2010-01-19 -37 145
| Tue 19 Jan 2010 in -37,145: -37.8807697, 145.2097187 geohashing.info google osm bing/os kml crox |
Location
In the middle of what appeared to be a reserve close to the Eastlink Freeway in Glen Waverley / Wantirna South.
Participants
Plans
Initially - head out on the bike first thing in the morning. Actuality - by car and foot.
Expedition
Kozz: This wasn't too far away from home, and initially I'd hoped to do an early morning cycle geohash but a combo of overnight rain and a migraine kept me in bed till the late morning. I decided to include the geohash with a trip to the chemist to find painkillers, theorising it wouldn't take too long.
Slotted the coords into the satnav and followed its instructions; in the middle of an area marked asa reserve on Google Maps. It looked as if it wanted me to drive the wrong direction up a motorway offramp to get there, so I used dead reckoning to find another entrance to what appeared to be a massive open green parkland. The decision to not follow the satnav would prove to be costly.
I found a road leading to a marked path leading to the corner of the open green area, and took a quick walk along the path - it's part of the Dandenong Creek Trail, one of a myriad of creek trails in Melbourne. To the right was a fenced off area - which transpired to be a quarry - and to the left there were fields, and from somewhere nearby I could hear heavy machinery at work. As I continued on I pondered why the parkland was fenced off by a 9 foot chainlink fence, but pressed on as the path swung south then east again vaguely towards the hashpoint.
About 1km in and still 350m from the hashpoint, I walked past a carpark next to a massive barn-like building. Stacked outside were about 30 mattresses, and...I realised I could smell the unmistakeable stench of decaying garbage. Lots of it.
The reason I could hear heavy machinery was because it was operating in a 'transfer station' - otherwise known as a town refuse dump, tip, or trash pile.
Yes that's right - the hash for today in Melbourne East is in the middle of a MASSIVE HEAP OF TRASH.
I toyed with the idea of doing the world's most comprehensive geotrash collection - I mean, c'mon, BONANZA - but gave up the idea pretty much immediately. Aside from the physical danger - who wants to be walking over piles of refuse - there is the discomfort, the trespassing and the awful smell. Ewwww.
I went back to the car somewhat disheartened, and drove around to the suggest satnav point which of course took me past the massive sign that said 'KNOX CITY TRANSFER STATION'. I stopped at a nearby gate - the closest I could get to the hash - and took a photo of the hashpoint, then with a heavy heart and a migraine returning, left once again. Failed to reach coordinates; no public access.
Photos
Woooo, gravel road
The bike path
History / linkage of the cycle trail
Blue skies
Heron keeping an eye out
It's a quarry
Quarry warning
Blocked by chainlink, the geohasher's nemesis
Close as I got on foot
The hash point way in the distance
This is as close as I got :o(
