2015-11-14 52 -0

Sat 14 Nov 2015 in Northampton, UK: 52.2620441, -0.0104483 geohashing.info google osm bing/os kml crox

Location

The middle of a field between the villages of Lolworth and Boxworth, just outside Cambridge. A public bridleway runs along the edge of the field.

Participants

PaintedJaguar (talk)

Plans

PaintedJaguar has a very busy day planned, but if time allows will get an early evening Citi 5 bus out to Bar Hill, from where there is a public footpath across a field to Lolworth. He will first attempt to reach 2015-11-14 52 0 before continuing on to this hashpoint. It adds approximately two-thirds of a mile of walking (each way) to reach this second hashpoint, on top of the one mile each way to reach the first one. Other plans for the day means that there is no certainty at all as to the exact time, but it will be after 4pm, and after dark.

Expedition

Continuing on from the 2015-11-14 52 0 expedition, I headed back into the centre of Lolworth, where there was a rather pleasing village noticeboard, indicating that Lolworth had won the award for the "Best Kept Village in South Cambridgeshire", and also highlighting the bridleway that I needed to follow to get to the hashpoint. I set off along the track, and immediately ran into a giant sign indicating that this was private farmland. However, just beyond this sign was another public bridleway sign, continuing to point along the track, so I concluded that it was OK to keep going.

The track continued for maybe two-thirds of the distance towards the hashpoint, at one point going past some deserted farm buildings whose door had blown open in the wind and was now constantly banging open and closed, which was more than a little disconcerting until I'd worked out what was causing the noise! Then, all of a sudden, the track stopped, at the beginning of a large open field, with no indication at all as the direction that should be followed to remain on the bridleway - this gave me the perfect excuse to head directly to the hashpoint!

However, after a short distance, it started to look like crops might be being grown in the field. To be honest, I couldn't actually tell if they were crops or weeds! They were sufficiently small, straggly and broad-leaved to be something I would call a weed, but on the other hand they appeared to be far too regular to be weeds. I opted to follow the side of the field instead, looking out down the lines of tractor tracks to find the ones that appeared to point most closely to the hashpoint. I found one that appeared to be heading almost exactly right, and, as luck would have it, it was: the hashpoint ended up being right in the middle of this line of tractor tracks.

I took the necessary photos, and then turned round to retrace my steps all the way through this expedition and 2015-11-14 52 0, only to arrive at the bus stop in Bar Hill about 5 minutes after the previous bus had left. It was now late enough in the evening that the frequency had dropped to just one bus per hour, which was incredibly irritating. I decided to head to the Tesco in Bar Hill to grab a snack and wait out the hour for the next bus there. It turned out that this Tesco was in fact an enormous retail park, with many big-brand-name shops there, and the place was heaving, with a giant car park that was resaonably full. I couldn't believe that there'd be so many people shopping in such a small village outside Cambridge, but there you go! There were enough shops still open that meant I could easily kill time until the next bus arrived, and I eventually arrived home at about 20:30. An enjoyable, if somewhat muddy (by the end) expedition.

Photos

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  Lolworth village notice board

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  Private?

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  No, not private

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  Which way now?

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  Proof

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  The hashpoint was in tractor tracks between the weeds or crops (not sure which!)

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  View towards Fenstanton/Fen Drayton/Swavesey (not sure which!)

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  Bar Hill retail park