2023-03-05 -37 144

Sun 5 Mar 2023 in -37,144: -37.9424819, 144.5495529 geohashing.info google osm bing/os kml crox

Location

On a dirt track next to the train line in Little River

Participants

• Lachie

Expedition

This has was number 16 in the 2023 Victorian Geohash Streak.

This was a straightforward hash. There was only one catastrophe and only one exciting part. There were however many mildly interesting things along the way and I took lots of photos. In absence of an epic tail I'll bore relate to you my opinions of the industrial west.

I got on my bike and headed west. The first interesting thing I encountered was my favourite bike bridge over the train line at West Footscray Station. I usually try to avoid pedestrian bridges over freeways and train lines, they're often steep, crowded or have really low fences that make me uneasy. Riding through train stations is often especially frought. West Footscray Station is an excellent exception, it's got a well marked bike path right through the middle. Sorry I didn't take a photo.

The next interesting thing I encountered was hard to capture. My phone can capture images or audio. You can even combine the two and record video with sound. But this was a smell. There are a number of meat processing facilities in the west. One of them is right next the the Federation Trail bike path I was riding along. Today was hot and humid and the wind was just right to force the smell of rancid meat right up my nose. I dry retched repeatadly but nothing actually came out of me.

Melbourne has recenly taken delivery of some shiny new trains, as such we've started throwing the old ones in the bin. As I rode through Laverton I spotted the mutalated corpses of a few carriages poking out of the top a pile of other dead metalic objects. I pulled over and shed a single tear. Thank you Comeng, you served us well.

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  Dead Trains

A little further along the trail I got a message from Talex asking if I brought a raincoat. Talex knows me pretty well and was clearly asking for comedic effect and knew perfectly well that I wouldn't have a raincoat. Due to a some combination of coincence or carefull planning, Talex's message arrived exactly as I rode past the Laverton rain radar and exactly as it started raining. The radar is pretty great, it's a ball in the sky.

• 

  The giant soccer ball in the sky tells me it's raining.

The next good thing I found was the most beautiful house in Hoppers Crossing.

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  The most beautiful house in Hoppers Crossing

Up next was a set of traffiic lights in the sky at the end of a road to nowhere. I assume there will be a bridge here one day.

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  Intersection in the sky

I then reached the juntion of the Melbourne(ish)'s newest(ish) train line Regional Rail Link and the boring old line from Geelong to Werribee. That's already pretty uninteresting on it's own, but right on cue the Overland turned up. It's not every day you get to see a train from Adelaide.

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  The Overland at the junction of Regional Rail Link and the old line to Werribee.

I continued riding along the road and noticed an oddity on my GPS. It was a pretty small country road I was riding along but the map showed it as a large divided road. As I continued a huge intersetction appeared on the map. I was at the site of the future Outer Metropolitan Ring Road/E6 Transport Corridor. I also crossed this path and noticed curiosity on my GPS while riding to a geohash in Eyenesbury years ago.

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  My maps show the future ring road

A little further along I turned left down a dirt road. I still haven't fixed my proper geohashing bike, so I was once again on my single speed. The ride was short enough and flat enough that it wasn't an issue but the tyres are skinnier than you really want to take on gravel. The road took me down to the train line where I turned left again. This new road was in much worse condition. The aggregate was coarse and the pot holes were large. Much to my dismay/delight I found myself in an illegal dumping site of old tyres and couches. I don't usually like piles of road side trash but I was getting close enough to the hash that I thought I might get to have a comfortable seat at the point. Alas the rubbish dried up too soon.

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  Couch graveyard near the hash

Geohash Sucess!

• 

  Success

I was just about to take a selfie with nothing particuarly intersting in the photo but then I heard a train horn. I paused so I could get a photo with the train, but it took longer than I expected. I was about to lose hope when a train appeared from the opposite direction from the sound of the train horn. I spun around and go the photo with a Geelong bound passenger train. No sooner had the little train left than the original honkey turned up. This time a big old freight train.

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  Freight trains can geohash too!

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  Passenger Trains can geohash too!

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  Okay, three selfies with trains at the geohash might be a bit much

I then had two options. I could ride 50km back to Melbourne or I could go to Little River, have dinner at the pub and catch a train home. After failing to visit the Little River Hotel/Motel last week I opted for a pub dinner. Sadly on arrival I was told I couldn't order dinner because they'd had a busy weekend and didn't have much food left. I bought a schooner of carlton and way to drown my sorrows.

The next stop was Little River train station, while I was waiting for my train another freight train turned up, or maybe it was the same one again. It had a lot in common with the previous freight train and was heading in the opposite direction. I'm not sure whether a train could have gone somewhere useful and been ready to go back so quickly.

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  Freight Train at Little River station

I boarded a train and rode it back to Melbourne. As we passed the Tottenham yards I saw more dead trains. These were covered in graffiti and hadn't yet left the train tracks.

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  More dead trains

I got off the train in Footscray and went home.

Achievements

Lachie earned the Bicycle geohash achievement by cycling 51km to the (-37, 144) geohash on 2023-03-05.