2023-10-20 56 -4

Fri 20 Oct 2023 in 56,-4: 56.0359762, -4.5816450 geohashing.info google osm bing/os kml crox

Location

In a forest near Balloch, roughly 2km from the Castle and Country Park.

Participants

• KerrMcF
• Daniel

Plans

After his university lecture and volunteering session, KerrMcF plans to meet Daniel in Milngavie and drive to Balloch Castle and Country Park before walking to the point. The weather is quite uncertain with very strong winds and timing constraints on whether the car will be usable or not will make this exhibition very circumstantial.

Expedition

KerrMcF

It wasn't until one hour before Daniel and I planned to meet that I was made aware that the car would be available, which resulted in a mildly stressful organisation of his journey from Glasgow to Milngavie. Due to weather issues affecting lines, certain trains were cancelled and no trains were actually heading to Milngavie, so the alternative option was to stop one station earlier and meet halfway. Daniel's limited knowledge of the area made this an even more stressful start to the expedition, but we successfully found each other and started heading to the car.

Arriving at the car at 3:40pm, we began the drive to Balloch Castle and Country Park. The drive took about 40 minutes and upon arriving we began walking to the point itself. The route we took is displayed below, but my watch died earlier in the day, so the route is a rough estimation.

Our walk to the road near the point was easy as the route was completely on paths/roads and easily accessible. Once we reached the section in which we needed to walk through the forest/wooded area, we simply made our way through the grass and plants in the general direction of the point until we got close enough to reach the point at roughly 5pm. We decided to take a different route back as we'd noticed a potential pathway out of the wooded section but after arriving at this we realised it was actually a road belonging to the nearby property. Continuing along this path with the reassurance of saying we got lost if we were questioned (we were not), we made it out of this area back onto the road and headed back the way we had come to where the car was parked.

After a McDonald's followed by a short drive to reach 9999.9 miles on the car - which I had been wanting to take a photograph of for a while - I drove Daniel back home. This took about 40 minutes with the remainder of my journey home adding another 40 bringing the expedition time period to 3:40-8:20.

Due to the point being located at "Knockour Wood, Alexandria" I've claimed the Tale of Two Hashes achievement for Alexandria.

Photos

• 

  Reached the geohash

• 

  Brought a friend (and some sticks)

• 

  Roughly the route we took, red there and yellow back

• 

  Exactly 9999.9 miles!

Achievements

KerrMcF and Daniel earned the Land geohash achievement by reaching the (56, -4) geohash on 2023-10-20.

KerrMcF earned the Drag-along achievement by dragging Daniel to the (56, -4) geohash on 2023-10-20.

KerrMcF achieved level 2 of the Minesweeper Geohash achievement by visiting coordinates in Glasgow, United Kingdom and 2 of the surrounding graticules.

KerrMcF achieved level 2 of the Minesweeper Geohash achievement by visiting coordinates in Edinburgh, United Kingdom and 2 of the surrounding graticules.

KerrMcF achieved level 2 of the Minesweeper Geohash achievement by visiting coordinates in Helensburgh, United Kingdom and 2 of the surrounding graticules.

KerrMcF and Daniel earned the Tale of Two Hashes achievement by meeting the challenge by George to geohash in Alexandria going to the (56, -4) geohash on 2023-10-20.

KerrMcF earned the Two to the N achievement by attempting to reach 22 hashpoints on 2023-10-20 56 -4 and is promoted to Level 2 (Expeditions).

Daniel earned the Two to the N achievement by attempting to reach 21 hashpoints on 2023-10-20 56 -4 and is promoted to Level 1 (Expeditions).