2014-05-21 49 10

Wed 21 May 2014 in 49,10: 49.3687540, 10.8289638 geohashing.info google osm bing/os kml crox

Location

A wood near Raitersaich

Participants

• Schnatterfleck

Expedition

I always wanted to go hunt some hash points. But using the web based tools was always too complicated. But this week I discovered the geohashing app in the Android store - and it works perfectly! :-)

And on this really, really nice day (warm and sunny), it showed me a coordinate that was:

- just within reach for me during the 3 or four hours I had to spare (I am nearly always going by bike...)

- apparently located only a few meters from a road near an open field

- situated in a really nice rural landscape.

So off I went, leaving work a little early and setting the hash point as a target in my brand new routing software (OSMAnd).

I knew that routing for bicycles is a magnitude harder than car routing. That combined with the remaining inconsistencies of OSM map material (although that is rather good around Nuremberg) lead to a rather... interesting... route that I was led. I got the impression that the routing algorithm itself sometimes used some kind of geohashing-like algorithms.

Additionally it didn't help that OSMAnd's UI is rather car-centric.

All this led to a lot of this kind of situation:

OSMAnd: Turn right!

Me: But there is no road.

OSMAnd: Yes there is!

Me: No, there isn't!

OSMAnd: Believe me, there is! Look at my map!

Me: YOU believe ME, in reality there is no road!

OSMAnd: Ok, here is your choice: Either you believe there to be a road and take it, or track your way back for the last two or three kilometres and try something different on your own...

Me: *Gnaaarg*

So going to the hashpoint was really, really fun. A great adventure that I am still thinking about with a silly smile on my face :)

The hashpoint itself was rather unspectacular.

And very nearly it was a Déjà Vu Geohash, as it lay just a view hundred meters from the riding stable were we sometimes rent a pony for a little tour with our young niece.

Photos

• 

  The hashpoint as located by my GPS - surprisingly nice area! Schnatterfleck @49.3688,10.8290

• 

  Aeaeah... Routing app?... You're kidding, right...?? @49.4128,10.9025

• 

  Really steep (more than it looks on the picture)... but also part of the calculated route. Fallback to pushing the bike (at least not carrying yet...) @49.4124,10.9034

• 

  THIS is how I like it :) - But the near dead-end already lurked at the bottom of the little valley.... @49.4095,10.8950

• 

  Mission accomplished! @49.3687,10.8288

• 

  Not very far from the hash point. And I actually know those horses. @49.3699,10.8357

• 

  I was actually routed right through the middle of a golf course! @49.3781,10.9775

Achievements

• Land geohash
• Bike geohash