2012-07-27 52 4

Location

Haarlemmermeer, in a field about 50m from the road just next to a small ditch (may have to jump it).
Looks a possible, trespassing? Just act if you belong! Always works ;-)

Participants

Palmpje may be there... depends a bit on work (can I take the afternoon off?) and beach weather (should I improve the all-over tan?)

Murfie has also plans. Probably go there around noon.

Plans

Drive out there and see if I can get to the hashpoint. Remember to program GPSr with coordinates, select hashcot!

Expedition

Palmpje

I decided for lunch on the beach. Then bicycled back home and got the geohashing/caching gear and drove to the hashpoint. Had to be careful as the map shows intersections, but sometimes one road just crosses the other as a bridge with no way to take a turn. When I got there I quickly lost hope to reach the hashpoint. Fields were planted right to the edge and the ditch was not really wide but had really steep sides. Also, I was only wearing a pair of slippers on my feet (almost did the hobbit thing but a wheatfield is not the place to walk barefoot). Got to 9m from the cache and glad I came. As a consolation I decided to hunt for two geocaches nearby. Addition: Yes I did two of the 'Binocles' geocaches. But I did not reach the hashpoint... and I suppose they are too far away for a hash collision achievement.

Murfie

I decided to have a nice long walk through the area, because the weather was great and the distance acceptable. After a few km, I was sweating like a pig, because it was noon and the temperature was tropical. So I decided it was time to walk into the direction of the geohash and see if I could reach it. The street it's located at is called 'ijweg', which is a village road that spans around 13 km, or 8 miles, majestically. On my route, I found a few 'Binocles', which are sort of monuments placed in the landscape, where you can sit in and enjoy the view. There are 10 of these 'Binocles' and they are also referred in a few geocaches around (like GC2MB4X). I didn't take the effort to obtain a hash collision achievement, but hope Palmpje did. Coincidentally, you would be able see the spot of the geohash from one of the Binocles (if they were real), since it points straight into that direction.

Also, I saw the 'Calatravabruggen' ('Calatrava bridges') in the distance. Those are a bit controversial because their high costs and maintenance. The architect is very famous though and I can't say I don't like them.

The geohash itself was located in the middle of nowhere in a wheat field. There was a road almost leading up to it, which beared a 'no trespassing' sign on it. But the nearby wheat field didn't have this sign, so I concluded this sign was only meant for that road and I walked through the field. I could easily reach the hash to about 4m, and then there was a ditch (too broad to just jump over). I hesistated for a moment but then decided to cross the ditch. There, my GPS went wild telling I was in like <1m radius. With a grin on my face, I took a picture of my feet at the geohash and returned the hot walk home. Luckily there was a garden centre ('Groenrijk') nearby where I went for a well-earned cold beverage.