2009-10-12 49 9
| Mon 12 Oct 2009 in Würzburg: 49.7435715, 9.9759053 geohashing.info google osm bing/os kml crox |
Location
Today's location is in a canola field near Würzburg-Heidingsfeld.
Country: Germany; state: Bayern (Bavaria, EU:DE:BY); administrative region: Unterfranken; district: Würzburg city
Expedition
srs0
For those not in the know, today was Canadian Thanksgiving. It's the day of the year when (most) Canadians eat turkey and tons of other food, and then sit around after dinner and talk about all the things they're thankful for. Typically someone will respond with "family, friends, and good food", for example. Or at least some of srs0's relatives say stuff like that. Today, srs0 was reminded of how thankful he was for both geohashing (and the lucky daily coordinates in particular). Geohashing is what's given srs0 the drive to explore the region around Würzburg while on his international placement, and has led him to places he never would have even thought to see otherwise. The most interesting one that comes to mind is the Eibsee Expedition, which easily rates among the most enjoyable days he's spent in Germany. That was why srs0 refused to miss today's coordinates, especially when the algorithm was being so kind. He was going to show his thanks.
Before I discuss the actual expedition, I'd like to provide some more thanks. So thank you, Randall Munroe, for the wonderful idea of geohashing. Thank you to the geohashing community as a whole, for reasons such as providing tremendous entertainment and supporting ridiculous expeditions with the purpose of exploring the beautiful world that we live in. Finally, thank you to the reader for keeping this wonderful activity alive. It's people like you that make me keep coming back to geohashing, and for providing me with the drive to continue towards obscure locations.
Now, for the reason most of you probably clicked this link. The expedition.
Thepiguy had said he wasn't sure if he was going to the day's geohash, so srs0 decided to head out right away. Due to srs0 being expected at a large dinner of thepiguy's design, which thepiguy termed "Putentag" (turkey day), he knew he had to hurry. He quickly wrote down the coordinates, wrote a message on a piece of paper for later, borrowed thepiguy's gps, and then got going with his bike.
He took a familiar path towards Ochsenfurt, and started watching for the autobahn. He knew that the turnoff he wanted was the last one before the autobahn overpass, and he found it without problems. It was at this point he discovered something he hadn't noticed while preparing - the geohash was only a couple hundred meters from a past geohash he'd done! More on that later.
Taking the turn, he followed the path up to the expected intersection, went left, and then went off on a side tractor path towards the fields. He got off his bike soon thereafter, as he didn't want to risk damaging any crops. One of the fields was unplanted while the other was filled with what srs0 believes to be Canola, so he walked along the side of the unplanted field. The ground was extremely mucky due to it raining on and off for the past three days (more on than off the day beforehand), but he didn't have far to walk. When he reached the intersection of another field, he stopped. His (borrowed) gps said 70m to go, and he could easily travel the last 70m, but he didn't want to risk damaging the Canola fields which now blocked further travel. As such, he's declaring this coordinates reached. If you wish to dispute it, it really doesn't matter, as he made the exact coordinates later that day (see below).
Srs0 took a large number of pictures there, as the sun was starting to set and lit up the hills in the distance in a beautiful way. He also took pictures with his previously mentioned message on a sheet of paper, but the ones with both the paper and him didn't turn out well. The pictures of the paper and the hashpoint did work, so those will be uploaded! After all the pictures, he headed back home.
After getting back to the main road, srs0 took a quick detour to take a few pictures of the hashpoint from the 2009-07-17 expedition. Unfortunately, I couldn't take pictures in the same direction from the hashpoint, as the field was now re-planted. Additionally, it'd be hard to tell, since the first expedition was a midnight hash, and this one was just before sunset. Regardless, pictures will be uploaded! Upon completing the less than 50m detour (200-300m from the other hashpoint, but 50m from the path taken), srs0 quickly biked home.
Time summary:
- 17:37: Left home
- 18:05: Reached the geohash, started taking pictures
- 18:18: Stopped taking pictures
- 18:20: Detour and pictures of 2009-07-17 hashpoint
- 18:49: Arrived home
The bike path on the way out.
I wish I had rain into Reinhard, not just this sign.
So the hashpoint is outside of Würzburg then. I wasn't sure as it was so close to the border.
Leaving the main road.
Looking back on the path taken towards the hashpoint.
Almost there! Stopped here for the sake of the crops.
A view of the hashpoint.
Srs0 is thankful for Geohashing!
The coordinates of the place I stopped.
A view of the hashpoint from 2009-07-17.
Another view of the hashpoint from 2009-07-17.
Back in Würzburg!
Danatar, thepiguy, and srs0
After the big turkey dinner, thepiguy and srs0 slipped out with Danatar to go to the geohash. Danatar had his car, as he had come straight to dinner from work, and therefore the three quickly reached the geohash area. They got out of the car and walked towards the geohash, taking care to walk along the border between two fields.
The ground was damp again, and so all three had very muddy feet. However, before long they found the final intersection of fields (thanks to flashlights and gps), and were only around 5m from the hashpoint (due to walking between more fields that srs0 didn't want to risk damaging earlier). From there, they carefully went the 5m into the field, took some pictures, went the 5m back out, and then carried on until they found the path srs0 had taken earlier in the day. From there they walked back to the car, along the tractor path instead of along field edges this time.
Soon enough they were back at thepiguy and srs0's place, and Danatar dropped them off and headed home.
