entire stretch of forest in which the point was located, and there was a big No Trespassing sign. I'd have photographed the No Trespassing sign, but there was also a No Photography sign.
The expedition a failure, I checked Moovit for how to get home. Estimated arrival... 18:40? That's not good...
Turns out the non-invitation-only bus that got me here? Only runs like three times a day. And the invitation-only bus would arrive if somebody had invited it, which I did not.
Okay. How do I solve this? Jerusalem is less than an hour away by car, and I have... two hours to get there. Let's start by leaving Sdot Micha and walking all the way to the highway. I tried to hitch a ride from cars that happened to be leaving the town but there were no takers.
Reaching the major highway, I checked Moovit again: maybe now there's a good bus to take? Nope, same result. This is not good. Stick out my finger and wait... and wait... and wait...
A cab pulls up. There's a moment of hesitation (do I really want to pay for a cab? I'm unemployed. But this print needs to be in the gallery tomorrow, so I need to pick it up today), but I decide to get in and ask him to just drove east, towards route 38, then north until he finds a bus stop he can drop me off at.
To my astonishment, the cab driver didn't take a fare. He picked me up as a hitchhiker, not as a customer; he was on his way to a customer anyway. Wow. Just wow.
He drops me off at a bus stop on route 38, the last one available before he had to turn off route 38 himself. But this bus stop has no direct buses to Jerusalem; I have to take one bus to another and transfer. Estimated arrival: 17:40ish. Better than before, but still too late... I stick out my finger again.
Another guy stops and picks me up. He's headed to the northern part of Beit Shemesh (I'm currently in the southern part). But hopefully he can at least get me to a direct bus to Jerusalem...
On the way he's talking to his brother on the phone about how somebody in the family needs to pick somebody else up from The Gush. This will be relevant.
We reach the turnoff from 38 to the main entrance to Beit Shemesh, and he drops me off. I check Moovit again: there are several direct buses to Jerusalem from the station at that intersection, and the best one will get me to the store at 16:47. Cutting it close, if there's any traffic, but I can probably do it... the bus will arrive in eleven minutes...
Four minutes later a car pulls up in front of the bus station: "Want to get back in? I'm going to Jerusalem now."
Yes please!
So my new friend ended up taking me all the way to Jerusalem. And not only that, but his route inside Jerusalem happens to go right past the print store. I end up making it there at 16:30, well in advance of closing! I pick up the photo, walk over to the mikve keilim to baptize my barbecue skewers, and then (to put the cherry on top) found a local minyan for mincha at the very last minute.
On the way home I stopped at a couple of supermarkets but none of them had the thing I needed. Ah well.
Photos
Yosef
Fail
Manure to symbolize the shit that was our failure.
