2025-01-01 31 34
| Wed 1 Jan 2025 in 31,34: 31.7590047, 34.6215121 geohashing.info google osm bing/os kml crox |
Contents
Location
In the sand dunes south of Ashdod
Participants
Yerushalmi (talk), his wife, and #1-5
Plans
After a lot of bickering over what we would do on this Chanukah vacation, the family finally agreed to go geohashing and then go bowling in Ashdod afterwards. We'd drive to the southern edge of Ashdod, walk to the point, walk back.
I printed out multiple maps of the area of different types, both as backups for GPS and because we wanted to at least try to navigate there manually. Plus one extra map with the coordinates marked to leave inside the windshield of our car as usual.
Each person had their own backpack with at least 1.5 liters of water in it, just in case they got separated, while I carried the largest backpack with all the rest of the water. Hats, sunscreen, lunch, and into the car.
Expedition
We parked at the southern end of Agat Street in Ashdod, one of several entrances to the sand dunes. This part of the dunes had a long, shin-high fence to prevent people from driving into them, and a small opening for pedestrians.
The expedition got off on quite literally the wrong foot, as #1 tripped while trying to step over the fence and severely injured her leg.
We hung around in the clearing for a while as she recovered; the other kids ran around a bit. When she felt better, we started heading south-southwest. It was already the middle of the afternoon, so as soon as we crested a hill we spread out our picnic mat and sat down to eat lunch.
After lunch I gave out the maps and told the kids to try to navigate. This turned out to be much more difficult than any of us thought; while the satellite photos were high-quality, it was very difficult to figure out which bits of foliage were actually large enough to see on the printout and which weren't. So while I at several points *thought* I knew exactly where we were, I was never quite certain, nor was anybody else.
On the way we found a triangular piece of hard plastic half-buried in the sand, with heavily faded Arabic printing on it. #1 is interested in Arabic but it was too faded to read. Shortly after, however, we found another piece with some Hebrew writing, and another, and more and more until we had put together as a puzzle quite a large portion of a sign that used to give instructions for visitors to the dunes. (There had been a similar sign at the entrance.)
We continued heading generally southwest, when #2 pointed out that this is the southern part of the country and there might therefore be snakes or scorpions in the area. This started to freak the others out. Okay: new rule. Don't go directly into the underbrush.
Eventually we reached what we thought was the general area of the point, tried to guess where it would be, opened up GeohashDroid... nope, nowhere near it. We're still 300 meters away.
Well, it'll probably easier if we head due west, where there's a marked north-south trail that comes out of Ashdod and will take us not far from the point. The trail will also make it easier to not make a mistake of how far we've gone, because there will be more landmarks.
This turned out to be an excellent idea, and we headed straight south on the trail... until we saw that recent rainfall had left a large part of the trail ahead under water and mud and impassable, less than 100 meters away from the point.
So we had to turn off the trail to the west. Just one problem: underbrush.
We very carefully walked through it, sticking to the clearest parts and using the rolled-up picnic mat to clear areas ahead of us. But #2 kept talking about snakes and scorpions and making the other kids more and more nervous. Until finally there was a sudden burst just ahead of us: a heretofore unseen bird, hidden in the underbrush, ridiculously large and scared by our approach, took sudden flight.
When about thirty seconds later a second bird did the same, that was the last straw for my wife, #1, #3, and #4. They turned around and headed back to the car. I, #2, and #5 continued alone.
It was extremely difficult to find a clear way through the rest of the underbrush, taking us well out of the way, but we eventually did find our way around and through. Once we got to the general area of the point, we gave up on trying to use the printed maps to count bushes and just went straight to the GPS. About 30 meters away; easy enough. We spread our mat out on the point and had a little bit more food, rested a bit, and then prepared to head home.
On the way back I and #2 decided to let #5 take the lead, which she was very excited to do. And while she initially started to take us straight back into the underbrush, we gave her some pointers and she guided us back to the city without difficulty (the fact that you could see the buildings helped, of course).
When we got back to the car we changed our mind about the bowling; #1's leg was hurting, so we went to a local restaurant for dinner instead.
Photos
Map of the dunes
We're headed thataway
Beautiful sand and the edge of the city to the west
The kids running around making strange footprints
More running around
They're having a lot of fun
Pieces of ancient writing!
Putting together a puzzle
Lots more pieces
Somebody really had a grudge against this sign
We've probably got about half of it
We're still 344 meters away
Ah, now we've made it
Panorama at the point
From the point we can see the Mediterranean
- 2 and #5 on the way back to the car
