2008-10-18 52 13

A threatening tree.

Participants

relet

Plans

Go by train to Schwedt/Oder. Cross the border. Startle some Polish farmers. Trample a bit of a field. Complete minesweeper and achieve border hash.

Expedition

Obviously, relet was too lazy to go. And having read that there is such a thing as winter grain, he wasn't so keen to trample fields anymore. He idled away during the day, effectively and intentionally missing the last train at 15:something. FAIL. Now, what to do? Is there an easier hash nearby? Relet had the option to go either north to 53,13, or to the southern border of his home graticule. The former was in a piece of forest near some lakes, the latter in a sandy place, which turns out to be yet another former military area (YAFMA). Threw a dice and south it is.

So, relet booked Cooper, the (another) carsharing car for a trip through the night. He went to the main station parking garage by bike, started 8pm and reached the area of the hash by 9:30pm. Parked the car in a forest track, and proceeded on foot. Knowing it was a YAFMA, he stuck to the tracks. Where jeeps have passed, no explosives should be left. Not that the military would be so stupid to mine their own training area, but still. He soon reached the impressively signposted red zone. Think of Afghanistan or Baghdad. Now you've got a totally wrong impression. (<300>This! is! Brandenburg!</300>)

“	Woanders kannst Du was erleben, In Brandenburg solls wieder Wölfe geben...	”
—Rainald Grebe

Relet circled the place until he found another track which did not feature any of these signs. It was a sandy heath landscape. Actually, this is one of the few places in Germany which features inland wandering dunes. A wolf howled.

He also saw some hunting posts and road barriers on the way. The tracks went a bit zig-zag, but eventually he reached the hash's proximity. He crossed the heathland and was soon surrounded by three trees.

He reached the hash with perfect precision, took some photos, left a message and retraced his tracks. On his way back, he discovered a plastic bottle glinting near the path. Relet usually does not bring a flashlight, which is why it's not so easy for things to glint in his surroundings. Dropping the last bit of caution, he picked it up, stated that it did not explode, and went on.

Having a bit of time on his return trip, he checked by one of his geocaches [expedition link here] which allegedly disappeared. And it had indeed. The whole bushwork had been remodeled.

Back in the parking garage he discovered that someone else had also parked his bike there. And that someone had tried to remove relet's rear valve (and failed, because it was a Sclaverand valve), causing a flat. While re-inflating it, a watchman came and informed him that he would not be allowed to lock his bike in the garage. They had a nice chat. At first, the guard tried to threaten that "sometime the guards would come by with a bolt cutter". Upon hearing that relet was actually a paying customer, and that there were no signs disallowing bikes from entering the garage, he was a bit at loss for words. When relet suggested they should go check the videotapes to see who tried to steal his valve, he quickly disappeared.

Relet left, a bit miffed, and soon reached home.

Tracklog

http://www.everytrail.com/view_trip.php?trip_id=65370

Photos

Gallery

uh oh, danger mouse!
looking scary
hunting posts
perfect match
surrounded by three trees.
these boots are made for hashing.
second tree.
the third tree in that gang.
tremendously stupid grin.
a message from the Internet.
ooh! Geotrash!
Cooper the car.
someone parked his bike.
I parked my bike, too.


Sat 18 Oct 2008 in 52,13: 52.0236881, 13.3062578 geohashing.info google osm bing/os kml crox