2024-06-03 -37 144

Location

In a large vacant block of land in Greenvale, in Melbourne's northen suburbs.

Participants

Expedition 1:

BarbaraTables

Expedition 2:

Stevage

Expedition 3:

John

Expedition 4:

Lachie

Expedition

Expedition 1 (BarbaraTables)

Finally, a doable Geohash in Melbourne! It's been a while! Tune in for a dramatised retelling of how I barely made it by the skin of my teeth (got there via public transport with incredibly minor issues):

Normally to get anywhere via public transport, I board the 691 and then transfer to a train or another bus. Of course, something came up that delayed me before I ventured outside. After I dealt with that, I checked my phone to find out that the bus was going to arrive in 1 minute. So, I hurriedly ordered a taxi to Ferntree Gully Station.

Getting in the taxi wasn't the end of it, of course. There were road works between my house and the station that were slowing down traffic. My GPS was telling me I was going to be there in 12 minutes, and that the train leaves in 12 minutes. I was going to need to do a Myki top-up that would make a Formula One team proud.

As soon as the taxi pulled up to the station, I bounced out of the door and... walked at a normal pace to the station. I was there 6 minutes before the train arrived. I also found that my bus actually did arrive at my house late, though still arrived in time for the train. Well, there goes my Public Transport Achievement (and about $10). All in good fun.

I normally take this train to the city, so force of habit being force of habit, it took me a while to realise I wasn't listening for the correct station to get off at, Blackburn Station. Luckily, I realised this a few stops ahead.

After that, I took the 901 to Melbourne Airport, getting of at Roxburgh Park Shopping Centre. Then, I took the 543 to Greenvale Gardens, getting off near the Geohash.

I waited around a while so I could meet some fellow Geohashers, and also because I wasn't sure if there was a way around the fence. I met Steve, who found a gate earlier! If only I found the gate, I also could have gotten the Earliest achievement!

Nearby streets
Hash proof

Photo from the Geohash
Another photo from the Geohash

Expedition 2 (Stevage)

Intro

Like a lighthouse in a desert, this conveniently located geohash broke a long drought of accessible Melbourne geohashes. A large grassy field patiently awaiting transformation into yet another mini suburb of Australian dreams.

I'm surprisingly busy with work all morning, and my firmly announced plans of leaving between 1 and 2pm do not eventuate. This surprises no-one. I scurry about, pre-loading myself with energy (large bowl of soup, two pieces of olive bread toast, and then a scandalous bowl of cereal).

In my haste, I once again gloss over the navigation planning part of things, entrusting the Arevo app to get me there. I'm feeling a bit unfit and bring some warm clothes in case I decide to train home. It's going to be about 25km each way.

I launch. If all goes according to plan, I should arrive around the same time as BarbaraTables, who I haven't seen in the flesh since their first expedition.

As I sally forth up the Upfield bike path, I start to remember a previous expedition where Lachie showed us how you can continue the trail all the way up to the M80 trail. You sort of end up alongside the train tracks, which is a bit weird, but without actually crossing any signs saying not to be there.

So I do this. There is a firm reluctance on the part of everyone around me to do anything at all noteworthy. A small child riding on the back of a cargo bike does his best. His dad asks, "Do you think we'll see any skateboarders today?" He replies "Eeeeeeeeee!"

Connecting seamlessly with the M80 trail (thanks past Lachie!) there is a further absence of interestingness. The Arevo app has shat itself and we've switched to Osmand. The navigator lady is trying to amp up the experience with an endless sequence of "in twenty metres keep slightly right to stay on the M80 trail. In 10 metres, stay on the M80 trail..." Half the time I can't even fathom what rift in the space-time map data could possibly generate such an instruction.

This section of trail has often provided interest in the form of random junk littering the sides, perhaps hurled from passing cars. It's surprisingly clean today. There is a fantail though.

I do the classic up-and-over at Jacana Station, pass up the Broadmeadows valley, through a place called Westmeadows, and start heading up Mickleham Road. Fortunately there are bike paths either side. Unfortunately, I'm about to arrive at a large section of roadworks, forcing an alarming detour to my left.

Midtro

I faff about trying to work out how to get back on course before remembering I didn't actually like Mickleham Road in the first place, and find a nicer way around, and soon discover a BarbaraTables waiting patiently on a footpath.

There's some discussion of climbing fences, then I remember having just passed a convenient looking gate, so I go back and find I can ride the bike directly to the hash.

We chat about jobs and coding for a bit, as the beginning of a glorious sunset appear on the horizon. Then BarbaraTables realises they need to get moving to catch their bus, and I want to grab the last remaining skerricks of sunlight.

Outro

I hadn't really noticed how much of a climb it was coming up Mickleham Road, but going back down is incredible. A long, long zoom that seems unreasonably generous, until finally I hook sharply back onto the creek trail. There is much uneventfulness, of a gradually dimmer and darker kind, enlivened briefly by the appearance of a small rodent feasting on roadkill. I didn't know they did that.

The last part of the StrongSongs episode on Blondie's "Heart of Glass" gets me home. Such a banger.

Looking over the M80.
I find bits of remnant former roadway weirdly interesting.
Geohashers geohashing.
The geohash, more broadly.
We hit roadworks.
This extreme bike path dead end is a metaphor for something.

Expedition 3 (John)

John set out towards the hash on his bike and achieved it at night.

GPS Proof
John at the hash

Expedition 4 (Lachie)

Lachie decided to go for a nice ride from Ballarat to Geelong, from which point he got the train back to the approximate vicinity of greenvale and rode the rest of the way. It was 58 kms all up.