hash log – Page 3

Geohashing expedition 2020-02-21 51 -1

This checkin to geohash 2020-02-21 51 -1 reflects a geohashing expedition. See more of Dan's hash logs.

Location

North end of the village of Curbridge in Oxfordshire. Street View and satellite photography shows it as being alongside a nondescript road, but I’m aware that there’s a housing estate under construction nearby and there’s a new roundabout which appears on maps but not on satellite views which was constructed nearby last year: I’m hoping that the location is still accessible.

Participants

Dan Q

Plans

I don’t know whether I’ll be able to make it to this hashpoint; it depends on how work goes as well as the weather (while I’m not directly in the path of Storm Dennis I’m still in an area that’s getting lots of wind and rain). I’m not committed yet to whether I’d drive or cycle: it depends on how long I can spare, whether the car’s available for my use, and – again – the weather (I’d prefer to cycle, but I’m not going to do it if it means I get completely soaked on my lunch break).

Okay: I need to vacate my house anyway because some estate agents are bring some potential buyers around, so I’m setting out to the hashpoint now (12:20) after which I’ll aim to work in a coworking space for the afternoon. Wish me luck!

Expedition

I drove out to the village of Curbridge and parked in a lane, then walked to the hashpoint, arriving about 13:05. Conveniently there’s a pole (holding a speed detecting sign) within a metre of the hashpoint so I was able to attach a “The Internet Was Here” sign in accordance with the tradition. Then I made my way to a coworking space half a mile to the North to carry on with my day’s work.

Tracklog

My GPSr keeps a tracklog:

Obtained, but I didn’t bring the right cable to the coworking space so I can’t get it yet. [to follow]

Video

You can also watch it at:

Photos

"The Internet Was Here" sign at the hashpoint — Sign

Dan grinning as he walks along the road — Sillyish grin

Geohashing expedition 2019-11-29 51 -1

This checkin to geohash 2019-11-29 51 -1 reflects a geohashing expedition. See more of Dan's hash logs.

Location

Footpath connecting Ditchley, Fulwell and Cleveley, North-East of Charlbury.

Participants

Dan Q

Plans

The XKCD Geohashing Wiki has been down ever since the forums hosted on the same server were hacked almost three months ago. But the algorithm is functionally open-source and there’s nothing to stop an enterprising Geohasher from undertaking adventures even when the biggest silo is offline (I’m trying to negotiate a solution to that problem, too, but that’s another story).

So I planned to take a slightly extended lunch break for what looked like an easy expedition: drive up to Fullwell where it looked like I’d be able to park the car and then explore the footpath from its Western end.

Expedition

Everything went well until I’d parked the car and gotten out. We’ve had some pretty wet weather lately and I quickly discovered that my footwear was less than ideal for the conditions. Clinging to the barbed wire fence to avoid slipping over, I made my way along a footpath saturated with ankle-deep slippery mud. Up ahead, things looked better, so I pressed on…

…but what I’d initially surveyed to be a drier, smoother part of the field up ahead quickly turned out to be a thin dried crust on top of a pool of knee-to-waist-deep ooze. Letting out a smelling like a mixture of stagnant water and animal waste runoff, the surface cracked and I was sucked deep into the pit. I was glad that my boots were tied tightly or I might have lost them to the deep: it was all I could do to turn around and drag my heavy, sticky legs back to the car.

This is my first failed hashpoint expedition that wasn’t cancelled-before-it-started. It’s a little disappointing, but I’m glad I turned around when I did – when I spoke to somebody near where I’d parked, they told me that it got even worse in the next field and a farmer’s tractor had gotten briefly stuck there recently!

Tracklog

My GPSr keeps a tracklog:

GPX Tracklog

Video

Having realised my imminent failure, I vlogged the experience:

You can also watch it at:

Photos

Dan walking through a field, enormous muddy patch behind — The muddy patch behind me is deceptively deep: I got knee-deep before I gave up.

