2024-08-20 56 -3

Location

On the rail tracks between Stirling and Auchterarder or Perth.

Participants

KerrMcF

Plans

KerrMcF

This is pretty far for me to travel for a geohash, and trains are not exactly the cheapest mode of transport. Buses, however, are free for those under the age of 22. As such, my plan is to get the X10 bus from Bearsden/Milngavie at around 10:45am, which will arrive in Stirling at around 12:15pm. The train to Auchterarder and the train to Perth both go past the geohash and cost the same. Out of the two possibilities, I plan to head to Perth, as the city is more accessible from its station. However, the next train will be at 2:08pm, so I plan to get lunch - probably at Nando's - before exploring the city of Stirling for a while (and maybe visiting its Debra charity shop). After hopefully passing through the geohash and arriving at Perth at 2:37pm, I plan to walk to the newly opened Perth Museum to see the Stone of Destiny/Scone, which I have tickets for at 3:10pm. My train to Stirling leaves Perth at 3:41pm, and should arrive at 4:19pm. The bus back home then leaves at 4:30pm and I should be home just after 6:30pm. Almost eight hours is quite a long expedition for me, but in reality it's more of a day trip to both Stirling and Perth; two out of our eight cities in one day!

Expedition

KerrMcF

The expedition went pretty much exactly as planned. I left the house just after 10:30am and walked to a nearby bus stop, getting the bus at around 10:48am. The bus took me straight to Stirling bus station, a 90-minute journey, and I walked a short distance to the nearby Nando's for lunch. After eating, I still had about an hour until my train, so I visited the nearby Debra charity shop to compare it to the one I volunteer in. This didn't take too long; it was mostly furniture, and I wasn't planning on bringing a couch back home with me. I reached the train station at around 1:30pm, with half an hour to wait until my train arrived.

The train got to the station on time at 2:08pm, and took me directly to the geohash, which I passed through at around 2:17pm. I had made sure to sit on the inner side of the train to be as close to the middle of the tracks as possible, and this seemed to be the right idea. The train then continued on to Perth, arriving at around 2:40pm. I had noticed online that there was a listing which I hadn't seen before for a Debra charity shop in a shopping centre. It was supposedly close to where I had planned to go anyway, so I walked there to see if I could find it. A couple of minutes of searching later, I checked again to find that it was now permanently closed, which might be why I hadn't seen the listing before. I decided just to walk to Perth Museum to explore before my slot at the Stone of Scone exhibition.

I looked around the museum for around 15 minutes before heading into the ticketed exhibition. It turned out that for the 3:10pm slot, I was the only person with a ticket, so I essentially got a private showing of the stone and the related information. The Stone of Scone is an important part of Scottish (and later British) history, with it playing a key role in the coronation of Scottish monarchs up until the 13th century. In 1296, King Edward I of England took the stone from Scone Abbey to be used in the coronation of English and British monarchs. It was returned to Scotland and held in Edinburgh Castle in 1996 and later permanently moved to Perth in March this year, with Perth Museum mostly being created for this stone. The stone also has some links with religion, with some legends saying that the Stone of Scone is the same as the Stone of Jacob, resulting in earlier English monarchs claiming that their ability to take the stone from Scotland showcased their "God-given right" to rule over the Scottish. Further research in the geology of the stone has proven that this is not the case, with the stone originating from Scone rather than having been transported there.

The exhibition ran on a little longer than I had anticipated, ending at 3:25pm, so I left immediately after to head to the train station. I boarded my train at around 3:40pm, which left and started heading towards the geohash for my second attempt. This attempt was also successful, and I used the same idea as last time of sitting at the inner side of the carriage. I passed through the point at around 4:04pm and managed to take a (slightly blurry) photo of what the surrounding area looked like. The train then reached Stirling at around 4:20pm, with the journey to the bus station being very short. The bus was supposed to arrive at 4:30pm, but due to delays in its previous journey, it didn't arrive until around 4:45pm. The journey back was a different route as it was a slightly different bus number, so I didn't reach my stop until around 6:40pm. I then walked home from there, finishing the first expedition of my second year of geohashing.

I didn't get the exact speed as I went through the geohash (because I was busy recording proof) but I am pretty certain it is safe to assume that for the section of track that the train was on, it would have been going at its speed limit of 90mph for the Speed racer achievement. I've also taken the Easy geohash achievement as, other than getting on and off the buses and trains, I didn't have to do much to reach the point. The Admit one achievement also applies, as the rail tracks are not accessible without paying for a train ticket.