In this world, there are just 2 things that will always make me instantly drop whatever I’m doing and snap to attention… someone asking “who wants a beer?” and geolocation challenges.
Just the other day, Gordon Farrer (@post_fact), who is too far away to offer me a cold tinny as I believe they call it down there, presented a geolocation challenge on Twitter instead. Of course, I had to drop everything and give it a try!
Spoiler alert: just in case the title didn’t hit you over the head, this blog is going to explain what the answer is and how to get there. If you want to do the challenge yourself, this is where you get off!
The image, taken through a window looking out over a road, did not offer many clues at first glance… but that’s the joy of these challenges! You have to seek out all the clues available to you, no matter how small, analyze them, process them, fit them together, make some educated guesses, and then do the hard work of searching. Since this particular challenge offered some unique elements, I thought I’d take you through how I solved it, and give you some tips for doing geolocation challenges of your own.
Gordon asked us to answer 2 questions, and a bonus:
Where was I when I took this photo?
Can you show the view of the window from the outside?
Bonus: Where is the nearest Koala?
Before we get started, I want to say that Gordon was nice enough to give us a head start by using the hashtag #geolocationdownunder in the tweet, and a bit of quick research on his Twitter profile would have also helped narrow the likely geography to Australia, but for this write up, I also want to give you a look at some ideas for how this could be done with nothing more than the image itself. As with every great geolocation challenge, there are more than a few ways to arrive at the correct location, and this is just one. Often, once you’ve arrived at the answer, you’ll look back and see other (usually shorter) routes to the same finish line. All good though, because you’re honing you skills for the next challenge!
Fair warning, I’m going to work in as much Aussie slang in this blog post as I possibly can, because Aussies are basically the coolest people on Earth and their slang is super gnarly. And yes, I know I sound absolutely absurd while trying to use it, when I’m not a cool Australian guy. I don’t care, I like it anyway.
Ok, let’s get going…
First, after an initial look at the overall photo to understand the context, my process is to download it, and zoom in on the image as tight as I can go. From there, I work my way up and down and across the photo like a grid, making note of any potentially narrowing or identifying features, elements, or context.
Now, there’s a lot of important information packed in that last sentence so give it another read: make note of any potentially narrowing or identifying features, elements, or context. Everything should be evaluated, because while it may not give you the answer, it can be combined with other pieces of information to either refine your searches or to eliminate unrelated results. After all, geolocation is hard work, ya bloody bludger!
The types of elements I’m looking for in a setting like this can include things like: signage, logos, buildings/structures, language, vegetation, topography, weather, sun direction, animals (other nature), road markings, license plates, vehicle types, what side of the road they’re on, clothing, or any other environmental elements based on the setting that could be standard in certain parts of the world… benches, light poles, power lines, fences, curbs, sidewalk/street patterns, public transportation, and the like.
Aside from obvious give-aways, I’m also looking for multiple elements that would be consistent with a certain part of the world when combined together.
So now, a little exercise…
Take a look through the photo and see what sorts of things you can find yourself, make a list and then come back here to keep reading, I’ll wait.
Right away, there are a few clues that may help do some narrowing down (pretending that you didn’t already know Australia was the likely Country). The “no right hand turn” sign is simple enough to look up and find other examples of. One thing I like to do in a case like this, is locate a better photo of the thing I’m looking for and then use that better photo to reverse image search. For example, some basic google searching for “no right turn signs” eventually gives you this clear image that appears to match the one in the blurry photo.
Reverse searching this clearer image (I like an extension called Search by Image that allows you to right click the online image and search) or you can do it manually, gives you a number of good results, and the theme of Australia starts to quickly emerge. By the way, when doing reverse image searches, don’t give up after the first site. They’ll all produce different results, and you’d be surprised by how often only 1 or 2 get it right. My go-to of course is Yandex, but I will always try Google, Bing, Tineye, Sogou, and Baidu at a bare minimum. There are lots of others, and that’s a story for another day. Hell, depending on the type of object you’re searching for, the Pinterest app, Amazon app, eBay app, and Ali shopping are other (often overlooked) great resources too!
The green directional street sign is also interesting, and while I struggled to find a definitive example using reverse search, once I started combining descriptive search terms describing it with Australia, I saw a few that looked the part! Unfortunately, I’m unable to read the entire street name, but the partial name will come in handy later on when I’m getting close to the end and need to compare. Bear in mind, none of this is exhaustive research, but again we’re just trying to get a feel for an emerging pattern, fitting together the different pieces at this point.
Next up is the traffic light. A quick google search for different traffic light designs and I start to see examples labeled “6 aspect traffic light” which I then searched in quotes. Upon doing so, I see… lots of references to Australia. Beauty!
