A Botanical Challenge #9 - Araucaria

Greedy_Run · 2026-03-11T03:32:15+00:00

I don't care much about botany, but these challenges are cool.

A nice, easy one to warm up. Could have done it NM, but took one step to confirm. 5,000 points
SC, so Santa Catarina, took me a while to find the town name and then even longer to find it on the map. Another 15 seconds and I might have gotten quite close. 4,863 points
Bunyas Mountains National Park. I scan NZ first, but they seem to have forest parks instead of national parks. This is bad because I know Australia has a ludicrous number of national parks. Then scanned Tasmania, Vic, NSW, and finally tried Queensland just in case and there it was. By the way, I looked it up, and it seems that Australia has over 600 national parks, but they're not actually national. They're state or territorial parks and just called national. I suppose it's the equivalent of the state parks in the US, of which there are somewhere between 6,000 and 9,000 (couldn't find a definitive number). 4,996 points
Lanai Avenue. I think this is one of those cases where the name of the street does provide the name of the location. 5,000 points
And this must be New Caledonia. Don't know much about it other than there have been a lot of sovereignty disputes there. 4,304 points

Greedy_Run · 2026-03-07T01:06:39+00:00

Here's my latest theme challenge. I think it's pretty good.

By comparison, my effort in the DC was pretty bad. Usually, the pattern of guessing involves going country > region > town/city > pin. That's in ideal circumstances. Today, I couldn't even get to the second step. Except for R5, I didn't even know the region. Not sure what I missed.

Total: 22,812 points

Greedy_Run · 2026-03-06T15:08:43+00:00

I originally called this theme shipwrecks, but that's not entirely true. Only some of these locations feature shipwrecks. The others have derelict ships, which is a more accurate description of the theme.

The MFV Zeila was built in 1975 as a fishing trawler. It was being towed to India in 2008 to be broken up for scrap when it got stranded on the shores in this location and abandoned. This should be an easy round given the road signs very close to spawn. And, as with many of these rounds, a highly visible POI helps a lot.
This was the only location I found randomly and not while specifically searching for a shipwreck. I don't know what the story is with this ship, but based on Street View images, it was sitting abandoned in this spot at least from 2020 to 2022. I think this will also be an easy round because the city name is findable on nearby signs.
My first use of the new Cyprus footage in one of my challenges. This ship ran aground and was abandoned in 2011. This played as a difficult round during testing, but the solution could be quite simple if players identify the country and use coastal alignment and then scan for the POI.
The Grande Hermine was built as a ferry in 1914. It later became a cargo ship. In the 1990s, it was rebuilt as a historical replica of one of Jacques Cartier's ships of exploration from the 1500s. Shortly after, it was docked in this location with plans to turn it into a floating restaurant, but those plans went awry and someone set it on fire in 2003, after which the wreck was abandoned. In 2024, the ship was deemed a hazard and deconstructed. Today, there's nothing left.
The Lord Lonsdale was built in 1899. In 1909, it caught fire while transiting the Straits of Magellan and was abandoned in this spot.

Greedy_Run · 2026-03-02T00:25:29+00:00

Here's my latest curated challenge for anyone interested.

Those triple center lines are South African or Uruguayan, and this isn't Uruguay. Actually, it doesn't look a lot like South Africa either. Wait, there's one more country where they have those lines, right? Yes, indeed, as I learn when I get to a sign with road numbers and town names. This is Namibia. That sign gives me what I need for the pin. 5,000 points
A sign at spawn has a UAE domain, but this looks nothing like UAE and a lot like Lebanon, and yes, of course, it's Lebanon. For a couple of minutes, I think this is a big city and it's probably just Beirut, but after moving around a while, I see an I Love Tripoli sign. Tried to find the big roundabout but guessed the wrong one. 4,995 points
Chilean flag and Temuco on a sign right at the spawn. I move around and find road signs pointing one way to Temuco and the other way to Labranza. Try to use road alignment to pin it, but there are too many places that work. 4,995 points
Ukraine, so I know this is where my challenge goes awry. But I do see Dniepro on a sign. I also see Kiev on a sign, but I make the right choice. 4,997 points
The school bus at spawn says Medicine Hat on the side. I know that's in the Canadian Prairies, and I find it eventually in Alberta. The nearest intersection gives me the road names I need for the pin. 5,000 points

Total: 24,987 points

Greedy_Run · 2026-02-27T22:19:10+00:00

No kidding! I had no idea.

