User:Benjw/Expeditions

Although I'd read the original xkcd geohashing cartoon the very day it came out in May 2008, I hadn't even considered that anyone might take it seriously. Then in December 2008 I discovered geohashing while looking up geocaching on the net, and decided to give it a go. I didn't have a GPS at that point, so the first hash I was able to find without one was in January 2009. I bought a GPS in time for my second hash later that month.

2009-01-15 51 0 (Thurs): #1. First hash, near Stansted Airport (London East grat). No GPS yet, so location found with a Google maps print-out for a No Batteries Geohash.
- Also retrohashed this point on 2010-01-19.
2009-01-26 52 0 (Mon): #2. Near March. First in my home graticule, and first with my new GPS receiver. Ambassador Geohash, although no persuasion was needed.
2009-01-26 52 -0 (Mon): #3. Second part of a Double Geohash, near Peterborough (Northampton grat). Found a geocache nearby for a Hash Collision honorable mention.
2009-01-31 51 0 and 2009-01-31 51 -0 (Sat): Intended to go on a double expedition to Saffron Walden and Letchworth, but didn't feel well enough.

February

2009-02-01 52 0 (Sun): #4. On the edge of a very cold field, nearly on the Roman road 750m from Horseheath village.
2009-02-04 52 0 (Weds): #5. In a snowy field, just off a bridleway outside Ashdon, Essex.
2009-02-28 52 0 (Sat): #6. My first Saturday meetup, an Ambassador hash on a stud farm east of Newmarket. Met Stephen Turner at 4pm.

March

2009-03-06 52 0 (Fri): #7. Another field in Ashdon, Essex, a mere 850m from the hash on 4 Feb. Found a restored windmill and lots of sticky mud.
2009-03-09 52 1 (Mon): #8. Woodland owned by the UEA, just outside Norwich. First recorded hash in this Virgin Graticule.
2009-03-09 52 0 (Mon): #9. A field (surprise, surprise) near Outwell. Second part of a Triple Geohash.
2009-03-09 52 -0 (Mon): #10. Field Geohash in Peterborough (Northampton grat), as the sun set. Third part of a Triple Geohash.
2009-03-11 52 0 (Wed): #11. Field Geohash in Duxford. Lovely views over Thriplow.
2009-03-11 52 -0 (Wed): #12. Field Geohash in Guilden Morden (Northampton grat); second part of a Double Geohash.
2009-03-15 51 -0 (Sun): #13. Woodland in North Watford (London West grat). Minesweeper level 4. A friend of mine checked this one out for me the previous day.
2009-03-16 52 0 (Mon): #14. Field Geohash in Kentford; second Consecutive Geohash, and a Public Transport Geohash (train, and 8.4km on foot).
2009-03-19 52 0 (Thu): Planned a Field Geohash between Stretham and Ely, but didn't actually make it in the end.
2009-03-23 52 0 (Mon): #15. The side of a house in Hauxton, near Cambridge. Intended Ambassador but nobody home.
2009-03-24 52 -1 (Tue): #16. On the pavement outside a park in Leicester (Birmingham grat). Intended to meet Joe Hardman but he didn't show.
2009-03-28 52 0 (Sat): #17. Saturday meetup Field Geohash in Ousden, near Newmarket. Just missed the hail storm.

April

2009-04-03 52 0 (Fri): #18. Very short Bicycle Geohash (7.4km) on the pavement of Hills Avenue, Cambridge. Cubicle Geohash almost honorary mention.
- Also retrohashed this point on 2009-04-23.
2009-04-07 52 0 (Tue): #19. 44.3km Bicycle Geohash to a farm in Dullingham, near Newmarket. Ambassador needed but successful.
2009-04-08 52 0 (Wed): #20. Field Geohash outside Burwell. Intended to cycle but still tired from yesterday. Second Consecutive Geohash.
2009-04-09 52 0 (Thu): #21. In a bush on Foulden Common, a bit north of Mundford/Brandon. Third Consecutive Geohash. Found a deer on the hashpoint.
2009-04-23 52 -0 (Thu): #22. In Waresley Wood nature reserve, Great Gransden (Northampton grat). Bicycle hash (25.5 km) and Hash collision honourable mention (370m).
2009-04-23 52 0 (Thu): #23. In the road on Wort's Causeway, Cambridge. Double bicycle hash, 59.8 km by the time I got home.
2009-04-23 52 1 (Thu): Planned to cycle another 83 km on to Stowmarket (Norwich grat) for an all-bicycle triple hash, but ran out of time and energy to make it before the last train home.
2009-04-23 (Thu): Retrohashed 2009-04-03 52 0 because it was on the way home anyway.
2009-04-24 52 0 (Fri): #24. In a garden in More's Meadow, Great Shelford. 14.4 km Bicycle geohash and Ambassador hash.
2009-04-27 52 0 (Mon): #25. Speed racer in March. Completely forgot to get out of the car!
2009-04-27 52 -0 (Mon): #26. Another speed racer in Eastrea (Northampton grat). Only 22 minutes elapsed since the last hash, probably setting a record for the quickest double hash.

May - August

No expeditions.

September

2009-09-29 52 0 (Tue): #27. On the road in Fordham, but too near a junction for a speed racer.
2009-09-30 52 -0 (Wed): #28. An international meetup with Pi and srs0 in some bushes in Ampthill 9 (Northampton grat).
2009-09-30 (Wed): Inverse-retrohashed 2009-10-01 52 -0 because it was on the way home anyway. Planned to make it for real the following day but didn't have time.

October - December