Muddy shoes and legs. — I didn’t bring the right footwear for this expedition.

Geohashing expedition 2019-08-01 51 -1

This checkin to geohash 2019-08-01 51 -1 reflects a geohashing expedition. See more of Dan's hash logs.

Location

Edge of field near Charlbury railway station, Oxfordshire. Looks to be accessible via a narrow road connecting the B4437 to what looks like a sewage treatment plant.

Participants

Dan Q

Plans

Dan Q plans to cycle out to the hashpoint this morning/early afternoon, aiming to arrive around 13:00.

Expedition

A morning meeting with an estate agent wrapped-up sooner than I expected, and I found myself with enough free time to tackle a cycle out to (and back from) this hashpoint with enough time to spare to do a little freelance work and study in the afternoon. The sun beamed gloriously except during a few windy moments (as you can hear hear in the accompanying video) and a couple of points where it briefly threatened to rain before changing its mind.

I picked a route that minimised the time I would spend on major roads: I left Kidlington via the towpath alongside the Oxford Canal, taking the woodland path to Begbroke alongside the “fairy doors”, and then the cyclepath alongside the A44 into Woodstock. There, I’d planned to cut through the grounds of Blenheim Palace, but for a brief moment I worried that this might not be possible: some kind of event is taking place at the Palace this week, and it seemed possible that parts of the grounds would be inaccessible. Fortunately I was allowed through and was able to continue my adventure without venturing on the main roads, but I still wonder if my route was truly legit: when I came out of the other side of the grounds I noticed a sign indicating that the route I’d taken was not supposed to be a public right of way to the Palace I’d just come from!

Pushing on through Stonesfield and Fawler I made my way to Charlbury, dismounted twice to pick my way through the village’s confusing one-way system, found the station, and made my way down the lane behind it. There’s a lovely little nursery there called The Railway Children, which is pretty cute for a nursery alongside a station. The lane seemed to exist only for the purpose of serving the sewage treatment works at the end of it, but nobody batted an eye at my cycling down it, and I was able to park my bike up half-way and walk the remaining distance up through the grassy field to the hashpoint, arriving at about 13:30. It’s a beautiful area, but there’s not much more to say about it than that.

On the return journey I called in at geocaches GC1JMQY (log) and GC873ZQ (log), but failed to find GC87403 (log), principally because I was running out of spare time and had to cut my search short. I cycled home, logging a total journey of around 43 kilometres (around 27 miles).

Tracklog

My GPSr keeps a tracklog:

GPX Tracklog

Video

I vlogged the entire experience.

You can also watch it at:

Photos

Geohashing expedition 2019-05-27 51 -1

This checkin to geohash 2019-05-27 51 -1 reflects a geohashing expedition. See more of Dan's hash logs.

Location

Hashpoint appears to be at the very end of Bleache Place, a suburban cul-de-sac in South-East Oxford. Looks very close to, but not on, the driveway of number 15. Possibly a convenient nearby lamp post for possibly attaching a “the Internet was here” sign?

Participants

Dan Q

Plans

(So long as he can get enough of his coursework done to justify taking a break), Dan Q plans to cycle out to the hashpoint at some point during the day.

Expedition

14:55 – okay, I’ve not finished as much of my coursework as I’d hoped, but I’ve finished enough that I can afford to take a break of a couple of hours to cycle out to the hashpoint, do a silly grin, put up a “The internet was here!” sign, and whatnot. Here we go!

15:58 – Success! Photos, tracklog, and details to follow. I’ve put a sign up so I wanted to put a message here for anybody who happens to see it and visit this page before I get home and finish writing-up!

Came home via geocache GC6102Y, safely home by 17:15 and back to studying!

Tracklog

Download tracklog

Photos

Geohashing expedition 2019-01-08 51 -1

This checkin to geohash 2019-01-08 51 -1 reflects a geohashing expedition. See more of Dan's hash logs.

