2024-05-23 52 4

Location

On a farm in IJsselstein

Participants

MyrtleGlacy

Expedition

You know those ideas that feel like a bad idea but are just too fun to ignore? That’s this expedition. Was it a good idea to bike 90 minutes to the hash and 90 minutes back before going to work? Was it a good idea to get up at 5:15 to do this? Both answers are no. But I still got up at 5:15 and biked around for 3 hours before work just to grab this hash.

The bike ride to the hash was not that eventful. Mostly went for roads that were familiar and then for easy big roads. I had no idea what IJsselstein was like, so that was unfamiliar territory at least.

Got to the farm where the hash was, and couldn’t find anyone. Looked around and made noise, but there was no-one to find anywhere. So I just kept walking towards the hash until I got to a corral with horses…. And the hash was about 5 meters inside the corral. Took a quick picture of the hash and a selfie, but obviously the hash was not reached. I was not about to go into the corral without explicit permission. I don’t want to be accused of being a horse thief, right.

When I was on my way back to my bike, a car came the other way. There was a woman inside who told me that the owner of the farm was home, but that I had rung the wrong doorbell. So I went back to the front of the farm and rang the doorbell that looked like it belonged to the farm across the road. Really weird construction, I have to say. The owner opened up, and I explained geohashing. I asked permission to enter the horse corral. It didn’t look like he understood my story, but he gave me permission to go in.

So I went in, got the hash and got back on my bike. Had to race to get back to work in time. And then I still had to work 9 hours…..

But the expedition was worth it! New grat for me, and still very close to home.

Small note later on. I thought this hash was in the Montfoort municipality, but apparently it's in the IJsselstein municipality. Just goes to show how little I know about geography