2009-08-01 -37 145

Sat 1 Aug 2009 in -37,145: -37.8330528, 145.1372207 geohashing.info google osm bing/os kml crox

The Place

In a property just off Middleborough Road, Blackburn South.

Who went

Felix Dance

The Multi Fail:

I'd known about this geohash since the previous night and was fairly tempted by it. Unfortunately I was pretty busy that day so I'd virtually ruled it out. After a morning consumed with my work on a freeway construction site, at 2pm I left to go to the city for a Melbourne International Film Festival film, then off to Keysborough for an Indian classical music concert of my workmate's (to which I travelled by bike-train). The final two activities were my boss's 30th birthday party in Wheeler's Hill and a house party in Brunswick. Now it turns out that the geohash is sort of almost on the way between those two places, but I had assumed that there was no way I could get there before midnight (I was still on my bike). As it happened, I got a message at the party from my friend Sasha telling me that she'd made a go at the hash point, so that gave me a real incentive to try for it myself. At about 11pm several guests started to leave the 30th and I found that it could be socially acceptable for me to do so as well. I jumped on my bike outside the pub at about 20 past 11 and raced north west through the rain towards Blackburn South, checking my printed (and increasingly soggy) Google Maps along the way.

After zigzagging through the streets of the eastern suburbs I finally came to the area where I remembered the geohash was located, with a good three minutes to spare before midnight. I stopped to get out my GPS and turn it on (just enough battery left) - but lo! I could not find the post-it note on which I'd written the coordinates (it turned out they were in my other jeans, typically). "Oh well" I thought, "The point looked like it was in someone's house anyway, at least I have the Google Maps sheet to tell me where it is". But alas! The sheets were no longer in my pocket. My jeans had ejected them, as they had on previous occasions a TravelSmart map of Melbourne and separately an Astor Calendar of upcoming films - curse my paper-shedding pants! I tried to remember the street name but even before I'd scanned my memory I realised that it was already after midnight. That's failure on four points. With great sadness I remounted my bike and rode through the north eastern suburbs to Brunswick where I feigned good cheer in the face of failure.

Here is a map of my route that evening.