2011-07-28 -38 145

Thu 28 Jul 2011 in -38,145: -38.5918538, 145.5768172 geohashing.info google osm bing/os kml crox

Location

In a diary farm just outside Wonthaggi

Who went

• Felix Dance

Expedition

Felix Dance

I was at work when I discovered the geohash for today. Right in the middle of Wonthaggi. Ever since I'd moved down here I'd been checking nearby geohashes, most found themselves drowned in Bass Strait. This one, though, seemed accessible beyond any other.

Sadly, I'd finished work for the day, riding home in the dark from the desalination plant contruction site where I work on my trusty world-touring mountain bike, before I'd remembered to go and check it out. A quick call to a helpful Melbournian sorted me out for coordinates and soon I was off again in the direction of the hash.

Trying to navigate the wet bog out of town proved too difficult for my otherwise dependable bike, so I was forced to follow the road around to a diary farm driveway in whose paddock the hash was located. Getting to within 270m of the hash at about 7pm I dismounted and inspected the barbed wire fences separating different types of cows for the best approach.

At that moment I noticed something in the corner of my eye. I faint light was moving around inside the shed off to my left. It didn't take long to flick my way - I was caught. Being fully decked-out in flashing bike lights and reflective construction gear didn't help either.

I saw a truck light turn on and heard the revving of an engine - abandon hash!

Turning away from the fence and hash, I jumped back on the bike and tore down the agonisingly long driveway towards the road. I turned back: the truck was out of the shed and curving around towards me. How would I explain why I was in his farm? I always have trouble with this part of geohashing.

As I approached the road the truck approached me. But soon I'd turned out into brightly lit public space and shortly after onto the Bass Highway. The truck gave up the pursuit and turned back towards the farm. Just what the driver was thinking about me I can't imagine.

Deciding a second attempt would probably only further antoganise this farmer, especially since I was emblazoned in clothing for the locally unpopular Victorian Desalination Plant, would probably not end well for me, I decided that I would have to miss this one - convenient as it had seemed. I wonder if I would have been bolder a few years ago in an early hashing era.

I turned onto the highway and rode the remaining 15 kms to my home in Inverloch.

Here is the Google Maps route I took. The geohash is just off the end of that appendage in South Dudley.

Photos

No photos taken :(

Ribbons

• No trespassing