2024-06-24 -37 144

Mon 24 Jun 2024 in -37,144: -37.7658151, 144.9431176 geohashing.info google osm bing/os kml crox

Left to right: Felix, Mitch, Liam, Steve, Patrick, Emma, Jude, EB, Lachie, John, Aimee, Vanessa, Lobster. Not pictured: Ruth, Gretel, KT, BarbaraTables, Wizdude, Ed.

Location

At a 7-Eleven in Brunswick West

Participants

17 people and 1 dog made it to the hash in total. 12 people and 1 dog were there simultaneously for the main meetup.

Expedition 1:

• Felix Dance
• Ruth
• Gretel

Expedition 2:

• KT

Expedition 3:

• BarbaraTables
• Wizdude

Expedition 4:

• John

Expedition 5:

• Jude

Expedition 6:

• Patrick
• Vanessa + Lobster (dog)
• Emma

Expedition 7:

• Aimee

Expedition 8:

• Felix again

Expedition 9:

• Lachie

Expedition 10:

• Stevage
• EB

Expedition 11:

• Mitch
• Liam

Expedition 12:

• EdBordin

Expedition 1 (Felix, Ruth and Gretel)

I've been trying to get my 1 year old daughter Gretel to as many hashes as possible, and no candidate could be better than this one. Similar to recent very convenient hashes: 2024-06-14 -37 145 and 2024-06-18 -37 144 (breaking a recent drought), this was accessible from the road and easy to get to.

So of course, I'm hoping a bunch of the Melbourne geohashing community will join me this afternoon at the hash. But having a family geohash would be best for the morning. So we all got ready, with Gretel going in the pram for childcare and Ruth walking her to 7/11 before work. I followed on my bike and we all met at the coffee machine. From there, we made the arduous journey to the cashier, outside the building and to the corning where the hash was located. I took a screen shot of a sub-1m distance (I missed a 200mm proximity), planted Gretel right where that was, and took some photos. Some of these are below.

I continued on my bike to work in the city and wrote up this report.

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  GPS Proof

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  G at the hash

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  Family geo-portrait

Ruth earned the Walk geohash Achievement by reaching the (-37, 144) geohash on 2024-06-24 on foot, travelling a distance of 350m.

Felix Dance earned the Bicycle geohash achievement by cycling 350m to the (-37, 144) geohash on 2024-06-24.

Expedition 3 (BarbaraTables and Wizdude)

This was yet another instance where after finishing university, I (BarbaraTables) took public transport to meet my father (Wizdude) there, who had driven there after work to wait for me. We both drove home afterwards.

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  Hash proof

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  Hash selfie

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  GeoSquishy proof

Achievements

BarbaraTables and Wizdude earned the First Sip GeoSquishy Achievement by enjoying a slushy carbonated beverage at the (-37, 144) geohash on 2024-06-24.

BarbaraTables and Wizdude earned the 5 Star GeoSquishy Achievement by earning 5 stars all at the (-37, 144) geohash on 2024-06-24.

BarbaraTables and Wizdude earned the Land geohash achievement by reaching the (-37, 144) geohash on 2024-06-24.

BarbaraTables earned the Public transport geohash achievement by reaching the (-37, 144) geohash on 2024-06-24 using public transit.

Wizdude earned the Two to the N achievement by reaching 23 hashpoints on 2024-06-24 -37 144 and is promoted to Level 3 (Coordinates reached).

Expedition 4 (John)

There was much discussion of this exciting hash on Saturday morning at my and Lachie's band's gig. 7:11pm at the 7-11 sounded like a great plan to me.

Monday rolled around, and I invited my friend Matt along (from our first ever geohash in 2008), who, last I knew, lived in Brunswick, but he was busy writing reports and also didn't live in Brunswick anymore as it turns out. Hopefully I can get him to a hash again soon.

The day turned to evening, and soon I thought I was running late. I rushed out the door, got on my bike and I was swiftly on the road. I was not as late as I thought I was. I got there 10 minutes early, and I was even the first to arrive. Jude arrived very soon after, followed by Felix, and then the crowd just kept building! Soon we had a dozen! I joined in the slurpy fun, and then we headed back to Felix's for fire, food and frivolity (and beer and sherry, but they don't start with F). A highlight was the ringtail possum that came to visit as we sat around.

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Johnwrw earned the Bicycle geohash achievement by cycling 16.64km to and from the (-37, 144) geohash on 2024-07-02.

John earned the 5 Star GeoSquishy Achievement by earning 5 stars all at the (-37, 144) geohash on 2024-06-24.

Expedition 6 (Patrick, Vanessa and Lobster)

The geohashing gods have smiled on us: two Brunswick geohashes in as many weeks. This looked set to be another easy hash, so a perfect opportunity to blood some new hashers, and also convince my sister (who wussed out at the last minute on last week’s Brunswick hash) to come for her first hash.

Obviously I had work during the day and I am very lazy so couldn’t do a morning attempt, but that suited me just fine. The plan for 7.11pm and the Seven Eleven convenience store seemed sensible. I went to work, and sneakily arranged for my 6.30pm meeting to be moved to 5.30pm (“one of the participants is in the U.S.A. on Mountain time, so anything to make that earlier...”).