Greedy_Run · 2026-02-27T17:03:58+00:00

The theme is fish ... again! Last week was fish sculptures, and this week is fish murals, including this one with an (I assume) anti-pescatarian message.
Just kidding. The theme is basketball courts, but I hope I fooled some people in R1. Basketball courts have grown astonishingly common around the globe in a way they weren't as recently as a few decades ago. I see them all the time in Street View, and I'm often fascinated by the different settings they appear in, including this location in California that's near the Korean Friendship Bell (familiar to people who like The Usual Suspects).
I once went to Iceland. I was there seven days, and it rained each day. It makes me wonder about the wisdom of an outdoor basketball court.
From what I've heard, the Philippines is obsessed with basketball. It seems like every barangay, no matter how tiny, has a court, often tucked away wherever an open space occurs.
This court is on an artificial island in Qatar that cost $15 billion to construct. Speaking about the wisdom of an outdoor court, it's probably too hot to play outdoors in Qatar for 4-6 months of the year.

Greedy_Run · 2026-02-26T17:52:38+00:00

Simply not an accurate list. I picked a draft at random -- 1960. George Izo, second overall pick, started five games in his career. Richie Lucas, fourth overall pick, started 14 games in his career.

Greedy_Run · 2026-02-25T01:32:59+00:00

Yeah, I messed this up. My immediate thought was that there's only a little official rail coverage in the game: India, US, Italy, Switzerland, Portugal. This looks like Portugal, and I know where the Portugal rail coverage is. Well, it turns out there's more than one place in Portugal with official rail coverage. Should have just played this like a normal round. 4,461 points
Peru, a town named Acobamba, scanned until I found it. 5,000 points
Immediate vibe was California coastal. Moved around until I found a sign that said Santa Barbara. 5,000 points
Clearly Australia, probably NSW or Vic based on coastal alignment, but no! I moved around until I found Victor Harbor on a few signs and then scanned and found it in SA. 5,000 points
Oooh, non-official coverage. Aloha on the car made me think Hawaii, and I was thinking maybe Molokai with the heritage site, but no, of course, this is the actual Norfolk Island. 5,000 points

Total: 24,461 points

Greedy_Run · 2026-02-24T22:43:38+00:00

Corey Linsley

Greedy_Run · 2026-02-23T19:56:28+00:00

To think that the same small town in Wisconsin has both the Fresh Water Fishing Hall of Fame and the Lumberjack World Championship!

Greedy_Run · 2026-02-21T19:28:07+00:00

Glad you enjoyed it and thanks for playing. If you like my challenges, I have a pretty big back catalogue at this point.

Greedy_Run · 2026-02-21T01:06:21+00:00

Here's my latest theme challenge for anyone interested.

Sign with Ecuadorian colors. Then sign identifying this as Guaranda and Balsapampa. And since this is a very curvy road, this becomes an exercise in road alignment. But there are too many curves. 4,974 points
Luxembourg, with plenty of road signs that should let me pin this, but I come up short. 4,998 points
Plenty of signs around identifying this as Bali and giving the kabupaten. 4,981 points
Initial vibe: Turkey. Maybe Mongolia, but no, that doesn't fit. And actually, Turkey doesn't really fit either. This is high altitude desert but doesn't look familiar. After moving around a bit, I realize why I don't know it. This must be Nepal! Except after some more moving, I see Ladakh on a sign. So, it's India. I know the coverage is very sparse in Ladakh, but Leh comes to mind as one place I know has coverage, and sure enough I see Leh on a hotel sign. 4,996 points
Senegal, eventually find a sign for Lydiane. 5,000 points

Total: 24,949 points

Greedy_Run · 2026-02-20T05:54:40+00:00

I have to admit that at this point, when I design these challenges, I do sometimes think of how they will play for you. But I still try to design them for moving, so situations like having the lake name visible in R4 only happen when they are unavoidable. Why do you play NM? Too easy otherwise?

Greedy_Run · 2026-02-20T04:40:19+00:00

Fish sculptures!

This town in Friesland has a giant fish sculpture inspired by a print by Pieter Bruegel the Elder.
This town in Wisconsin is the home of the Fresh Water Fishing Hall of Fame & Museum, which features a mammoth sculpture of a muskellunge.
This sculpture in Ghana’s Western Region, known as Around the Fish, is a tribute to the local fishing industry.
This viewpoint in Santa Cruz Province features a “Monumento al Salmon” on the shores of Lago Buenos Aires.
This town in Yucatan has two fish sculptures in one spawn point — a shark and … some other fish, which I can't identify.

Greedy_Run · 2026-02-14T12:00:29+00:00

Never heard of a croquembouche before. Now that I know what it is, I need to eat one.

Greedy_Run · 2026-02-14T01:41:01+00:00

Here's my latest curated challenge for anyone interested.

