2003-06-21 50 19

Sat 21 Jun 2003 in 50,19: 50.3619306, 19.1975492 geohashing.info google osm bing/os kml crox

Geohashing on our wedding anniversary.

Location

On the bank of an artificial lake in Dąbrowa Górnicza, Poland.

Participants

Malgond and his wife.

Plans

		Since I started geohashing, I review the achievement list quite often - just to see if I can have some extra fun with little effort - and it came to my mind that a Wedding Anniversary one would be nice, specifically that the date was coming... Since I don't have a GPS device still, I had little hope while keying in the date and location in the Eupeodes' page, but... hooray! It's an easy one - and a marvelously pleasant one as well. The hash for our wedding day and graticule lies on a sandy bank of an artificial lake! Perfect place! There's also one peculiar thing on this map - the locality to the east of the dike between the reservoirs is called PIEKŁO (Polish for Hell), while the one to the south-west is named NIEPIEKŁO (Not-hell). I have no idea why these neighbourhoods are named so strangely, but our wedding-day geohash lies exactly between them. It evokes some philosophical thoughts...
		Luckily, the hash is also easy to reach without GPS - just count these bushes and at the eighth one go straight towards the forest line up to about three-fourths of the distance. From Google Street View I have determined that the lane seen on the satellite view is closed for traffic, only pedestrians and bicycles allowed - nice! At the east end of the dike there's a sandy parking place. The two bodies of water lie in an area between two major roads, the S1 expressway to the east and the 86 road to the west, so it is very easy to get there by car. It is about 100 kilometers from home.

Expedition

Even if I planned our anniversary celebration in advance, the plan did not played out fully as I have expected. It turned out that we have to be back home at 2 p.m. tops - and plans to start early also failed. So I had to cancel the planned dinner at a restaurant near the lakes. Instead of going a slower and more scenic way I decided to hit the motorway to save time (but loose some more money). The weather was also a mixed matter - low-riding clouds poured heavy rain once in a while, at one point the wipers barely managed to push the water off the windscreen. On our way, we have passed the point that was the destination of of my previous expedition.

		We have arrived from the east and found the beginning of the bike lane on a curve. Past the curve there was an entry to a large sandy area designated as a parking lot, where I have parked our car. The weather started to clear a bit, sun was shining and there was a beautiful view to the lake.
		The banks of the lake at this place were high, steep, rugged and slippery. There were signs posted, warning of landslides. However, this have not kept people from sneaking down and sunbathing at the brink of the lake. I have spotted four crazy men in a large pickup truck, cursing heavily while they tried to push a large camping trailer on a raft. In the pickup's trunk they had a big propane-fired barbecue, a bunch of other camping equipment and a small inflatable boat with a motor. Later, when we were walking back to our car, I have seen the little boat hauling the raft with the trailer on it...
		We walked along the lane, enjoying the sunshine and the fresh breeze from the lake. Once in a while a person on a bicycle or on skates whizzed by us. There was a large board posted with a diagram of the lake, which explained its purpose and features. It appears that the high eroding banks are an effect of a low water level. It is planned to be raised by several meters once a nearby sand quarry ceases its operation. In the distance there loomed the cooling towers and chimneys of the Łagisza power plant.
		There wasn't much ado on the lake itself, but I was able to spot one sailing boat and a pair of grebes.
		The line of bushes seen on the Google's map was actually a line of small pine-trees planted along the bike lane that have grown since. After we have reached the far end of the pine-hedge, we turned back and started counting the plants. We've stopped at the eighth one and looked towards the sandy field. It wasn't empty any more as seen on the maps - some growth has already started to cover it and there were small trees and bushes and other plants that have sprouted there without a human hand's help - or were they planted at random?
		A small tree was standing at the approximate location of the hash point. We've made it! My wife tried to make a photo of me at the hash and at this moment the camera's battery died... This demonstration of natural perversity of inanimate objects did not put her off; she has taken out her mobile phone and completed the task. I have also taken three photos towards the west, north and east.
		We sat for a while on a bench next to the lane and looked onto the lake. In the west, dark clouds were gathering. So I've snapped two instances of double Stupid Grins - one on the bench, one towards the lake - and off we went back to our car.

We walked back to the parking lot without haste, but the heavens were merciful and spared us a shower. The moment we drove off, the first drops of rain touched the windscreen. It was raining the whole way back home.

As a supplement, I present two quarter-panoramas made with the mobile phone. This model makes only that much of a full circle.

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Achievements

Malgond earned the Wedding anniversary geohash achievement by reaching the (50, 19) geohash for 2003-06-21 on 2015-06-21.