Location

A34 near Peartree Interchange, Oxford.

Participants

Dan Q (whose birthday it is!)

Plans

It’s my birthday on YYYY-01-08 (Birthday geohash achievement, here I come!), and even though I have to go into work (boo!), I note that my graticule’s geohashpoint falls only about a kilometre and a half of a diversion from my usual cycle route to work. The A4260 and A34 are basically a deathtrap for cyclists, so depending on conditions and traffic I’ll probably divert via the Oxford Canal towpath from Kidlington to Peartree, park up near Peartree Services, and then finish on foot. And then go to work, I guess.

Expedition

Success! A relatively easy (but sometimes scary: the traffic’s a bit nuts on some of the major roads that provided the shortest route) journey to the hashpoint area, followed by a slightly-scary crossing of the road to the hashpoint, which turned out to be right by the crash barriers at the central reservation. The crash barriers provided a great place to tie a “The Internet Was Here” sign.

On my way away from the hashpoint, at 09:19, I hid a geocache: (“2019-01-08 51 -1, 09:19”, OK049E, GC827X6). The geocache is of the “puzzle” variety – the person looking for it is likely to discover geohashing (if they haven’t already) as part of their research into the secret location of the cache.

YouTube video of my expedition (also available here) – this also includes proof of my date of birth
Tracklog (GPX) showing my route

Achievements

Dan Q earned the Birthday Geohash Achievement

by reaching the (51, -1) geohash on his 38th birthday, 2019-01-08.

Geohashing expedition 2018-11-09 51 -3

This checkin to geohash 2018-11-09 51 -3 reflects a geohashing expedition. See more of Dan's hash logs.

Location

Field near Whitefield Rocks, Langley Marsh. Google Maps says its a nowhere-place but OpenStreetMap suggests there’s a footpath right by the hashpoint.

Participants

Dan Q

Plans

Okay, I’m going for it! I’m driving from Oxford to Penzance this morning and having just watched the sun rise over Sedgemoor Services off the M5 I’ve determined that I’m ahead of schedule by enough that I can justify a diversion, so I’m going to try for this hashpoint as I “pass”. Typing from mobile, apologies for lack of formatting ans any spelling errors; I’ll fix them later.

Expedition

Driving from Oxford to Penzance in the world’s-smallest-rental-car isn’t a fun adventure. What is fun, though, is hitting up a graticule I’ve never hashed in before to see if I can find the day’s hashpoint while en-route.

Parking the awfulmobile in a country lane, I followed the road and then a country footpath towards the hashpoint. I say “footpath”, but the public right of way was in dire need of maintenance and the nettles and hedges were encroaching badly upon it. Which was troublesome, because the other side of the footpath was marked by an electric fence that I didn’t want to touch, and so I had to shuffle sideways-at-times through the first field. The second field was easier-going, and I got a great view of the distant storm beginning to roll in which would soak me later, as I hid adventure-game clues atop a cliff near Penzance. The third field appeared to be where the hashpoint would be, and it was crossed by the public right of way, but I was surprised to find that the electric fence returned and now barred my way. Luckily its owner had seen fit to put a length of plastic piping around the live wire so it was possible to jump over without burning my crotch, but this seemed a little not-the-done-thing regardless.

The hashpoint was right in the middle of the field and an easy find. Certainly easier than the short-but-exciting hike there and back.

Photos

The gap between the electric fence and the bushes is allegedly a footpath

Nothing but farmland for miles around - the nearest settlement in the distance — Nothing but farmland for miles around – the nearest settlement in the distance

That looks like a safe concession to your electric fence crossing a right of way

Dan doing a stupid grin — The stupidest of grins

Geohashing expedition 2018-10-16 52 -0

This checkin to geohash 2018-10-16 52 -0 reflects a geohashing expedition. See more of Dan's hash logs.

Location

Alongside a lane that runs through the Quinton Green Business Park, South of the village of Quinton.

