2016-05-31 52 -3
| Tue 31 May 2016 in 52,-3: 52.1324343, -3.6929796 geohashing.info google osm bing/os kml crox |
Location
Rhwng ac i'r gorllewin o Llanwrtyd ac Abergwesyn, Powys, Cymru.
Participants
Plans
Set out as early as possible from friends in Colwyn Bay and head for mid Wales.
Expedition
Here is the short version.
I've washed off the dried blood, emptied my pockets of twigs and pine park fragments and showered the resinous detritus out of my hair. This was a long expedition. Road access to mid Wales is not great and the country is bigger than you might think. Setting out at 10:50 in beautiful sunshine, it took until 15:00 to reach the parking place. The outward walk in hazy sun and a stiff breeze took 1 hour 40 minutes. The return was the same but there was a good pause for sandwiches and a drink. The total distance walked was 9.1 km. The entire track log was 682 km. I got home well after midnight.
Now for the detail. Track Log
After a four hour drive, a 4.5 km walk and a 340 metre climb there was no way this point could not be reached. It was located in a dense commercial pine plantation.
The stupidity distance!
Baby pines are soft, like fur coats in Narnia. Mature pines stand like pillars in a cathedral and the low branches have all fallen, leaving wide aisles. Of course I got middle age pines with a mesh of intertwined branches. A few were still soft. Some were brittle and snapped easily. The rest would have made good whips for small boys in a Dickensian novel. Masochism is not a normal aspect of my character so this was a new experience. It worked best to squeeze the head forward between the branches and allow the stabbing snaps and whiplash spring-backs to damage the rest of the body. To add interest the ground underfoot was soft and spongy, consisting mainly of very deep sphagnum moss. Luckily it was dry apart from occasional trick pools. So slightly bloodied, after 250 metres of pain, I reached the hashpoint, got a photo and failed to get 3G access. Later I discovered it was turned off in the phone. The return was slightly easier following the trail of snapped twigs and mossy footprints.
This was interesting terrain. There were peat crevasses of unknown depth. Small streams had made gorges in the peat. These were narrow, unstable and had near vertical sides. Some were covered with branches and leaves making traps for animals or geohashers. To be swallowed by a peat crevasse followed by a wet land collapse would be an interesting way to meet ones doom. You'd be found three thousand years later, well preserved, with a Crox poster!
Photos
Arrived. @52.1342,-3.6846
Entire Journey
Near the Hashpoint
Stupidity Distance
Altitude
Irfon
Tiny waterfall
Bilingual sign
View of Mid Wales
Forestry track
View of Mid Wales
Storm damage
Peat crevasse
Peat crevasse
Storm damage
Stupidity terrain
Blood and flowers
Blood
Selfie
Forestry track
Irfon
Irfon
Irfon
Irfon
Bo pool car park
Welsh language
Welsh dragon
Irfon
Irfon
Forestry Commission Wales
Achievements
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Sourcerer achieved level 3 of the Minesweeper Geohash achievement
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Sourcerer achieved level 4 of the Minesweeper Geohash achievement
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Sourcerer achieved level 6 of the Minesweeper Geohash achievement
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Sourcerer achieved level 6 of the Minesweeper Geohash achievement
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Sourcerer earned the OpenStreetMap achievement
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Expeditions and Plans
| 2016-05-31 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Los Angeles, California | McKay | Just off the road, just off the beach in Malibu. |
| Mid Wales, United Kingdom | Sourcerer | Rhwng ac i'r gorllewin o Llanwrtyd ac Abergwesyn, Powys, Cymru. |
Sourcerer's Expedition Links
2016-05-23 52 1 - 2016-05-31 52 -3 - 2016-06-01 52 1 - KML file download of Sourcerer's expeditions for use with Google Earth.
