Geograph - photograph every grid square

Having completed all my adjacent myriads the far easier job of completing my first hectad could be carried out, needing 10 squares of the 100 around the edge of Hertfordshire and two in Trent Park. I expected it to require two trips as however careful you are it's easy to miss the odd border, and as Trent Park had few clear landmarks used the pond as my second square out from the car park and assumed the other one I needed was en route.

I covered the roads easily through the back of Enfield, and required a half mile walk or so into Middlesex University before trekking through the long grass and mud to the pond beyond it. I got some very nice pictures as a result like this and this and when I got home found the monument I hadn't taken was in the second closer square I needed and then there were two to the west I hadn't seen as were covered by the blue line on our personal maps and hadn't zoomed in to see them. So day two meant heading due north, and when I arrived in Dyrham Park discovered the dreaded feature none of us want to see with a camera, a locked gate. Although there were roads on the map into the square we couldn't use them, but used the pylon and buildings as my guide as the square was maybe 100 yards along the track, and climbed over the gate to run as far along as possible to prove where it was using the features. Then the black clouds let the rain go, and was soaked on returning to the car. That was bad enough, but meant when I got to Trent Park for the same walk minus the University as yesterday I would be doing it with wet clothes. The square illustrated was the third required and sensibly through the car door window. My small umbrella covered my head for the walk along this route which goes on and on and on, to this point guaranteed to be in TQ2897 where I'd just been right across the day before with only a few possible photos but not able to add as they may have straddled a line and I had no certainty which side they were.

The monument was however a certainty and almost took it the first time but had put all my focus into guaranteeing the certainty of TQ2997 to realise the ones I took at the end of Snakes Lane and the long road were too far south and the monument wasn't. I always appreciate the exercise but after completing the mission all that water was on me, through the jacket to the shirt (it was fine when I left so didn't take a raincoat) and trousers. But that was the hectad completed, and the obvious answer to why the final squares were left was they were all the hardest to get to. Two others were either at the end of a dead end or off road altogether, so had to walk along Arkley Lane to Saffron Green which is a large recently built nature park with the only road through TQ2197 being the A1 which would need a lucky shot from a car window with someone else to drive, which is a lot less work than walking along a footpath. It was a second geograph though so clearly not a popular route.

Looking at my personal map the three around me left are all possible, with TQ18 being by far the easiest as the remainder is just a winding route round Hounslow and Southall, although I'm guessing one or two are bound to be demanding, TQ19 is not so easy as needs the whole of Watford which is across a river and almost impossible to get past nowadays as the current population is simply too great for the old road system to carry, and would need to go north and come back in to avoid the two bottlenecks which is why that row of squares is still missing as I had to turn back twice in the past. TQ28 includes the whole of central London, ie the congestion charge and no parking, so I may try on a Sunday if they let you use the yellow lines and mop up Soho and Mayfair, and probably need everything round Hyde Park which isn't the square below it. I've still got my distance ambitions during the long days, I planned one record breaker after the 8th myriad which was just before Romsey to add nearly 10 miles to my main personal mission, the longest distance between two points. It's only about 113 miles from the other in Tillingham, and will do the exact calculation with the map references when I have the patience. The next trip is for road signs two miles away from an existing trip near Crowborough, but they are my photographic priority as TM and TR will be there long after I've gone but old road signs could be gone tomorrow. Then the Cotswolds and my summer plans will be completed.

When

Sun, 22 Jul 2012 at 20:30

Grid Square

TQ2897

Chosen Photo

Dancers Hill Road, Bentley Heath by David Howard for square TQ2499