2008-09-10 -35 138

Location

Today's geohash for Adelaide in the southern graticule. Located in Aldinga/Old Willunga, to the south of the CBD. Very close to some most dangerous cliffs and some very historic local sites.

People

One lonely, but stylish looking geohasher turned up.

UnwiseOwl

Narrative

I’ve always been known for erratic flights of fancy, but my first geohash on the 10th of September was one of the least planned and most enjoyable expeditions in which I’ve taken part in recent times.

The night of the hash was the first time that I realised that I lived near two different graticules, and that I had another option than traveling hundreds of kilometers north to get my first geohash, something I’d looked forward to for quite a while. Sure enough, there was a viable point to the south (a bit further away than may have been sensible) on what appeared to me from the satellite map to be sand hills by the seaside. So I leapt in the car and launched myself south, powered by coffee and the hits of the eighties on my local radio station.

Being a keen geocacher (some would say slightly creepily so), I knew there was a cache nearby, so once I finally got down to Aldinga I went to get it. I had forgotten to bring a torch, but spurred on by the allure of a yet-unclaimed cache collision ribbon I climbed up and around the large hill, found a likely thicket, but only succeeded in getting exceedingly wet. Cache-less, I wandered back to the car, only then realizing that although I could see (or would be able to if it wasn’t night time) the hash point from the cache location, I would never have been able to see the cache itself from the hash, so my soaking was in vain. It was a nice climb anyway.

I parked about 80 meters to the East of the cache, and it looked to me like it would be a nice wander down the hill to the hash site, and I’d get there with plenty of time before my planned midnight hit. I took a few photos of the incredible view, but it was too dark for my cheap camera to give anything more than a black response. Unfortunately, I didn’t see the sign that looked like this:

When I eventually got back up the slippery slope (after getting within 20m of the hash site), my formal pants and suit jacket caked in mud, I had to go on a 1km ride and make a 500 beach run in a relatively short time (I’m not much of a runner) to get to the site in time.

Haha, geohash confirmed, and with about 30 seconds to spare, too.

You can’t really see, but this one is a shot up at the cliff I had just earlier contemplated climbing down. I’m very glad I didn’t.

Overall, it was beautiful, beautiful spot, with the calm sea, the sparkling sand, the bright moon, the terrifying cliffs and the thrill and exhilaration of still being alive all combining to make it a most memorable moment, I think you could now call me hooked. What a great spot for my first attempt and success at this frankly ridiculous game.

On the way back, I passed the café, which was unfortunately closed or I may have been able to make this a squishy hash as well as a midnight, formal one.