2024-11-25 53 -8

Mon 25 Nov 2024 in 53,-8: 53.7269909, -8.9214530 geohashing.info google osm bing/os kml crox

Location

Field East of Claremorris, Co. Mayo, Ireland.

Participants

• Dan Q
• his mother

Plans

Today we need to drive North up the entire length of the M18 and M17 to get to our next accommodation. If we take only a minor diversion at Tuam we can see how accessible this hashpoint is, on the way!

Expedition

On today's leg of my mother and I's expedition to go hashing around the West coast of Ireland (hampered only by the floods of Storm Bert) we were scheduled to drive a few hours up the country to move from our old accommodation of the last few nights to our new accommodation of the next two. On our way we accidentally drove the wrong way down the M6 for a spell (as you can see on our tracklog) as we intended to visit Athenry for some geocaching, before pushing on to the hashpoint.

We drove past the field with the hashpoint in order to dodge an incoming tractor and to scout out safe parking spaces. Finding a suitable verge, we pulled up and took a look at the pasture with the hashpoint. The gate into it was seriously churned up with mud, so I switched to my wellies and my mother pulled on a pair of waterproof trousers, and we waded out. Once past the gate, it got a lot easier and we were able to quickly find our way to the hashpoint at 13:10.

It was the middle of a muddy field. Not exciting, but a good view of rolling countryside and wind farms. We swiftly made our way back to our car to avoid any questions from passing farmers about what we might be doing hanging our near a piece of mystery agricultural equipment we were near. Then, after changing back into our regular footwear so we didn't bring tonnes of mud into our rental car, made our way down into Claremorris. There, we enjoyed a celebratory carvery lunch, toured a handful of local geocaches, explored a path that Google Maps (only) claims exists - possibly a trap street? - and walked around a lake with lots of scultpures until we discovered that the route we'd planned to take was underwater. At that point, we figured it was time to go check-in to our new AirBnB and returned to our car to set off.

A highly-successful trip.

Photos

• 

  The cache is just 102m into that field, apparently

• 

  It's a bit muddy underfoot

• 

  Zero point: win!

• 

  Silly grins all around

• 

  Victory pose

• 

  Panoramic view of the hashpoint

• 

  A slap-up lunch to celebrate