2025-04-30 -36 144

Location

Participants

Stevage
KT

Expedition

The build-up

It has been a very long, dry, April in Melbourne. Plenty of rain. But no geohashes. Since the start of the month, there hasn't been a single point on land within 20 kilometres of my house, and only a handful closer than 30 kilometres. With a very dry second half of March, geohashing was starting to feel like something "I used to do", now 6 weeks since my last expedition.

29 bad points in a row. (Made with Krikpakk's geohash retro tool.)

And my 2 year streak of reaching at least one point every month is coming to an end as well. The odds of my mounting a successful expedition on this, the last day of the month, are low. I've been sick for the last week, and not yet back to getting on the bike. And I'm busy for a lot of the day, with a lunch and attending KT's train driver graduation ceremony.

With trepidation, I look at the coordinates as soon as they come out. Hooray! Amazingly, the point is the closest it has been all month, in Thomastown, a northern suburb, near the ring road and not quite in the outer wilds.

But closer inspection reveals it is in a house, and StreetView reveals a security-conscious house that seems very unlikely to admit an internet stranger.

So with that, I give up.

The next phase

Until at the end of KT's graduation ceremony, when I realise she has the rest of the afternoon free, and I try my luck. "Wanna drive to Nagambie?"

Yes, the nearest point is inaccessible. The second nearest, near Ballarat, is also in or around someone's house. The third nearest, out east, is deep in a forbidden water catchment. The fourth nearest, south, is in Port Phillip Bay. But the fifth...up north in the Bendigo graticule, in Rushworth State Forest, that point looks pretty gettable.In full health and with free time, I'd easily take the train to Nagambie and cycle there and back. Today, it'll be a 4 hour return trip by car, and solo it feels a bit too much. But with a sidekick...?

KT says ok, as long as she's in bed by 7:30, and the plan is launched. I tram to her place while she cycles home, first running the gauntlet of overenthusiastic new colleagues. We take a moment to pat Rosie, her housemate's dog, and for her to change from traindriverwear to a cute new dress with pockets, and launch.

The drive is, like most drives, pretty uneventful. I win the pony game (first person to spot a pony on any given day), and KT reminisces about the good old days before they built the petrol station in Wallan. We ponder a pair of trees on a hill that used to look like a rooster. There are lots of kangaroos munching peacefully in the grass.

A Steve-like hunger panic suddenly descends upon our driver and we are forced to detour to a nearby Oliver's to fill the ravenousness with sandwich.

After leaving the freeway, things are briefly enlivened by a deceptive turn-off which we miss. A well-worn U-turn spot makes it look like we weren't the first.

As we get nearer, I'm starting to feel nerves. I have a lot riding on this. My research suggests this is just open bushland, but it's hard to be certain.

We arrive. I look about. I breathe. It's going to be fine. No fences, no sign of civilisation. Just bush, with almost no understorey. It's going to be an easy 350 metres.

KT sets a cracking pace, crunching and cracking her way over dead stick and leaves. I can't keep up with her looking at my phone, so I just follow. She quickly gets us to the point. We celebrate. This is, rather surprisingly, my first ever expedition in this graticule, only 120km from home. My Minesweeper Achievement is finally complete.

And back

There are creepy bird calls that sound like curlews but look like currawongs. We don't have time to investigate as we scurry back. KT does an excellent job of not hitting wallabies and kangaroos intent on collision. One has even taken up residence in the middle of the road and is disinclined to depart.

We pause for a quick photo at the delapidated Chinaman's Bridge. In the softening evening light it's incredibly scenic.

We make it home, just in time for KT's bedtime. Success.