2023-07-30 -37 144

Sun 30 Jul 2023 in -37,144: -37.8176492, 144.9737149 geohashing.info google osm bing/os kml crox

Location

In Birrarung Marr park next to the Yarra.

Participants

• Lachie
• Ed

• Cam

• Felix
• Ruth
• Gretel

• John
• Bridget

• KT
• Dangermum
• Dangerdad

• Stevage

Expedition 1 (Lachie and Ed)

First at the hash

Lachie and Ed purportedly met up on bike at Flemington Bridge near their places, they then met Cam at the hash (Expedition 2), where they subsequently joined Expedition 3 (Felix, Ruth and Gretel), before heading off together to get three pints each at Carlton's Great Northern Pub.

Expedition 2 (Cam)

After seeing that Felix, Ruth, Gretel, Ed and Lachie were all on their way to the hash, and seeing the glorious weather, I decided to quickly jump on my bike and join them, assuring my partner that I would definitely be home in around 90 minutes.

I flew down the upfield bike path and kept pace with a south-bound train, allowing me to shoot across all the roads in time with the closed railway crossings. I ended up arriving at the hash a few minutes after Ed and Lachie, and a few minutes before Felix, Ruth and Gretel.

On the way home, Lachie and Ed tricked me into stopping at a pub for lunch and a pint, then tricked me into another pint, and then another one. I eventually made it home after a few hours, very well lubricated much to my partner's amusement.

Expedition 3 (Felix, Ruth and Gretel)

Felix, Ruth and Gretel on the tram

When the location of this hash became apparent, we all knew it had to be done.

Originally, I was thinking I'd have to make a sneaky trip in the evening. But our mooted trip to the micro-trains in the morning fell through due to lack of enthusiasm for a long car trip that baby Gretel seems to believe involves existential suffering.

So the fall-back alternative of tramming to a hash by the river on a nice day won out.

At the appropriate Gretel-waking up and post-feeding time, we got the pram and walked to the tram stop via a 7/11 coffee on Melville Rd. Just missing the non-pram-accessible tram we instead caught an accessible one, although the lack of accessible stop near our place meant there was still a bit of a step to get up to it.

Gretel was cool and chill during the tram ride - she seems to enjoy them. Through the city, we got off at Flinders St, under the rail bridge opposite Crown. The sun was out and the walk along the Yarra River was very nice. I think this was Gretel's first view of the river (she's crossed it four times by car).

When we got to Birrarung Marr, we could see Lachie and Cam on the map just ahead of us but it took us a while to reach the hash via an extremely long switchback up a ramped pedestrian bridge. It was interesting to see this part of the park, where we rarely go.

Soon the clump of trees of the hash was visible. I piloted the pram into the bush, looking out for others. Pretty soon a couple of bikes appeared through the foliage. Cam, Lachie and Ed followed and we greeted them at the hash point.

I off-roaded the pram trying to get to a sub-one-metre reading on the hash app, which took longer than it should. Ed gave me back the fermenter tap he'd borrowed from me and also gave me a beer - a canned Dainton NEIPA. Nice!

After a few chats and bants it was time to go. Gretel was starting to tire of being awake in the pram and the conditions weren't right for her to fall asleep. We walked back via Fed Square's miniature cobblestones, which were perfect for Gretel sleeps, and Lord of the Fries burgers. The same tram route took us home.

An excellent hash for Gretel's #2.

• 

  On the tram

• 

  It's a tap!

• 

  Hashcrew

• 

  GPS proof

• 

  Finding the hash

• 

  Walk through Fed Square

Expedition 4 (John and Bridget)

20% Rye Sourdough

John and Bridget at hash

We had things to do in the morning, bread baking in my (John's) case, and gardening in Bridget's, so we weren't able to get to the earlier meet up. After lunch, (naturally consisting of sandwiches with the freshly baked bread), we set off to the geohash. Unfortunately, the skies weren't quite as sunny as they had been, but that wasn't going to stop us.

We rode down to the Maribyrnong and thereupon rode along it, seeing a pair of swans on the way. The path was busy, so it was a relief to cross at the stock bridge, and use the path on the quieter side. We then went up Dynon road, up a section of the Moonee Ponds Creek then across docklands. Once we reached the Yarra it was very busy. We weaved in and out of pedestrians, crossing firstly to the Southbank side, then back again using the former railway bridge to St Kilda and Port Melbourne. As we passed Flinders St station (whose ballroom we had visited two nights before), the crowds took on a distinctly footbally character.

We reached the vicinity, and carried our bikes up some stairs, not having the patience for the very long switchback described above by Felix. We approached the hash from the NW edge of the patch of vegetation and got there without difficulty. After doing our geohashing duties at the point, we started off. We saw a man in a Melbourne Demons jumper seemingly heading in towards us, but I don't think he was geohashing, we suspect he mainly wanted to relieve himself in the bushes. We must have given him quite a shock as we emerged from the shrubbery.

We then took a more direct route home across the city, wanting to beat the rain that was promised (and would be delivered, as Steve found out) by the gloominess that had settled in by this point. The highlight? of the ride across the city, was a man who wandered out across the road in front of us while we had a green light, and who, once my increasingly exasperated "Excuse me"s had filtered through into his cranium, responded with a pleasant "Shut up, dickhead!". Not wanting to let him have the last word, but also lacking a great comeback of my own in the heat of the moment, I could only turn his salvo back against him, and gave him a "You shut up dickhead!".

In the aftermath, Bridget sagely counselled me that perhaps I needn't have engaged, but what was done was done. We continued homewards, and safely arrived before any hydrometeors had had the opportunity of battering us.

