2015-10-04 -13 131

Sun 4 Oct 2015 in -13,131: -13.4769097, 131.3807025 geohashing.info google osm bing/os kml crox

Location

In the bush near Hayes Creek, just off the Stuart Highway.

Participants

• Felix Dance
• Alex

Expedition

I was at work on the Saturday morning when I noticed this hash. I've been in Darwin for two years now, and every day I've checked the coordinates for an accessible hash in the remote Batchelor graticule, and especially since the three other Darwin-area graticules had been opened up. So it looked like this was the day.

Getting up after a bit of a messy night in town, I contacted Alex and we both drove out along the Stuart Highway with our bikes. The drive took about an hour and a half, and we stopped on the side of the road, down the embankment, to ride out the approximately 3kms to where the hash was. I was on my road bike and was quite surprised the dry terrain allowed me to ride relatively unimpeded.

On the way, we encountered kangaroos, a herd of buffalo (luckily running away from us), and even a bizarre willy willy - a miniature tornado that rolled across the landscape just in front of us, opaque with black dust.

With a bit of dancing around we at last reached the coordinates. The hash seemed to be in an old, dry swamp. Taking a few photos, we rode back to the car and drove to Adelaide River on the way back to Darwin. Here we had a pub lunch and beers, and decided to use the rest of the afternoon riding out to Robin Falls along a narrow sealed track about 15kms away. We had a brief swim, rode back, and headed home, just in time for Alex to get to beach volleyball.

We rode 6.6kms and reached the hash at 11:45am.

Here is the route of our trip.

Photos

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  Alex riding to the hash

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  Bikes collected at the hash

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  Felix and Alex at the hash

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  GPS Phone app proof

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  Adelaide River celebratory beer

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  Alex riding to Robyn Falls