2009-05-24 50 11

Welcome to hell!

It was going to be "nice weather" and the hash seemed to be "not that far". Har har! If only I would've known before what's coming up to me... Actually, the sun was shining, nice thing after two bike trips through rain and storm. I was happy and even convinced J. to accompany me on my tour again. So we started by bike before lunch, going down the Saale bikeway like last Sunday (the new way through Göschwitz seems to be finished, we should try that soon!). We each had one bottle of water, and on the fountain after Großpürschütz (the "Suppichs-Born", interesting thing to watch) they were properly filled for the last time.

It got hotter and hotter, in Zeutsch we left the river and took a closed road leading to another valley and Engerda, where we found the first place to have a cool drink since quite some time. It was a really small pub, and appropriately enough, it was called "our small pub" ("Unsere kleine Kneipe"). The waitress was depressive and wanted to send us off first, but at last she sold us some lemonade and told us all her sorrow while we were trying to enjoy our drink. When we had finished with our lemonade and used up all our pitiful faces, we went out to the bikes again, getting the last comment from the waitress that we are heading towards an incredibly long, exhausting and steep way.

Until we reached Schmieden, we laughed about her, thinking the way was almost flat and the waitress was fat and maybe it isn't all that bad. The hashpoint was - again! - on quite some hill, this time a steep, sunny meadow, and that was the point were "sunny" already had ceased to be a good thing. We were sweating like mad, and all the trees and grass and everything made our eyes itching and our noses running. I lay down on the spot, too tired even to mark it.

Then we got back to our bikes which we had left down in the village, and tried the first way that should lead us to Neckeroda, according to the map. After some hundred meters of pushing our bikes up the steep hill, the way vanished to nothing (it lead to the middle of a flock of sheep). So we turned and took the road - 4.5km, but if that takes us there, why not? Well, that was the part of the way the waitress meant, steep and sunny and burning, and - surprise: on the top of the hill, we suddenly stood on a crossroad to nowhere! Instead of going straight on down the hill on the other side, we followed the sign to Neckeroda, but soon after, this way also led on rich green pastures and disappeared there. I even went down half of the meadow to see if the way would reappear after the shrubbery, but it didn't and I had to push me and my bike up the meadow again. While we were using up our complete pirate cursing vocabulary, we turned again, went back to the crossroad and this time tried the straight way - this one also led on a meadow, but this time we were so fed up with it all that we just went on, and - Eureka! - soon after, there was a tarred road leading in the right direction!

On the way to Neckeroda we used up our last sips of water, but there was no pub or anything on the way for the next kilometers, through Blankenhain, Rottdorf and all the little villages following. In Niedersynderstedt we finally saw a beer garden, but it was closed and a fat man that obviously didn't want to understand our language sent us away. So we had to go on to Magdala, where we finally found the oasis: "Zum vollen Mond", a pub where we sat quietly in the shadow, got cool beer and lemonade and watched a group of old people coming out of their bus and wandering around the house ("there are the toilets, there's the coffee"). Then we forced ourselves to do the last few kilometers home, where we finally fell on the sofa and couldn't get up for the rest of the evening... well, this was no "hottest geohash" record, but anyway, it was absolutely stupid and definitely my last geohash for May and June, unless it's a Couch Potato!

---Paintedhell

Photo Gallery
Idyllic view down to Schmieden.
Exhausted Geohasher (Tux and Karl were carried in my bag all the way, so they were still happy).
The point is somewhere between the trees.