2011-05-28 51 7
| Sat 28 May 2011 in 51,7: 51.7062971, 7.2323159 geohashing.info google osm bing/os kml crox |
Plan
Mampfred asked Arvid whether a hash/meet in 51 7 would be possible this weekend. Well, Arvid was going to do a 600km bike ride, most of it in/to 51 7, so when it's not too far off... yes. And it happened to be not far off. Mampfred couldn't come on saturday, so it was just Arvid taking a detour on his 600km brevet ride.
Achievements
Expedition
The hash was just a minor detour of what I was doing anyway, so I'll start with that. I got up very early, to catch the 6:57 train to Zwolle, where the start of the 600 ride was. This is the last organised ride I need to qualify for Paris-Brest-Paris. You need to do a series of homologated rides of 200, 300, 400 and 600km for that. The start of the ride was at 9am, and the hashpoint was just after the 2nd checkpoint in Haltern, at 150km. To prove you actually went to all the places on the ride, there are checkpoints where you need to get a stamp (this sport is older than computers). In Germany the most used facility for that is a 24h gas station.
At 14:25 I arrived at the control in Haltern, and left there at 14:50. At 15:00 I turned right at the traffic lights where my route tells me to continue straight, but that would not bring me to the geohash. So I turned right. After passing a barrier and a very busy parking lot I entered the unpaved wilderness of Die Haard. At 15:05 I stopped at the point on the road closest to the hashpoint, near some chopped wood. Then I wandered up the hill to the hashpoint and made the obligatory pictures. I couldn't get a good fix, probably because of the trees, so I settled for near perfect coordinates on the GPS device. I made some not-so-convincing XKCD markings on the ground. At 15:15 I was gone again, back on the route at 15:20.
I finished the 600km ride at 13:40 the next day, without sleep.
Transport summary:
Home-Enschede railwaystation by bike: 1.5km
Enschede-Zwolle by train
Zwolle station to start: 4.3km
600km BRM including 3.5km geohashing detour: 598km
Finish to Zwolle station: 4.3km
Zwolle-Hengelo by train (international train means switching trains in Hengelo, I'm just as quick cycling from there then)
Hengelo station-home: 8.5km
Total distance cycled: 616.6km
More pictures of the bike ride at Flickr
My bike at the start in Zwolle
First poor tagging attempt
Bike near the hashpoint
Total distance of the day at that point
Success! (couple of seconds earlier the number were perfect)
View down to the wood where my bike leans against
Happy hasher
The hashpoint
Hashpoint from a couple meters further
Accuracy between the trees
Bike again, with hashpoint behind it
Date & time
Second tagging attempt
From where there is a track towards the hashpoint
Perfect German roads
Oh great, I'm fiddling with my camera while riding and I fail to notice there are obstacles... this is gonna be exciting
I survived and tried to make this picture
Typical randonneur food stop
Bit windy on the last 150km back to Zwolle
