2009-12-01 49 10
| Tue 1 Dec 2009 in Bamberg: 49.9820922, 10.0438290 geohashing.info google osm bing/os kml crox |
Location
Today's location is in a field near Ruppertzaint, a part of Arnstein. It is 55m from the Autobahn A7, where Danatar drives daily on his way to and from work.
Country: Germany; state: Bayern (Bavaria, EU:DE:BY); administrative region: Unterfranken; district: Main-Spessart (*)
(*) The hashpoint is very near to the border between Main-Spessart district and Schweinfurt rural district. According to the Bavarian Land Survey Office's map, which shows the border, the hashpoint is on the Main-Spessart side of the border by 5-10 metres.
Expedition
Danatar
I left work earlier than usual because I was invited to a birthday party. Although I didn't have much spare time I wanted to visit this hashpoint because it is in this graticule's tiny part of the Main-Spessart district and I need that for the reverse regional achievement on district level.
From the A70 Autobahn I continued along the B26a federal highway and went to Schraudenbach. Then my navigation device didn't show the field tracks. The first one at the southern end of the town ended instantly, I took the second one into the unknown. Of course it was dark, so I couldn't see much beyond the range of my headlight, but the track's condition was acceptable. I watched the "My current location" value on my GPS until the east value was correct, then I took the next (and last possible) track leading south.
The track's condition soon changed to "not acceptable for a car", because the track was not paved and it had rained recently. Multiple times the car, instead of driving straight ahead, slid with a sideways angle of up to (from my best guess) 15-20° and I had a difficult time steering to keep it on the track. I drove as slowly as possible without stopping because I was sure I wouldn't be able to start driving again once the car stopped and the momentum would be gone. And what would I tell the towing service and my family, being stuck with a not offroad-capable car in the middle of fields in the dark? Suspense! I was already planning to walk to the next farm to get help from a farmer with a tractor.
But I was lucky and finally I reached the field track intersection west of the hashpoint where the track quality got better. I stopped, put plastic bags over my shoes and walked towards the hashpoint. The track came within 0.4 arcseconds (~12m) of the hashpoint. It was still dark, it was still wet and there were crops growing in the field, so I called it near enough. After taking pictures I went back to the car and drove to Ruppertzaint. From there I continued along small roads until I was back on the Autobahn. At the starting point for the torchlight procession to the birthday party everybody was already waiting for me, but I was only 15 minutes late.
Total detour was 6 km.
the bad track
GPS
the hashfield
Full moon
