2010-10-03 -19 146

Location

Side of the road 75km out of Townsville.

Participants

Plans

JimmyNZ's Plans

I'm over here for work and can't resist the chance to strike out and get my first geohash on foreign soil. Still working tomorrow, but if the work load is light I'll shoot off and achieve this. Maybe I'll take a few others with me for the ride.

mattyk's Plans

I'm planning on getting out on my first one in a long time, bringing both daughters with me. Depending on where I am with household duties, it could be any time during the day. I will create an enduring hashpoint marker in case I'm there before anyone else.

jishy's Plans

Heading out at about 3pm with my partner and Jezs. Looks easy!

Expedition

JimmyNZ's Expedition

So managed to get some time off work and decided to give the hash a go. Grabed my mate Paul and the two of us liberated a car to go for a drive. Turned out it was a far distance out of town on some very straight roads (thank god for cruise control). So after a 40min drive we reached a clearing on the side of the road just before a bridge, parked up and commenced homing in on the hash point. Manoeuvring to the side of the road we walked down a short path to a gate that presented a clearer path towards the hash. Since it wasn’t locked and had no private property signs we went through and down a dirt track for a few meters that paralleled the road. After taking a photo of the GPS at a location close to the hash point, I say close as it was just over the fence in a small plot of grass beside the road. This being snake country I though best not to wade through the waist high grass in sandals. Mission first, but safety always.

Not long after I’d finished taking the photo of the GPS a chap with a little girl in his arms strolls through the gate and toward us. Perplexed that someone else would be out here in the middle of nowhere I immediately went through my stranger drill given I was on questionable private property. After asking if he lived here, he stated that he was geohashing and I was blown away! Finally I meet someone else who plays this weird game in person. Yes I had to travel to another country to achieve it and the odds of us meeting at that point within that 5 minute window was very small it was cool none the less. So after exchanging a few words and taking the required photos I said goodbye to mattyk. Paul and I jumped in the car to made the 60 odd km drive back home.

Awesome to achieve a hash in another country and to get some new achievements.

mattyk's Expedition

We headed out around 11:30ish and drove and drove and drove, and just before the Haughton River we saw a car parked on a little siding, a guy running across the highway towards someone standing by a fence in a paddock, and a truck pulling out onto the road.

We chucked a U-turn and pulled over, then my non-asleep companion and I trotted over, through a closed but not locked gate, and headed towards the guys near the fence. One asked if we lived there, to which I said something inane like "geohashing," and he introduced himself as JimmyNZ. We shook hands and exchanged brief exclamations that this was the first time either of us had ever actually met up with someone at a hash.

Then we snapped a photo, placed my home-made plaque, and headed back to our cars (and my still-sleeping companion who was making full use of the air conditioning.)

See: Google Map