2025-01-09 -37 145

Location

At a multilevel car park in Blackburn South.

Participants

Expedition

We'd decided we were going to do this geohash from the moment it was discovered early in the morning. And it looked like a multilevel hash was on the offing. However, I had some important Moonee Ponds Creek kayaking to do (after I'd dropped Gretel off at childcare, of course).

Having scraped my way down the narrow drain in minimal flow conditions down to the Yarra, then heaved my way back upstream until I could catch the train home by lunchtime, I was now ready to go.

Steve found a suitable interception point for the three of us, given I'd be riding faster and Laura was meeting up halfway along the route. By coincidence, his meetup point was also accessible at multiple elevations.

With a swervy ride through the eastern suburbs by the three of us, meandering through the suburbs and negotiating bike paths, we arrived at the shopping centre car park where the hash was.

We found what we thought was the point (annoyingly covered by upper levels of car park, so the GPS didn't work so great) and cracked beers and took photos. Now to find the other levels!

We tried to go up but couldn't see an obvious way to do this. So we went down. We all visited each point at the two lower levels, then split up and coordinated photos of us at all levels simultaneously.

Now to find the upper level. For this, we had to take a crowded lift with our bikes and go through two fire doors and a staircase. But we were out in the open at last, on a delivery access driveway. We tried to locate the geohash from first principles again (using the app), but something odd was happening.

The point was 2m off the edge of the suspended slab. I.e., our original point can't have been the correct hash point. Additionally, I'd miscounted the number of columns to do my calculations for position at the lower levels. There was nothing for it but to recreate our multilevel hashing. This is our radical accountability.

So, using a slab expansion joint and reference to an undeveloped tree we recalculated the hash position at each level and retook our photos, ensuring we were synched up over the Google chat.

The system worked. We had achieved 3 levels of multi elevation geohashing - which was lucky, because we only had three people. The highest level was obviously out of reach, so we had resourced the hash appropriately. There was nothing for it but to retrace our steps.

Having taken half an hour less than anticipated on the ride home, and with Laura joining us for a further westward return than was strictly convenient for her, we decided to pop in to a brewery to celebrate our hash. Unfortunately, our first choice, Rocky Ridge was closed, so we backtracked for Bridge Road. I had a pot of black IPA before returning home to pick up Gretel. It is unknown to me how the rest of the afternoon unfolded for the others in my absence.