2015-09-30 52 0

Wed 30 Sep 2015 in Cambridge, UK: 52.3897156, 0.2828186 geohashing.info google osm bing/os kml crox

Location

In a field just outside Ely.

Participants

• Benjw is certainly considering going.
• Two of the Tongs went along for a morning geohash.

Plans

Car is boring and bike is a bit scary up the A10, so the number 9 bus from Cambridge to Ely looks promising. This would leave about a 2km walk to the hashpoint. Looks like this is best approached from the west; there's a very large drainage ditch around the other four sides of the field. The exact time of any expedition will depend on work; setting off between 1:30 and 3:00 is most likely.

Tongs

We are taking the 10:35 Great Northern train from Cambridge to Ely, heading off to the hashpoint, looking around town, having lunch, and returning to Cambridge for 2pm at the latest. Tongs (talk) 14:55, 29 September 2015 (EDT)

Expedition

Expedition one (Tongs)

We headed up to Ely station on the 10:35 train and, having poor phone reception, followed the arrow on the GPS. The field was just over 1km away, so it seemed like a good idea. We wandered down Stutney Causeway (A142) for a few minutes before turning into a drove. The road wasn't very pretty and was carrying lorries, but the hashpoint wasn't far. We incorrectly identified the field that the hashpoint was in, and began following the tracks made in it (thereby causing no damage to any crops), guessing that the point would be in the middle of the field. We kept walking and talking and the field ran out with 100m to go, so it was time to head for the next one along. This gave us our first real reason to jump a drainage ditch. M decided we should investigate further along in case access was easier, but a few minutes later we decided to jump the ditch. We were in a field ploughed with straw - this must be right.

We got to the hashpoint at around 11:45 and had just under two hours to kill. We headed back to the road by the access that we should have taken. The road was still really boring. M noticed that we could climb up on top of the embankment, giving pleasant views of the river and being a bit safer too. We followed the embankment away from the railway station, knowing we really needed to be on the other side of the river. We were fortunate to find a footbridge a few hundred meters later, and followed a little path through an industrial zone and through to the river, alongside which cows were grazing and people were walking.

We walked along the quayside admiring the water-bicycles and the waterfowl, and stopped in the Peacock's Tea Room for a cup of tea. Although it seemed like it would serve the best tea for miles, once seated we noticed how short we were on time and apologised and left, only to come back for some drinks to take away. We walked along the quayside, drinking them, until we arrived back at the train station, and back to Cambridge. A really pleasant day out in the sunshine.