2024-01-31 -37 145

Wed 31 Jan 2024 in -37,145: -37.6522777, 145.0207155 geohashing.info google osm bing/os kml crox

Location

In a truck loading bay behind Epping Plaza, in Melbourne's northern suburbs.

Participants

• Stevage
• Cam
• Lachie

Expedition

Prologue

A spirited discussion on the Discord. And in the Google Chat. This point, how reachable is it exactly? Forbidden to pedestrians, yes. But are cyclists pedestrians? That Target customer pickup zone, does that offer some wiggle room to the general prohibition on entry? Please?

Cam has a goal. An ambition. To reach at least one geohash every month during 2024. It's the 31st of January, and he's left it a little bit late to start. But he's keen, and that's the main thing.

Lachie could ride there from work, along the Darebin Creek Trail, but decides to wait for Cam.

And Steve? He's unexpectedly free this evening, plans to catch up with a friend having fallen through.

The gang is formed. After a few minutes admiring the abundant fertility of Cam's front and rear gardens, we are off.

Logue

Lachie leads us northwards up the Upfield, through a secret weird connection to the M80 trail. Depending on how you approach it, it's either off-limits (northwards) or normal bike path (southwards). We're going northwards but are prepared to argue the case.

The M80 Trail is its usual, pragmatic, efficient, noisy self. Cam drops the bombshell that he isn't sure that he has ever properly met Rob, a stalwart of our group. Two members of the group that have both been around a very long time, but somehow have not actually really intersected? Bizarre.

We branch north onto the Edgars Creek Trail, which is new territory for at least two thirds of us. And to be honest, my memories of riding it before are pretty hazy.

But it's lovely to see a lot of the community - especially its elder members - out and about, going for walks, wheeling their walking frames, and enjoying some pretty spectacular sunshine.

The path runs out and we find a version of suburbia where all the gutters have been removed, leaving a kind of moat down the sides of the street. It's amusing to speculate about the few cars we see trapped on the wrong side of the moat. Further north, we are suddenly in the future, where the new gutters have been installed, in its pristine gleaming concreteness.

And then...Epping. Which may one day be lovely. But as I have experienced several times on previous geohashing adventures, it is currently a weird half-suburb, with large tracts of vacant land, awkwardly next to apartment buildings and big box stores. It's depressing. And Epping Plaza, a classic behemoth of a shopping centre, is its depressing epicentre.

We need to skirt our way around it. Suddenly I realise where I am - right next to the hospital where I received my second Covid vaccination. Ah, the memories.

I lead the gang on an awkward and ill-conceived journey through carparks, onto roads and back off them again, up kerbs and onto footpaths until we finally reach our destination.

Whereupon we immediately turn tail and huddle "inconspicuously" to form our plan of attack. We study the imagery to work out precisely where the point is. Cam is in charge of selfies, I'm in charge of screencaps, Lachie is in charge of moral support.

Appropriately charged, we charge in. There is one vehicle doing something not very interesting. We zoom to the painted line that indicates our goal, and I frantically start screencapping. Then I get carried away and start selfie-ing as well, riding in circles around Cam who is also selfie-ing. Then we skedaddle.

Epilogue

Lachie takes the reins again and leads us down the Darebin Creek Trail to the nearest brewery. We're very far north up it, and the journey south seems to take a very long time. The "nearest brewery" is not, in any meaningful way, "near" to the point. The trail is enjoyable, but slightly frustrating in its windy indirectness, and the delay between us and beer and food becomes palpable.

But eventually we arrive at Moondog World. Which is very close to Rob's house, so of course Lachie invites him, and so, amongst inaudible trivia, an extensive and convoluted beer list, and mildly disappointing bar meals, the long awaited meeting finally takes place.

Photos

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Achievements

Stevage earned the Bicycle geohash achievement by cycling 40km to the (-37, 145) geohash on 2024-01-31.