2008-10-31 51 7

Plan

Arvid will complete his Regional hash of the Borken district. Because of a recurring kneepain he even thought about going by train for a second. But that would take 1h40m from station to station(+15minutes for walking to station1, and about 10 minutes from station2). Cycling isn't that much slower, and the pain isn't that bad. Arvid left just after lunch, hoping to be back before dark.

Achievements

Arvid cycled 107.7km and thereby:
Completed his Regional hash of the Borken district in Germany, which is spread over four graticules. After coming home Arvid found out the hash one day later would also been good for that, and closer, but hey, he didn't know that before he left.
Crossed a border.

Expedition

Arvid's tracklog by bicycle.

Before leaving I needed to clean my chain. My bike looked very muddy when I got it out of the shed. That's what you get for cycling in the dark one day earlier.

I left around 12:40. At 13:30 I was stopped by the German border control (Zoll) while I was at the crossing of Zum Rotering and the B474, in Ahaus. They asked whether I was Dutch, as they assumed. Yes. While pointing at my bag "Do you have any narcotics with you?" I smiled widely and said no. I asked if they wanted to see my passport or anything, and they said yes, but they were more interested in the stuff in my bag. I got most of it out (food, extra shirt, waterbag, reparationstuff). After a quick look they lost interest. I told them I was going to Reken and that explained the food and drink. I mentioned that some narcotics might be of use for my cycling. They didn't ask why I was going to Reken nor react to my comment. I actually found out while going through my bags that my phone was dead, and that I didn't bring any ID. Bit they didn't ask for it, and went their way again. If they are looking for narcotics again I'd might advise them to look for them on the other side of the border. We have enough of them here guys!

Anyway, I enjoyed the autumn scenery between Ahaus and Gescher, although the fog resembled rain a lot. I didn't take any pictures while cycling because of that. I took pictures of the scenery on the way back, but they are all vague because there was little light, and I was cycling. The closer I came to the hash, the steeper and often the hills were. At 15:00 I reached the road closest to the hashpoint.

The town where the hashpoint was is called "Bahnhof Reken". Bahnhof=trainstation. Weird people, those Germans. The real Reken (Groß Reken (big/large Reken)) is a couple of kms more north.

The hashpoint was about 15m from where I parked my bike. In a very properly fenced field. I got over the fence, of course, the field was completely empty. The poo in the field makes me think it's usually for goats. I marked the hashpoint by putting a feather nearby upright in the ground. Then I climbed the fence again, and also wrote XKCD on the part of the fence where I parked my bike against.

At 15:15 I went home again. Nothing spectacular happened there. I arrived home at 17:30.

Dirty,
Dirrrty,
Dirty bike.
A town is a trainstation.
Bike very near the spot.
Industrial zone just north of the hashpoint.
Those trees are also on google maps.
Time&date.
Success!
Marking the spot.
Zoomed pic with bike and hashpoint.
A look at the road back.
Marking a bit better, but not on the hashpoint.


Fri 31 Oct 2008 in 51,7: 51.7980240, 7.0469395 geohashing.info google osm bing/os kml crox