2008-05-24 48 2

Note: This expedition used an old version of the Geohashing algorithm before the 30W Time Zone Rule was enacted.

Sat 24 May 2008 in 48,2: 48.1266480, 2.5475331 geohashing.info google osm bing/os kml crox

I (Ilia) did not realize that the algorithm took into account not only the Dow value, but also the date; so I set out to the Friday location, thinking it was still valid Saturday. And since the 30W rule was enacted after I last went online before the meetup, I actually went to the pre-30W Friday location. No wonder I did not meet anyone... but did anyone reach the correct location, either?

The coordinates were about 48.4003N, 2.7226E. When I saw that it was in Fontainebleau, I told myself that I had never been there and that it was a perfect occasion, so the cost of the train fare did not deter me from going there. Actually it was a lucky mistake, because the correct location is at the opposite end of the graticule, in a field in the middle of nowhere, far from any major road, train station, or inhabited place, so I would probably not have gone there. (The 49 2 meetup, on the other hand, is in a rather intriguing place, not too far from Paris, and next to a major motorway, so maybe I might have hitchhiked there...)

I changed the map to reflect the correct location of the expedition. There is no difference between pre30w rule and no pre30w rule for Saturday because there no Dow Jones Opening on saturday, so Friday's one is used all over the globe. --Gissehel

Yes, but there *is* a difference between pre-30W Friday and 30W Friday (I went to the former). --Ilia

Anyway it was fun :-) The weather was not very nice, rather grey and cloudy, but I enjoyed the trip nevertheless. First I saw the castle of Fontainebleau; there are a lot of flowers there, and a few peacocks just walking around on a lawn in the backyard. Then I have had a rather pleasant hike through the forest; I even found wild strawberries (not yet quite ripe though), that I thought were not very common in France. But I found myself an hour before the meetup quite far from the place, so I tried to cut through the wood (where I had quite some trouble finding my way, which added considerably to my pleasure from the excursion). Finally I arrived to the coordinates a mere 10 minutes before the meeting time, under intermittent rain (fortunately, I had thought of bringing a raincoat!). The spot turned out to be in the middle of a driveway that Google Maps did not show; although it was not strictly private, I judged it better to wait at the nearest road junction, from where I could see people going to the true location anyway. I was standing at the corner, dressed in a Mathematica T-Shirt, and doing my Rubik's cube, so I think that any geohasher could have fairly easily guessed why I was there! I waited maybe for half an hour, but did not meet anyone - no one seems to have made the same mistake as myself...

Conclusion of the expedition:

• Total time spent: about 11 hours.
• Total money spent: roughly 20€.
• Enjoyment: high.

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  The railroad viaduct leading to the Fontainebleau/Avon station

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  Fontainebleau castle

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  A peacock in the castle's yard

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  A cat watching the peacocks :-)

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  The park next to the castle was full of flowers. Unfortunately, the smell is missing in this photo...

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  View from a hill. The castle and the town are visible in the distance.

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  Another view from the same hill.

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  The street corner next to the (Friday, pre-30W) geohash, where I stood for half an hour. Unfortunately, street names are unreadable in this photo; you have to take my word that these are "Allée du Rocher" and "Rue du Rocher de l'Avon".

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  The actual location was somewhere in the middle of this driveway, or maybe in the house to the right of it.