2019-05-11 43 1

Sat 11 May 2019 in 43,1: 43.6945594, 1.6311787 geohashing.info google osm bing/os kml crox

Location

In the commune of Montpitol, in the Haute-Garonne department, located on a strip of grassland between two crop fields, not far from the roadside.

Participants

Epingchris

Plans

Since it's not too far from Toulouse, the plan was to get there on bike, completing Tron achievement and bicycle achievement in one go.

Expedition

The bicycle lane is mostly continuous all until L'Union, but starting from Saint-Jean it's a lot less well developed. The wind was capricious on this day and changed directions all the time, plus up till Castelmaurou the ride was uphill, which is not what I've been accustomed to do anymore since quite a while. Still, after Castelmaurou I entered the true countryside with considerably less cars and a downhill section which helped a lot.

When I got to the field: because of the Tron achievement I didn't want to leave my bike at the roadside so that I'd have to go back to the same spot to retrieve the bike, so I dragged my bike into the high grass - not a very . At one moment I almost lost my phone in the grass, and then there was a brief moment signal lost. In the end I turned around in circles for a bit to find the right spot, more or less invalidating the Tron achievement claim, but at least ultimately I found the hashpoint. I made a quick photo, crossed the small but deep stream that separated the two fields without getting myself or my bike wet, and exited the field through another strip of grassland without attracting attention or damaging the crop (if I lay low in the high grass, literally no one could see me from the roadside anyway: a car approached when I was out of the field, but luckily it didn't stop to raise any questions.)

The way back was more strenuous because now both the hilly terrain and the wind worked against my favor, especially before reaching Beaupuy: as its name suggests ("beau" beautiful + "puy" mountain), the village is located on top of a hill. I managed to get home, amidst stressful traffic from Montrabé to Balma, with only a minor cramp once I already arrived in Toulouse.