Expedition 5 (KT)

It was Dangermum's birthday! Happy Birthday, Dangermum. She's now 69, which is objectively funny. We had plans to see one of those orchestra-movie things where they play the movie but then there's also an orchestra who plays the soundtrack. Fun! I was planning a sneaky grab of the hash on my way to meet the Dangerfolk in the city, but plans changed and they decided to meet me in Fitzroy instead. They were also late, so we didn't have time to hash on the way there. But it was negotiated we'd grab it together on the way home.

So we trammed into the city, patiently sat through Princess Bride accompanied by part of the MSO, and then – finally – the real fun could begin.

We walked towards Birrarung Marr along Southbank. The clear sky from earlier was now threatening rain, but we persisted. It was a relaxed Sunday arvo vibe along Southbank. That's a joke. Southbank was – as usual – a hectic wall of people, and progress was slow. I was getting antsy we wouldn't make it to the hash before the rain broke. Mum couldn't decide if she felt like birthday ice cream or not, and insisted on stopping longingly outside each place before deciding she didn't want any.

Soon we broke free of the crowd as we passed Flinders Street and made a pleasant journey up the little hill to Birrarung Marr.

Cuties

I told the Dangerfolk we would have to go into a patch of nearby bushes for the hash. They didn't seem to mind. Then we got closer to the bushes and it was clear we'd have an obstacle.

There were four other people in the bushes, not far from the hash at all. It didn't appear they were there for the hash. It did appear they were there to call each other "fucking cunts" and threaten to beat the "fucking shit" out of each other. At one stage one of them actually started punching on someone else. The two friends pulled them apart with much colourful language.

They were fewer than 5 metres from the hashpoint, but their energy radiated far and wide.

I, undeterred, marched into the bushes.

The Dangerfolk did not.

To be fair, I did think there was a 50/50 chance the aggressive bush-dwellers might direct some of their bad-time energy onto me. But also, I was less than three metres from the point and it was worth the risk.

I tried to explain to Dangermum that it's important that she accompanies me because it's her birthday and then she'll win whatever that award is for hashing on your birthday.

Dangermum, sadly, would not budge on the issue, citing concerns of personal safety. She's close to a demotion to Regularmum.

So I went on ahead, did the awkward GPS shuffle until I got my win, took the required selfie, and headed the few metres back to where the Dangerfolk were waiting on the footpath. The bush-dwellers did not verbally acknowledge my existence, which I was grateful for. They did, however, eyeball me suspiciously when I took my selfie.

We decided to walk back to Fitzroy, and at the entrance of Treasury Gardens Dangermum found a big stick. She was really impressed by it. She spoke about it the rest of the way home. Later that evening she messaged me to say she missed the big stick.

So one of us, at least, got the hash. Dangermum bonded with a stick. And I did not get punched. Success!

• 

  The look of someone trying not to disturb the volatile people in the bushes

• 

  Dangermum and her new best friend

• 

  The fun was endless

Expedition 6 (Steve)

"Only Steve could make a geohash in a public park within a km of the city epic..." (Tom Z)

I was pretty excited about this amazing location - central Melbourne, yet in one of the extremely rare patches of quasi bushland. I hatched a variety of plans, but a hangover from Lachie's party the night before, and other plans meant I couldn't get there until early evening. I was a bit bummed to miss the big gathering.

Riding from Kensington, I tried to remember if it was possible to ride on the north side of the Yarra all the way from Harbour Esplanade. Turns out yes, but...it's a journey. It's almost like the people who built this area just never really thought about it. One minute it's pedestrian walkway, then you're dodging cafe tables, then it's a derelict bit of warehouse land, now you're suddenly on astroturf. Quite weird.

The day's beautiful weather gradually gave way to a very light drizzle. Dressed in street clothes, I wasn't keen to get wet but the rain was so light, and kept stopping altogether. And my extremely overloaded pannier (I'd just found a salad spinner in hard rubbish) was difficult to extract my poncho from comfortably. I pushed on.

I wangled through pedestrians next to Flinders St Station and passed under St Kilda Rd. From the number of footy scarves heading my direction, I concluded a footy match had just concluded. Either Richmond had had a bad day out, or its fans are just a miserable bunch.

The wind picking up, and the rain getting slightly heavier, I turned my attention to trying to untangle the maze of overlapping pedestrian bridges in Birrarung Marr in my head. The best approach seemed to involve a long detour to my right, to then u-turn onto a bridge taking me close to the point.

It was definitely properly raining by the time I found the micro-bushland. I wasn't keen to get off and faff with a poncho, so tried to stay on the bike as long as possible. To my joy, there were enough gaps in the bush to ride all the way to the point. But just metres from the point, the weather suddenly opened up completely and BLAM rain and wind. In the confusion of checking whether I was at the point, getting off the bike, and getting the poncho out and installed correctly in the wind, I became extremely wet, in what seemed just a few moments.

Still, I was having a good time.

Station pizza. Pretty good!

I was very hungry though, so made another pass through all the football pedestrians to get to Flinders St Station for some hot takeaway. They looked somehow less miserable this time, despite their ongoing bedraggling.

As I was buying a slice of pizza, a man loitering nearby asked me to buy one for him, without offering a reason. I declined, whereupon he told me some interesting facts about my mother I wasn't aware of.

Then I discovered that my D-lock, which had been strapped to the front rack, had become missing. Probably lost at the geohash, in the confusion.

A small amount of public transport chaos later, and I was home and dry.

Epilogue / retrohash / Expedition 7 (Steve/KT)

Steve and KT went back the following day to try to find Steve's D-lock.

• 

  Success!

• 

  Still dark, but not so rainy.

• 

  GPS proof

Achievements

Felix, Ruth and Gretel earned the Public transport geohash achievement by reaching the (-37, 144) geohash on 2023-07-30 via tram route 58.