Geohashing expedition 2024-11-25 53 -8

This checkin to geohash 2024-11-25 53 -8 reflects a geohashing expedition. See more of Dan's hash logs.

Location

Field East of Claremorris, Co. Mayo, Ireland

Participants

Dan Q
his mother

Plans

Today we need to drive North up the entire length of the M18 and M17 to get to our next accommodation. If we take only a minor diversion at Tuam we can see how accessible this hashpoint is, on the way!

Expedition

On today’s leg of my mother and I’s expedition to go hashing around the West coast of Ireland (hampered only by the floods of Storm Bert) we were scheduled to drive a few hours up the country to move from our old accommodation of the last few nights to our new accommodation of the next two. On our way we accidentally drove the wrong way down the M6 for a spell (as you can see on our tracklog) as we intended to visit Athenry for some geocaching, before pushing on to the hashpoint.

GPSr showing 102m to a destination inside a green pasture. — 102 metres to go, but we’ll need to find a gate… and some better footwear…

We drove past the field with the hashpoint in order to dodge an incoming tractor and to scout out safe parking spaces. Finding a suitable verge, we pulled up and took a look at the pasture with the hashpoint. The gate into it was seriously churned up with mud, so I switched to my wellies and my mother pulled on a pair of waterproof trousers, and we waded out.

Muddy wellies, as seen by the person wearing them. — Some of the early bits of the field would suck us ankle-deep, but by this point things were better.

Once past the gate, it got a lot easier and we were able to quickly find our way to the hashpoint at 13:10.

Dan raises his hands - one of them holding a GPS receiver - in the air in a victory pose, in a green pasture with a forest in the background. — One great thing about having a geohashing buddy is they can take a “victory pose” picture of you!

It was the middle of a muddy field. Not exciting, but a good view of rolling countryside and wind farms.

Panoramic view showing many fields, bordered by hedgerows and distant forests. — Fields as far as the eye can see. Until you hit the treeline.

We swiftly made our way back to our car to avoid any questions from passing farmers about what we might be doing hanging our near a piece of mystery agricultural equipment we were near.

Dan and his mother grin in a grassy field. — Requisite silly grins, as required by geohashing law.

Then, after changing back into our regular footwear so we didn’t bring tonnes of mud into our rental car, made our way down into Claremorris. There, we enjoyed a celebratory carvery lunch, toured a handful of local geocaches, explored a path that Google Maps (only) claims exists – possibly a trap street? – and walked around a lake with lots of scultpures until we discovered that the route we’d planned to take was underwater. At that point, we figured it was time to go check-in to our new AirBnB and returned to our car to set off.