2013-11-21 51 -0
| Thu 21 Nov 2013 in London West: 51.4167532, -0.3492627 geohashing.info google osm bing/os kml crox |
Location
Bushy Park, close to Hampton Court Palace.
Participants
Plans
Motorcycle to a nearby car park, then straight north through the park. Finally I would lose my hash cherry!
Expedition
I parked my trusted motorcycle Rosalie at a small car park right on the A308, some 1000 metres south of the hashpoint, which was as close as I thought was possible. This was around 7.30pm. As it turns out, one does not simply march straight through a pitch black park. After walking around in circles and alongside stupid walls for a few minutes, I approached a close by building, which turned out to be a Hampton Court House School. I was still wearing my helmet, because I did not want to leave it on the bike, because I am lazy, and mostly because it was fecking cold, but I soon realised that it a beardo (bearded weirdo) sneaking around a school wearing a biker helmet and lighting the ground with a Lego Stormtrooper keyfob might raise suspicion.
I took off the helmet, walked through the school's parking lot and out into the street, in order to re-enter the park proper through the gates leading me to Diana Fountain. The street was far off and the only light was now coming from the stars, the moon, and the odd bicycle in the park. I turned left into a broad, grassy avenue. Now I was all on my own, the stars looked amazing, and I knew that this night would be a success. I kept on turning GPS on my phone on and off to conserve battery power, which was fading quickly.
I turned north again, when the phone told me to, crossed a small bridge and found the open field with the hashpoint. I fell over a few times after I left the footpath, but the feeling of accomplishment when I reached my first hashpoint was more than worth it.
To top it all off, I saw two small groups of deer on my way back into civilisation. All round success!
Photos
Rosalie in the dark
Geohash Droid screenshot
GPS status screenshot
The Moon, I suppose
