2011-01-27 53 -1

Have you seen our geohashing marker? We'd love to hear from you! Click here to say "hi" and tell us what you've seen!

Curious about what geohashing is? Read more!

Location

Skelmanthorpe, near Huddersfield. Just under 7 metres from an unmarked road off Shelley Woodhouse Lane, near Shelley High School & College.

Participants

amc (with tgr)
myka (with possibly Fergus)
Monty

Plans

Marker-sign to be placed near the hashpoint.

I'll be on the 10:40am Transpennine Express train from Leeds if anyone wants to join me there instead.

Meet at Huddersfield rail station at 11:00am (plus or minus Train Delay Modifier), on the outside of the ticket gates. Wear something xkcd or Geohashing-related if you want to be recognised - if you want to recognise me, look for tgr. And don't be embarrassed: it's my first expedition too...
Head out to the hash by public transport, probably the 11:28 number 81 from K3 Lord Street; even if someone with a car wants to come, it seems a shame to drive when there are buses so nearby! That gets us to Shelley High School for 12:00. Get off one stop ~~after~~ before. Bus stop's location is 53.5949, -1.6710 - so we won't miss it!
Walk to the hashpoint.
Even if entering the field is a problem, we should be able to get within the requisite 10m radius of the hashpoint without leaving the road.
Create a non-permanent marker and put up a sign if possible.
Head back to Huddersfield rail station for coffee with anyone who wants it :)

Archmage Cat 11:24, 26 January 2011 (EST)

Archmage Cat 16:56, 26 January 2011 (EST)

Expedition

The algorithm is on our side so far. The train from Leeds was not just on time, but managed to arrive early! in the UK!

We also managed to find our bus pulling up as we arrived at the stop in Huddersfield. --mykaDragonBlue [- i have no sig -] 06:21, 27 January 2011 (EST) (manualy posting on route since the hashdroid is being sad at me)

amc

This morning started out rather dully. While waiting for the bus to Leeds this morning, the topic of conversation in the bus shelter was "Ooh, it looks like the bus is going to be early, can we still use our concession passes if it arrives before 9:30?" That gives you some idea of the level of mind-numbing tedium.

On arriving at Leeds station, the bandage on my toe had slipped, so I had to sit in the middle of the station hall and repair it using what few tools I had with me. I managed to fashion a padded bandage out of half an antiseptic dressing, the wadding from some cotton buds, and half a roll of adhesive tape. Whether this qualifies for any MacGyveresque street cred, I'll let everyone else decide.

Last time out, I had two preventable problems along the way. The first was that I'd mistranscribed the coordinates, no less than twice; to resolve that, I input them into my GPS twice so I had a redundant duplicate, and printed out the wiki page to take with me. The second problem was one of food: I ended up buying a sausage roll from Leeds railway station. To resolve that one I bought food before I left. Well, what passes for food when all you have at your disposal is a Burger King, anyway.

I returned to the station hall to find Myka sitting around, so we started chatting. It was then that we realised the probability of anyone else turning up was so small it may as well be ignored, so we pulled out our hashscots and headed for the platform. The train journey was dull and uneventful, so I'll skip that part.

When we got to Huddersfield we followed my GPS to our first waypoint: the bus stop, to catch the bus towards the hashpoint. It pulled in almost immediately, while I was still trying to remember which bus we needed to catch in fact! My memory freshly jogged, we were on our way to Shelley. A town, not a person.

Myka began taking photographs of the lovely views we got on our way over the tops towards Shelley; however, his camera began to make shutter noises every time he snapped a shot. This managed to infuriate him rather quickly, as no matter how he tried to turn that sound off, he couldn't do it. Finally however, after taking a few photos of the floor of the bus, he managed it. And he was immensely relieved. I gave him a round of applause then, and I give him a gratuitous ribbon now. ;)

We got to the place and performed a GPS Dance^tm. We discovered that the hashpoint was not in the field at all! It was, in fact, on the road outside the farm. Smelling victory, we started snapping photographs. But all was not well.

Suddenly, Myka's two GPS devices told us we were in fact 30 metres away. The hashpoint was in fact in the field. My GPS then started becoming unsure of itself, and finally it too agreed with Myka's. We noticed that down the road, near the farm buildings, the farm owner was curious as to what we were up to. He didn't seem at all put out by our presence, just curious. So we decided we'd wander down and have a quick chat, let him know what we were up to.

At that point, a third Geohasher and another first-timer, Monty, came along in his car. This was rather a surprise, seeing as I hadn't publicised a final ETA. He brought doughnuts too! So he went to park up somewhere and I led the expedition down the road to greet the farmer, who'd hopped in his tractor and came to have a nosey.

I quickly explained to him the basics of Geohashing, and asked permission to gain access to his field. He readily agreed and the three of us set out to the actual hashpoint. The field was more than a little muddy which made it interesting for me to navigate, but we made it! We set up for photographs once again, and after a minute or two, we were on our way, feeling "deservedly smug". Monty headed off to work in his car, and after leaving the farmer with an information sheet, we were on our way home.

When a bus finally decided to serve the tiny little bus stop (which didn't even have a footpath to stand on!) we went back to Huddersfield to find a cafe for some "well-earned hot drinks". Yes, we were feeling rather proud of ourselves at that point! And we found something ten times better than any old cafe... we found a Wimpy! A burger joint with waitresses, real tea, and plated meals. I won't say it felt like the sky was falling, but it may as well have been. I thought Wimpy places died out two decades ago! All in all, a great way to round off a really fun trip out. :)

Archmage Cat 11:21, 27 January 2011 (EST)