Participants

Dan Q

Plans

I’ve got an exam in Milton Keynes in the afternoon, so it’d be only a minor diversion for me to come and try to visit this roadside hashpoint. I hope to be there about 10:30.

Expedition

Failed to turn on the tracklogger on my GPS, but I remembered to get photos at least. This was a quick and easy run, although I did get accosted by a local who saw me hanging around near the wind farm and putting up a sign… I think that after the controversy these epic windmills caused he might have thought that I was putting up a planning notice to erect some more or something. Once I explained what I was doing he seemed happy enough.

Used my new 360° full-panoramic camera to take a picture at the hashpoint; I’ll put a VR-ready version on my website and link it here when I get the chance.

Photos

A silly grin is traditional, but a frown was better-suited to the weather. — Silly frown?

Windmills over a motorway — M1 Wind Farm, beyond the M1 itself

Geohashing sign attached to a convenient sign post. — The Internet was here!

Sign describing the M1 Wind Farm — There are windmills here. Leave them alone.

Geohashing expedition 2018-08-23 50 -1

This checkin to geohash 2018-08-23 50 -1 reflects a geohashing expedition. See more of Dan's hash logs.

Location

Hyden Wood, near Chidden. The woods look to be criss-crossed with footpaths, so this might be pretty achievable.

Participants

Dan Q

Plans

I’d originally planned on heading to 2018-08-23 51 -1 because I anticipated that it’d be on or near my route travelling South along almost the entire length of the 51 -1 graticule, but I didn’t bargain on such a Northerly hashpoint so I’ve changed plans and am now aiming to get to this one some time in the morning (I’m hoping to be in Winchester by lunch).

Expedition

The full story’s in vlog format, but here’s the summary:

Wasn’t originally planning to come to this graticule but instead was going to go to the 51 -1 graticule where I live ([2018-08-23 51 -1 see here]): I was going to be driving almost the entire length of 51 -1 on a journey from Oxford to Winchester anyway, so I figured it’d be easy to divert to any hashpoint. But when the Dow numbers came out, it turned out that the hashpoints in this quadrant of the Earth are all in the North-East corner, and so my journey would be in the opposite direction. Oh no! So instead I decided to “overshoot” and go for this graticule instead, and thus (if successful) expand my Minesweeper Achievement level.
Hashpoint deep in woodland in the beautiful South Downs National Park. Parked at The Sustainability Centre (and later made a donation via their website in thanks for the use of their car park despite not using their other facilities) and walked initially through woodland they manage and use for natural burials: this was really cool – I’ve always been a fan of body disposal in a low-environmental-impact, no-permanent-markers kind-of way, so I’m going to look more into what they offer. I was really interested to see that many families had left “named” bird nesting boxes in memory of their loved ones, which is awesome too.
Found geocache GC2X5BJ just outside the burial area and close to a point that gave me a great view across a valley towards the woods in which I believed I’d find the hashpoint.
Had to go some way off track to get to the hashpoint, but discovered a network of old, overgrown, long-abandoned (and not on any map I can find) trails in-between the thicket. In fact, the hashpoint eventually turned out to be on the edge of such a track, which I was able to follow to help me find my way back to a road.
Found a sign pointing to “Droxford”. Oxford is so-named because its location coincides with the most-downstream point on the Thames at which it’s possible to ford the river while driving cattle (i.e. “ox ford”) – incidentally, I’m told, the ford was at the point that Folly Bridge now stands. But what’s the etymology of Droxford, I wonder. What the hell is a drox???
On the way back, diverted by geocache GC5P5KN and found it: this was a great cache with the best-made variant of the particular kind of container it used that I’ve ever seen.

Update: A little research later, it seems that the “ox” in each of Oxford and Droxford have completely different etymological roots! Droxford is derived from an ancient name for the area from some time prior to the Middle Ages: Drocenesforda. “Drocen” means “dry”: the name means “dry ford”. The River Meon, which flows through the area, flows shallow over a chalky bed and is easily forded in many places, as these motorcyclists show. The things you learn!

