Around the World in What3Words
Sometimes the universe gives you its stamp of approval in a not so subtle way. Like the time I opened a fortune cookie just before leaving for Burning Man —
Bingo! The cosmos got that right.
Recently, while sitting at my desk pondering the complexities of Russian train schedules across Siberia, I opened up my new favorite map app What3Words (map.what3words.com). The creators of this handy locator have placed a 3m-x-3m grid over the entire planet — fifty-seven TRILLION squares — with each square having been assigned a three-word moniker.
It’s quite a useful app at times. Say you want to meet up with a friend at an outdoor music festival. Google maps can get you to the festival. But finding her exact location in the midst of thousands of people on a ten-acre plot? Google luck!
But if your friend gives you her three-word location, you can navigate to that exact spot.
In fact that scenario is how this app came to be. The original developer was working in the music festival business. And he was always having trouble getting people and equipment to the right spot in the middle of an address-less nowhere. What3words solved the problem.
The app is now being used by delivery businesses, race teams tracking cars during the 2017 Mongol Rally, and assisting travelers to find the right door to some Airbnbs. Even the Mongolian postal service uses it to find nomadic families roaming the Gobi.
Now back to my story of planning a circumnavigation of the planet. As it happened the exact location where I was sitting making travel plans is registered as: travels.listed.giddy.
Well I was certainly giddy about that nod from the cosmos. Of all the addresses possible that particular, computer-generated moniker certainly proved prescient.
Come early August I will depart my home base for soft.tweeted.tips. From there I’ll take a 10,000+ mile train ride east to trickster.narrowest.pirates. That is the longest, continuous train journey on the planet.
If anyone cares to follow along — or meet up along the way — listed below is my general itinerary. Shoot me an email for exact dates and three-word-addresses.
Would love to hear about your experiences with what3words. Perhaps over a over a glass of fermented mare’s milk in typically.rails.chip.
Follow along:
Instagram: his.last.known.location
Contact:
email: his.last.known.location@gmail.com
Wheels up August 03, 2017:
August — loving.issued.hips
August— underway.info.records
August — soft.tweeted.tips
August — trading.note.flows
August — personal.spared.potions
August — boost.conquest.defender
August — bonkers.develop.that
September— hopes.mentions.balance
September — tinny.liquefy.trickle
September — degradable.counteracts.coffeepot
September — typically.rails.chip
September — birds.duck.pointer
September — lovely.rigs.quilting
September— trickster.narrowest.pirates
October— ancient.jabbering.moonstone
October — twisting.rigid.owners
October— solar.fortunate.hill