From here, we notice that the cars are driving on the left hand side of the road. One great place to look for geolocation information is geotips.net, visiting the Oceana section there will let you know that the Aussies do, in fact, drive on the “wrong” side of the road. (yes, I know some of you were offended by that) It will also provide you with lots of other information, including references for common street signs, bollards, vegetation, license plates and more.
Speaking of license plates, we see the long, white plates on the fronts and backs of cars, but can’t see much detail. Since we’re already on geotips we look. Not definitive by any means, but worth noting…another possible check in the AU box. Could it be Victoria, with the dark blue triangle at the top?
Off in the distance, we can see a city full of sky scrapers. While we won’t be leveraging that information in this how-to, it’s still important to note. And if you’re following along, this will give you a good frame of reference about how deceiving an image can be when we’re all done. Those buildings are quite far away.
Now, let’s start looking at what’s available inside the room where the photo was taken. The first standout* clues to me were: English language text, and the use of the $ sign on the price tag. Both consistent with Australia (and some other parts of the world), but at this point if you didn’t have the contextual clues offered by Gordon at the start, you’d probably bet a case of delicious Foster’s you were looking at the homeland of Vegemite!
*drop your snip into an editor of some kind to brighten/increase contrast, in this case, I just used Word.
Here’s where things get interesting for me… Australia, despite being one of the coolest places on the planet, is roughly the size of… well… freaking Australia. It’s downright enormous, and even though a large portion of it is uninhabited, there are still plenty of cities and towns spread all over, so we still need more information. Even knowing there are skyscrapers somewhat nearby isn’t going to get us very close to the answer.
Right here at this spot I think is where you could go one of two different ways.
The first way, and probably the hard way, is the way I went. Looking back over the image I decided to stop being lazy and skipping over parts of the photo I thought would be unhelpful, and actually follow my own rule to scan it like a grid. Then, just like some kind of Australian bat-signal, I saw it:
Bloody oath, a nearby Koala! Fair Dinkum! So, if I take the word Koala and combine it with Australia in a Google search, and I get… aaaaaaaaa shitload of Koala pictures. Cute, but not helpful at all.
Based on the little information I have, it seems like this photo is taken in a store, and that Koala could be the name of some kind of business or store itself. This leads me to try some more targeted searching for things like “koala store” AND “Australia” or something like “koala” AND “business” AND “Australia” -bear, things like that. It doesn’t take long before I figure out that Koala Living is a chain of locations in Australia, and their logo looks like a solid match for what I’m seeing in the reflection. Now we’re in business!
Before I move on to the next step, let’s back up and talk about the 2nd route I think you could have taken here. This one, looking back, was definitely the easier route. Admittedly, I did not notice this before seeing the Koala reflection, but if you saw it and thought it would be your first check, well good on ya!
The object in the room, on the left hand side of the photo, has a visible logo and partially visible word printed on it. Snipping a cutout of the logo, rotating it and using it to do a reverse image search in Yandex would lead you directly to the Kathmandu store chain, operating in Australia. This is one of those “hindsight is 20-20” moments because had I taken this step first, this whole adventure would be about 2 paragraphs long and easily a top contender for most uninteresting blog post of 2021.
Ok, so from here, the process is pretty clear… this page in the Choose Your Own Adventure book is one that actually gives you 2 options that lead to the end, and you don’t even have to keep the page open when you look ahead to see what’s going to happen. (if that reference went over your head you need to get on correcting that right away)
You start methodically reviewing around either the Koala Living stores or the Kathmandu stores to find the location in question. When I did this part, I imagined what the landscape would look like from above, and switched over to satellite view when looking at the specific locations. Looking for a multi-lane major road with frontage roads along either side, what looks to possibly be an empty lot on one corner of the intersection, a cross-street starting with “Ka”, and a series of houses not far from the business alongside the road.
It didn’t take long before I found the spot. Westfield Southland Mall, Chetlenhem, in Victoria, Australia. Coords of: -37.95812548603542, 145.05253200584832. Everything matched: the business overlooking the road, the nearby Koala Living, Karen St crossing at the intersection, the empty lot, the shape of the nearby houses, road layout and grassy medians with trees.
A jump to street view gives me a look back at the window overlooking the road and question number 2 is answered as well. Sweet success!
After reporting my findings, Gordon asked if I knew what store he’d been in to take the photo. Remember, I’d not noticed the Kathmandu logo at this point and like I tend to do, took the hard way to the answer. Some more online research to find a website for the mall, followed by a search within for a store map, work my way up to level 3 and there was the answer… Kathmandu.
I hope you enjoyed this, and maybe picked up an idea or two for your next image geolocation challenge. If you enjoy these types of challenges, I highly recommend following the Verif!cation Quiz Bot (@quiztime crew) for daily opportunities to test your image geolocation skills and learn from others.
Big thanks to Gordon Farrer for posting this challenge (and others), and to all my Aussie pals for being the coolest. I knew drop bears were a hoax all along.