Tracklog

Download full tracklog (includes boring bit where I drive down the A34, too…)

Video

My vlog of the expedition (also on QTube), for if you like to watch a sweaty man complain about there being too many trees in the woods

Photos

Dan in the woods — Heading into the forest.

Dan near the forest. — Heading into the forest… and trying to smile about it despite the imminent drizzle.

South Downs Natural Burial Site. — Well, that’s one way to dispose of a body.

View across the valley. — View across the valley to the woods on the other side.

Barbed wire fence. — No shortcuts here, though: going to have to go around!

Path to the woods with the hashpoint. — This path looks promising, though, and might get me somewhere near the hashpoint.

GPSr showing 0m distance to target. — Ground zero!

Dan with silly grin. — Traditional geohashpoint “silly grin”. Complete with dampness and leaves and debris stuck all over me.

Panorama of the hashpoint. It sort-of coincided with a long-abandoned (and not on the map!) trail.

Geocache in a fencepost. — Awesome geocache hiding place.

Geocache removed from a fencepost. — Lift off the top of the entire post and the container is inside. Genius.

My journey to the hashpoint began with about an hour and a half’s driving, but most of it I was going to do anyway.

Walking part of the journey to the hashpoint. — Annotated map showing the walking portion of the route.

Geohashing expedition 2018-08-22 52 -1

This checkin to geohash 2018-08-22 52 -1 reflects a geohashing expedition. See more of Dan's hash logs.

Location

Field with public footpath, East Adderbury.

Participants

Dan Q

Plans

I’m keen to get to level 2 of the Minesweeper Geohash achievement, and this far-South-of-graticule hashpoint represents an opportunity to achieve that. I’ll be at work during the day, but – energy levels permitting after what’ll have been a long day! – I’ll find a way to get up here and see if I can get to the hashpoint, aiming to arrive probably around 18:30.

Expedition

It had been a long day at work, but it looked to be a beautiful evening and I promised myself a pub dinner if I made it to the hashpoint, so I set out by car and by foot to East Adderbury, the village nearest to the hashpoint. The village itself is stunning: lots of old stone buildings, a very traditional bridge, and beautiful green spaces. I spotted not one but two candidate pubs (The Red Lion and The Coach & Horses) as I passed through the village, which was a reassuring start, and then pressed on down a lane which quickly became a narrow trail, waving to some cows along the way (why do I always seem to meet cattle on my hashing adventures?).

The trail was full of blackberries so I wasn’t short of a snack, but it soon became clear that it wouldn’t get me any closer than 35m to the hashpoint. I returned to the entrance to the cows’ field and, hopping a stile, crossed it. The cows looked puzzled as I paced around, getting to ground zero, but didn’t object. After shooting the traditional silly grin, I turned tail and headed back into the village and to the Coach & Horses, which proved to be the very essence of a British village pub: a husband and wife couple running it, dogs everywhere, a jar of pickled onions behind the bar, and more beers than you can shake a stick at.

I did enjoy a rather unusual conversation at the bar, though –

 Me: Can I get a ham, egg, and chips please. And a pint of bitter shandy.
 Barman: One egg or two?
 Me: Oh! Two, please.
 Barman: (Pause) We haven't got any eggs.
 Me: Uhh. Okay; no eggs then.
 Barman's wife: We've got one egg.
 Barman: We've got one egg.
 Me: I'll have one egg, then.
 
 (I go and sit outside; after a while, my meal arrives. There are two eggs.)
 
 Barman's wife: I found another egg.
 Me: ...

A fuller description of the entire adventure can found in the vlog I made along the way.

Tracklog

Download full GPX tracklog

Video

I filmed my adventure in a vloggy format, complete with doubling-back, talking to cows, and anecdotes about pub food. Watch it on YouTube or on QTube.

