2009-05-14 47 9

About

The place is at Wangen im Allgäu, in a small paddock at a farm between Deuchenried and Oflings.

Expedition by Ekorren

Plans were, to go by bike to Stuttgart to be there at 18:00, maybe collect a hashpoint on the way, no matter how much of a detour that would make. It turned out that that would make a considerable, but acceptable detour - but then, the weather should turn bad during the day, and the idea to actually go there by bike wasn't so attractive as it sounded beforehand. So I redecided to go by train both directions. And then, a Baden-Württemberg-Ticket wouldn't be much more expensive than a simple return ticket. Was there any interesting hashpoint I could go for before going to Stuttgart?

Actually, there were slight time contraints - the ticket isn't valid before 9:00, anyway. And anything that is basically on the way, hardly may count as interesting. Wangen could, anyway. Up to now, I had passed through there a number of times on the train, but never went off and actually visited the place.

The earliest connection I could take with that ticket was at exactly 9:00 from the central station. That rather fast train crossed the Schwäbische Alb, passed the Donau valley, and went to Aulendorf. From here, there are direct trains to Wangen - but only every two hours, and the next one wouldn't start before almost one and a half hour from now. So I took a train to Ravensburg instead, from where a bus went to Wangen.

Landscape subsequently changed to what people connect with the Allgäu: Rolling hills, small scattered farms, meadows, and of course: lots of cows. The Allgäu area actually is a main producer of dairy products in Germany.

The hash was a bit out of town, between the incorporated villages Deuchelried and Oflings. Only a few minutes after my arrival at Wangen, a bus went out along the B18 road, which passes through Oflings, so I comfortably got there by 12:10.

Oflings wasn't more than a small hamlet but had a somehow funny old castle - funny because it consists of not more than one building, which just looks like a standard house with an additional lower floor without windows. See picture below.

From Oflings, I walked out to the farm where the hash was. Apart from cow paddocks with actual cows on them, nothing was fenced along the way, all was meadows... and, with the hash meadow actually being at the entrance of the farm, I hadn't expected that one to be fenced. I was wrong. There was a fence. Obviously, they sometimes connect that meadow to the stables behind it, to give the animals a little bit of open space. Not today, though. And unlike at the next meadow behind the farm, there was no open gate.

So, this was no trespassing. Again. And just like my first try at Mörschwil, it was just a meadow that had been fenced, and it was just this particular meadow that had been fenced, and most of those around that were fully accessible. And this time it wasn't even 40 m but only 6. Six metres I couldn't pass.

I could have tried for ambassador or proxy, of course. I hadn't expected to need that so I didn't bring supplies for a proxy try. And about the ambassador... if I had seen someone out somewhere, I had surely asked, but there was noone visible. And ringing at the house and keeping the farmers off their work was something I didn't actually really want to do. Also, my available time wasn't endless and I wanted to explore some more of the region, so I called it a fail and left.

Walked not back, but on to Deuchelried. Bus connections would be slightly better there, and researching geocaches in advance, I had found a place not far from Deuchelried that promised "a beautiful cave" with a Holy Virgin Maria shrine. Well, not being a roman catholic, I don't worship Maria, but caves are usually worth a visit. Sadly, this one wasn't - it was all artificial, nothing of a cave, only a shrine that was made to roughly look like a cave, and not even a particularily interesting or beautiful one. Came there, shook my head at other's people taste, logged the cache and went back into the village in time to well miss the next bus into town.

A hiking path marker in the village said it was only 1.5 km more to go to the centre using the path. Screw the bus. It turned out to be a quite nice path, anyway, and I was really surprised by the medieval town centre of Wangen, which actually is worth a visit. Although I had to leave around 15:00, I still got a good impression and could make a few photos.

Lessons learnt: