2008-08-25 52 6

People

Arvid and his recumbent

Achievements

Arvid did a Multihash by bicycle, one hash in the Netherlands, one in Germany. He failed the Pub Geohash since the pub looked closed, and also didn't speak to police officers, while they were nearby, failing the Police Geohash.

Expedition

I actually planned on making a new longest cycle hash on saturday, but the weather kept me from doing that. I planned on doing around 180-185km. But the enormous amount of rain in North-west Germany moving slowly my way wasn't my idea of a nice day cycling. It didn't rain hard. But it did rain for hours. Around 9pm the weather was ok again, so I wanted to do the closest hash anyway. And then I found out the chain of my bike was so dirty, it had trouble going round(probably due to all the rain at 2008-08-20 52 7. Of course, I find this out on a saturday evening. So there go my weekend hashes.

Also, most cycle shops are closed on mondays. Luckily, Halfords opens at 11am on mondays, so I went there as soon as possible. Around 14:00 I was completely set up to go to at least the hash in my own graticule, but maybe even the one in 52 7 too. I actually might have tried something like that already on sunday, but Robyn beat me at that. Great minds think alike, apparently, since I already thought of this after seeing the hashpoints for the weekend.

So, 14:00 go! I had headwind on the way to the first hash, as expected, but that's ok, I rather have headwind at the beginning of a trip than at the end when I'm already tired. Everything went fairly smooth and around 15:25 I arrived at the hashpoint in Beltrum. It was on the sidewalk next to a bride-dress-shop. On the other side of the road there was a pub, but it didn't look very open. For a moment I feared the hash was in the bride-dress-shop, but luckily it wasn't. "Hello, my fiancee told me the coordinates of the dress she wants." Right.

Now what? It's around 15:30, straight to the other hashpoint is probably around 75-80kms(straight line is 68.5km, but I can't fly). That is at least 3 hours. Will I? I think of a place where I should be around 18:00 if I want to get to the hash, and I'm off. First thing my eye falls on while going is a thermometer, still in Beltrum. I forgot mine! It's not very cold, so it would be useless anyway, but I make a picture of it.

I went on and for some reason in east-west direction, Vreden is a nice town to cross. At the outskirts, where you are allowed to go 30km/h, I am tailgating an Audi. C'mon! You're only doing 25km/h, go faster! It probably doesn't help that yesterday I have seen the Top Gear race crossing London, with Richard Hammond on a bike cursing everything together, but winning over a car, public transport and a boat.

After Vreden the adventure started. There are no logical routes in east-west direction, so my route mainly consists of "Wirkschaftswege". Stuff for tractors really, although the first non-paved road was very nice.

At 17:30 I didn't remember exactly where I wanted to be at 18:00. I think between Rosendahl and Darfeld. I was good on schedule for that. At 18:05 I entered Rosendahl. There were hills that slowed me down around there. I went 50+km/h downhill. At that point I decided I was going for it. Around 19:10 I was at the spot where I wanted to park my bike. At the most nearby crossroad some biker had fallen or something. He was walking, his KTM bike was lying on an ADAC truck. And there were police officers, one taking pictures. So I stopped 100m further, were there was no tree to park my bike.... hmmm. I kinda put it in the ditch. The hash was in some woods-like part between farms, they have that so wildlife has a place to stay/run to, so there might be Raptors. Luckily I brought long pants! But it were tights. And the blackberries had stings. Well, it was better than short pants. The hash itself was a bit boring, but just next to it was a little lake. I had seen in on the airplane-pics from google, and thought it might be a private swimming pool or so. It wasn't, it was better. So I made pics, and around 19:40 it was time to go home again.

Argh! I'm going west! At dawn! I didn't see a damn thing at the start. It got better when the sun was down. The way home went quite well. Around 22:00 I was back again. Realizing I hadn't taken a picture of myself, so I did.

Cycle stats: to Hash1: 31.5km, hash2: 111.0km, home again: 168.4km. My average speed was very stable, At the end of the day it was 25.22km/h. I think it was just below 26km/h at the first hashpoint. These are, of course, moving averages. All the time I stopped to pee, or for other stuff is not in that average.

Hahah, cyclists go walk. NO WAY!
Bike parking spot very close to hashpoint no1
The pub/partycentre on the north side of the road.
The bride-dress-shop at the south side of the road.
Success!
View to the west
Not cold.
Awesome artwork, somewhere in a field next to the road.
Entering Deutschland.
Tailgating an Audi.
Famous German quality road.
What is this gate doing here?
More offroading. Picture quality also influenced by that.
Police cars, officers, ADAC truck.
That's my entrance to hashpoint no2.
Bike parking.
Raptors in plant-disguise.
Awesome!!!
Water lilies.
Well, I'm in some woods. This will do.
Blair witch project copy
Still same. But thats the view from the hashpoint.
Back to the bike. Jump!
I can't really see where I'm going.
Slight improvement.
Good! Not so nice sunset though.
Entering die Niederlände again. It is really dark now
Very stupidly grinning geohasher.


Mon 25 Aug 2008 in 52,6: 52.0678117, 6.5634939 geohashing.info google osm bing/os kml crox


Mon 25 Aug 2008 in 52,7: 52.0678117, 7.5634939 geohashing.info google osm bing/os kml crox