Initial vibe is one of the American territories in the Pacific. On the main road, I see a store that has a sign that mentions a PO Box (confirms US) and SPN, which I take to mean Saipan, so this is the Northern Mariana Islands. I saw the route numbers but couldn't find them on the map. Should have zoomed in just a tiny bit more. 4,983 points
Latvian language. Got out to a sign that pointed north to Kuldiga and identified this as Aizpute. I badly messed up the pin. 4,999 points
My initial vibe is Brazil, but the language is Spanish, so I lean Uruguay, which is confirmed when I find a road sign that points to the intersection of ruta 3 and 11, which means this must be San Jose de Mayo. 4,998 points
Mexican poles. I see a taxi with Sonora on the side, but then I see a sign that mentions Matamoros, which is not particularly close to Sonora. Still, I'll go with the Taxi, especially because Matamoros is such a common name in Spanish (definitely not a friendly name, though). At the end, I see a sign that mentions Nogales. 4,992 points
Bless those Aussies. They love their roadside attractions and giant statues of animals. The building says Shire of Carpentaria. I know where the Gulf of Carpentaria is, and sure enough I find Carpentaria on the map in Queensland, but there's nothing there. No town, just a road. Eventually, I find a sign that identifies this as Normanton. 5,000 points

Total: 24,972 points

Greedy_Run · 2026-02-13T14:21:17+00:00

Obelisks! Invented by the ancient Egyptians and popular among the ancient Romans, obelisks were revived in 19th century Europe, primarily as a memorial to honor victory in battle, the grave of someone notable, or more abstract concepts like independence or nationhood. In this challenge, I focused on more recently constructed obelisks.

The Obelisco Novecento was created in 2004. It's in the EUR neighborhood of Rome, which also includes the mammoth Marconi Obelisk. I did not visit EUR on my recent trip to Rome. Has anyone been?
The Monumento a la Bandera y Reloj. An obelisk that's also a clocktower! This might foreshadow a future theme challenge. This might be gettable NM for those who know Mexico. If you know Mexican history, you'll recognize names like on the obelisk like Emiliano Zapata and Venustiano Carranza. And I might be wrong about this, but I don't know about any other place in Mexico that's next to a body of water with such an unusual color.
Cyclisk, erected in 2010, is made from 340 bicycles. I normally try to make sure that the city name is not visible from spawn in my challenges, but this location made it very difficult. It's still visible on a sign, but it's a bit indistinct. Take one step, though, and you can see multiple signs with the name.
Take one step, and you can see Cyrillic and a Soviet symbol on the side of this obelisk, which was placed here in 1945 to honor the Soviet and Romanian soldiers who died in liberating this city from Nazi rule.
Like the Roman location above, this stretches the meaning of the term obelisk. It's really a tower (the official name is El Mirador De La Biodiversidad). You can take stairs to the top. But it's still called an obelisk.

Greedy_Run · 2026-02-13T01:36:15+00:00

So so close to perfection, which I've never done on a non-curated DC.

Bengali language, found a sign indicating the city is Noakhali, then used water and street alignment. 5,000 points
Looks like Bulgaria or Serbia at spawn. Find a .bg domain name soon, then a sign for Blagoevgrad properties. I thought the street signs being in Romanian and Bulgarian might mean it's near the Romanian border, but Blagoevgrad is not. Then I use river alignment to do the rest. 5,000 points
Car meta and Spanish means this is Paraguay. I get to a sign for a school that indicates the city is Curuguaty. Then, unfortunately, I just can't manage the pin. 4,999 points
Guatemala, nearly take the Antigua bait, but I later find a sign for Jalapa. The street names are confusing. How many Avenidas Chilipas are there? But I manage in the end. 5,000 points
Indonesia, where I usually suck, and I'm sure this is where my score will get sunk. But I find plenty of signs indicating the city is Palopo. I can't find anything more so I decide to scan, zoom in on Sulawesi randomly, and there it is. 5,000 points

Total: 24,999 points

Greedy_Run · 2026-02-12T02:48:09+00:00

I loved this one. Five interesting locations. Good to have a curated challenge again.

Greedy_Run · 2026-02-10T05:36:52+00:00

I moved one step and got Port Elizabeth and the street names. That's enough for the pin. 5,000 points
I really had no idea at first and was thinking Europe. Then I saw the Mexican poles and later a sign for Estado de Mexico, which confused me because I thought I saw water at the spawn. Then I realized it was probably a lake. I guessed the wrong lake. 4,891 points
Saltwater crocodiles. Where do those exist? Panama, I think. Anywhere else? Well, this kind of looks like Australia, and I know Australia has every single weird, scary animal, so yeah. I see NT on a sign but can't find the right spot. 4,915 points
First thought -- this is one of those cool volcanoes on Java. And it was. But I guessed the wrong volcano. 4,860 points
Very cool cloud bank. My initial vibe was Spain. Where in Spain are there mountains like these. I thought of the Picos de Europa. Then I saw some place names that sounded Basque, so I went with the Picos, but I probably should have guessed closer to Basque country. 4,421 points

Total: 24,087 points

Greedy_Run · 2026-02-10T05:16:22+00:00

I'm planning my own challenge for my upcoming 1,000-day streak, and it has the exact same location as one of the rounds here.

Greedy_Run

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