2012-09-08 -37 144

Sat 8 Sep 2012 in -37,144: -37.8080342, 144.5599756 geohashing.info google osm bing/os kml crox

Location

In a field south of Melton in Melbourne's West.

Who went

• Felix Dance

Expedition

Felix Dance

Well, now working in the mines in Central Australia, I get 6 days off every fortnight to muck around doing fun stuff I don't usually get a chance to do with only one day off a week. Sadly, I hadn't seen much in the way of good geohashes coming my way in the last couple of months.

However, on day three of a three-day solo cycle tour outside Melbourne's west, up to Mt Macedon to camp, then across to Ballarat and back in, I discovered a semi-achievable hash in a field. Since I'd spent the first two days wrecking my knees in battling against the headwind, this third day I decided to just let the wind decide where I'd be going. To this end I rocketed straight towards the hash south of Melton.

Within 10kms of the hash, I turned off a reasonably main highway onto a small sealed single-lane road. This then became a dirt track, then a pot-holed mud-fest, then a deep grassy strip between two-fields. The VicRoads Country Directory had lied to me - this was not a road. Still, with the awesome tail-wind behind me I was basically pushed through the muddy grasslands at a good speed, knowing that back-tracking would be impossible. I saw the highway veer off into the distance to my right.

After hurling my bike over a few locked gates I approached to within a couple of Ks. Here I discovered a newly built housing estate, still mostly unoccupied, which I used to travel the last section to the hash. Finally, a track I was riding on got to within 800m of the hash, so I ditched bike and legged it, took some photos of the desolate wasteland, and headed back to bike.

Riding out via the housing estate, I realised that this is possibly the most cul-de-sac-ed area I've ever seen. It took me about half an hour to get to the Melton train station, and another hour waiting and training home. A great geohashed end to a crazy cycle tour.

Here is the Google Maps route I took.

Hash reached: 6:10pm

Photos

• 

  GPS Proof

• 

  Felix at the hash

• 

  West view

• 

  Hashbike

Achievement

Felix Dance earned the Bicycle geohash achievement by cycling 113kms to the (-37, 144) geohash on 2012-09-08.