User:Benjw

From Geo Hashing

31 / m / 52,0

Me, Staffordshire, summer 2008

Benjw lives in Cambridge, UK (the city as well as the graticule), and has been geohashing since the beginning of 2009. Ben uses a Garmin eTrex GPSr, which at least makes it possible to go geohashing even when the hashpoint is in the anonymous middle of a field -- which it frequently is, in this graticule.

So far I've driven to most of my hashes, but would like to make more of my expeditions by bicycle or on foot. I've achieved one target by completing a double hash by bicycle (expeditions here and here), and my next target is a round trip of at least 100km -- possibly including the first all-bicycle triple hash (the proximity of the prime meridian makes that a little easier here!). I had an attempt at this on 2009-04-23 and cycled to two hashpoints in 53 km, but wasn't quite fit enough to make it to the third.

1 Current activity
- 1.1 Wiki activity
2 Past expeditions
- 2.1 2009 expeditions
3 Shiny ribbons earned

[edit] Current activity

I am still working full-time, but have now stopped being a full-time student (maths) as well, or at least until the end of January. However, I am currently in the middle of moving house, with all that entails, so geohashing is still on hold for a bit.

[edit] Wiki activity

There are a number of 'projects' I am involved in on the wiki at the moment:

A lot of my own expedition reports are not fully (or at all) written yet. Tut.

Maintaining the United Kingdom page and many of the UK graticule pages.
Categorising all the uncategorised photos (~~about 3000~~ ~~2933~~ ~~2818~~ ~~2612~~ ~~2494~~ 2818 of them).
Trying to make sure that the automatically-generated graticule pages are country-categorised correctly.
In particular, almost everything in Australia should probably be categorised by state, not country.
Obsessively correcting typos as I find them.
Helping to tidy up the mess that is the capitalisation of achievement names.
The subcategory tree for Category:Geohashers is also a complete mess and I'd like to sort that out.
Naming graticules for the edges of Europe and the Pacific islands.

[edit] Past expeditions

My UK geohashes (courtesy of Hessophanes's generator).

I've been on 28 successful geohashes in 5 different graticules, with no failures (yet).

Expeditions	Successes	Graticule
18	18	52,0: Cambridge
6	6	52,-0: Northampton
1	1	51,0: London East 52,1: Norwich 51,-0: London West 52,-1: Birmingham

My geohashes have been part of 23 different expeditions -- 18 by car, 4 by bicycle and 1 on public transport. I've not mixed any modes of transport yet! I've also hashed on every day of the week, and have been to 2 Saturday meetups so far.

I put my expedition photos into their own category so I can find them again easily. All geohashes in the list below are in the Cambridge graticule, unless stated otherwise.

[edit] 2009 expeditions

No expeditions in October.

2009-09-30 52 -0 (Wed): #28. An international meetup with Pi and srs0 in some bushes in Ampthill.
2009-09-29 52 0 (Tue): #27. On the road in Fordham, but too near a junction for a speed racer.

No expeditions during May-August.

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.
2009-04-27 52 0 (Mon): #25. Speed racer in March. Completely forgot to get out of the car!
2009-04-24 52 0 (Fri): #24. In a garden in More's Meadow, Great Shelford. 14.4 km Bicycle geohash and Ambassador hash.
2009-04-23 (Thu): Retrohashed 2009-04-03 52 0 because it was on the way home anyway.
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 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 -0 (Thu): #22. In Waresley Wood nature reserve, Great Gransden (Northampton grat). Bicycle hash (25.5 km) and Hash collision honourable mention (370m).
2009-04-09 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.
2009-04-08 52 0 (Wed): #20. Field Geohash outside Burwell. Intended to cycle but still tired from yesterday. Second Consecutive Geohash.
2009-04-07 52 0 (Tue): #19. 44.3km Bicycle Geohash to a farm in Dullingham, near Newmarket. Ambassador needed but successful.
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.

2009-03-28 52 0 (Sat): #17. Saturday meetup Field Geohash in Ousden, near Newmarket. Just missed the hail storm.
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.
2009-03-23 52 0 (Mon): #15. The side of a house in Hauxton, near Cambridge. Intended Ambassador but nobody home.
2009-03-19 52 0 (Thu): Planned a Field Geohash between Stretham and Ely, but didn't actually make it in the end.
2009-03-16 52 0 (Mon): #14. Field Geohash in Kentford; second Consecutive Geohash, and a Public Transport Geohash (train, and 8.4km on foot).
2009-03-15 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.
2009-03-11 52 -0 (Wed): #12. Field Geohash in Guilden Morden (Northampton grat); second part of a Double Geohash.
2009-03-11 52 0 (Wed): #11. Field Geohash in Duxford. Lovely views over Thriplow.
2009-03-09 52 -0 (Mon): #10. Field Geohash in Peterborough (Northampton grat), as the sun set. Third part of a Triple Geohash.
2009-03-09 52 0 (Mon): #9. A field (surprise, surprise) near Outwell. Second part of a Triple Geohash.
2009-03-09 52 1 (Mon): #8. Woodland owned by the UEA, just outside Norwich. First recorded hash in this Virgin Graticule.
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.

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

2009-01-31 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.
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.
2009-01-26 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.
2009-01-15 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.