Photos

Achievements

Dan Q achieved level 2 of the Minesweeper Geohash achievement

by visiting coordinates in Swindon, United Kingdom and 2 of the surrounding graticules.

A footpath - this looks promising... — A footpath – this looks promising…

Dark clouds overhead. Hope the weather holds!

Pub with WiFi password visible. — Take a look at that WiFi password! (Also, good-looking pickled eggs!)

Dan drinking shandy. — Pint of shandy while I wait for my chips with no, I mean one, I mean two eggs.

Ham, egg, and chips. — A well-earned dinner at last. With eggs. Two of them.

Geohashing expedition 2018-08-07 51 -1

This checkin to geohash 2018-08-07 51 -1 reflects a geohashing expedition. See more of Dan's hash logs.

Dan cycling to a hashpoint. — Setting out by bike to the hashpoint.

Overgrown footpath. — This footpath is less overgrown than I feared it might turn out to be.

Dan's bike by a narrow footbridge over a dyke. — But eventually my bike had to be left behind and I carried on alone.

Dan at geohashpoint 2018-08-07 51 -1. — Success! Silly grin engaged as I stand at the hashpoint.

First field on the geohash expedition. — The fields had recently been harvested of their corn.

Panorama around hashpoint 2018-08-07 51 -1. — It’s a whole lot of fields (panoramic photograph).

Surprise gasometer — On the way home, I spotted a gasometer and photographed/filmed it for my US friends (they’re even rarer in the US than here)!

Gasometer entry gate — For obvious reaosns, they don’t let idiots like me get up-close with enormous containers full of flammable gas, even when (like this one) they’re actually empty.

Screenshot from Geohashing app showing hashpoint reached — Success! Because I didn’t EXPECT to be hashing today, I didn’t have my GPSr and so didn’t make a tracklog, but my phone managed to get me there.

Location

A field South of Oxford

Participants

Dan Q

Plans

My meeting this afternoon got cancelled and my nearest hashpoint is only 6.5km (4 miles) away from my office. I can get this!

Expedition

After a productive morning’s work, I was genuinely slightly disappointed that a meeting I was scheduled to have this afternoon had to be rescheduled. But on the other hand… that meant that I could get away with extending my lunch break slightly and getting out to the hashpoint! I’d initially worried that it’d be inaccessibly buried on private land when Google Maps and satellite photography showed it to be deep in a block of cornfields, but OpenStreetMap came to the rescue and showed a public footpath somewhere in the very close vicinity of the target coordinates. And so, jumping aboard my bike, I set out!

600m from the coordinates I ran out of road and switched to the footpath, which I was pleased to discover was in reasonably-good condition: many underused local footpaths are not being very well-maintained at the moment and are often overgrown, but I was even able to bring my bike along this one and into the first field, although I had to push it rather than ride and I soon learned the error of my ways when the terrain got even rougher and I reached a narrow bridge – too narrow for my bike – spanning a dyke and entering the second field. Both fields had recently been cleared of corn, and whatever route the official footpath was supposed to take became rapidly unclear, but that’s probably for the best because I’m pretty sure I wasn’t on it by the time I reached the edge of the next field.

The hashpoint seemed to be along the fence somewhere so I followed it along – waving to some nearby cows – until my phone told me that I was under 3m from the spot. Hurrah! I snapped a panorama photo and started heading back, pausing a few times when I realised that I really, really couldn’t find where I’d left my bike. On the cycle home I passed a Gasometer which, because I’m told they’re super-rare in the USA, I thought I’d snap a picture of for those of you who ‘hash on the other side of the pond to oggle at.

Video

I actually remembered to shoot video of this expedition (well, all within a kilometre of the hashpoint and mostly within the last 350 metres!). It’s mostly just me rambling as I ramble, although there’s (brief) explanation of the Surprise Gasometer for those of you who live in countries where you don’t routinely see these interesting structures:

Photos