Soon I was off. I met Emma at an intersection between our houses, and walked to my sister’s house. I used sneaky tricks to convince her—I pointed out that she had an obligation to walk her dog, and this was a perfect opportunity. (The dog is called Lobster.)

We set off. At about halfway we remembered that Brunswick West is always further away than you think it will be. But the dog was happy.

Eventually we saw the Seven Eleven in the distance, and also saw people wearing high-viz and futzing around with bikes. These were our fellow geohashers. We arrived safely, just in time for 7.11pm, and waited around to capture a photo with the full group, pictured above.

Vanessa and the dog headed home (don’t want to expose him to too much excitement), while Emma and I went to Felix’s for delicious beers.

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  Myself, Vanessa and Lobster

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  Expedition 5 proof

Achievements

Ladyliberty earned the First Sip GeoSquishy Achievement by enjoying a slushy carbonated beverage at the (-37, 144) geohash on 2024-06-24.

Ladyliberty earned the 5 Star GeoSquishy Achievement by earning 5 stars all at the (-37, 144) geohash on 2024-06-24.

Expedition 8 (Felix again)

Similar to Steve's account in expedition 10 below, I lit the outdoor fire at home in preparation for warming geohashers, took my rechargable slurpee cup, and walked to the hash. I saw Jude and John there already, wandered around a fair bit trying to get a good reading (never as good as my morning attepmt) and waited for the others to arrive. When Aimee was there, I bought us both Slurpees. We took selfies with the crew, and then walked back down the hill to my place for beer, fire, pizza and merriment, which was had by all.

Note: I never crossed Melville Rd. My gpx trace is very inaccurate!

Felix earned the Walk geohash Achievement by reaching the (-37, 144) geohash on 2024-06-24 on foot, travelling a distance of 700m.

Felix earned the First Sip GeoSquishy Achievement by enjoying a slushy carbonated beverage at the (-37, 144) geohash on 2024-06-24.

Expedition 9 (Lachie)

Lachie rode to the hash, met up with everyone and had a Slurpee, then walked to Felix's place and had some beers/pizza/sherry by the fire, then rode home after 9pm. Similar to others here.

Expedition 10 (Steve and EB)

The story really begins on the Saturday two days prior. Lachie's band, the Hypnic Jerks, is performing at CERES, a kind of mini farm/cafe/environmental education center near my house. The band of course drew a large crowd of our friends, including a number of geohashers.

Conversation turns to the forthcoming convenient geohash near Felix's house. We start talking about when to meet, and in a flash of genius I propose 7:11PM at the 7/11. I apply some peer pressure to Felix, who immediately succombs, and suddenly there's going to be beer at his house afterwards.

Over the next few days, excitement brews. By Monday evening we're expecting at least 10 people to meet at the hash. A total change from last Tuesday's hash that featured 9 separate expeditions but no more than 2 hashers at the point at any single time.

6pm Monday and I'm faffing with dinner and getting ready, and then somehow EB and I are running late for the 7:11 rendez-vous. We're on our bikes out the front door, but can't agree on a route, so immediately I turn left, while she turns right to take a nicer route through a park and quiet streets. It's chilly, but not as cold as I feared.

The traffic is light and the ride cruisey. But a glance at the time shows I'm in danger of missing the meet-up point so crank up the pace.

I arrive at the corner of Victoria St and Melville St and...where's the 7/11? Oh! It's another block to my left.

Seconds later, I whoosh in and see a large crowd gathered right where I expect the geohash to be. A moment's panic - oh no, who are all these randoms? This could be awkward!

But no, it's the largest geohashing gathering I've ever attended, and I'm almost late to the party.

I zoom straight to the point and the crowd parts. Belatedly I take notice of a large dog, who I have narrowly missed. But, geohash success!

We mill around merrily. I meet Emma and Vanessa for the first time, and say hi to Felix, Lachie, John, Patrick, Jude and Aimee. We take selfies, and then Liam and Mitch arrive. So we take more selfies. Now EB is here! More selfies!

People are buying slurpies to get the GeoSquishy achievement. Jude and I can't bring ourselves to do it, but I take a sip from Felix's. It's cold and sugary.

I saunter inside the 7/11 to buy a souvenir but there's a real shortage of real food. In desperation I purchase a banana, but at the last minute make it two.

There is general mirth at my pair of bananas. And then Felix is expressing concern that the fire might have burnt down his house in his absence so down the hill we roll. Except for Lobster and Vanessa who have other places to be.

Around the fire, we celebrate with Felix's excellent homebrew, indoctrinating some of our newer members into the geohashing lore and sharing some history.

Felix and Jude wander back up the hill to pick up pizzas and before long we are wondering just how practical it would be to purchase an entire graticule. In general terms, a graticule is on the order of 9,000 square kilometres. The world's largest cattle station, Anna Creek Station, is 24,000 square kilometres. I'm not able to work out whether it actually contains any entire graticules, or indeed, how much it would cost to buy.

But if we can get past these obstacles, you'd have to admit: it would be pretty convenient to have a couch potato geohash every single day of the year.

9pm comes, and as promised, or threatened, Felix brings out the water cannons to douse the flames of revelry and hose down idle fantasies, but is unable to drench the geohashing spirit that lives eternally in each of us.

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