2012-08-28 59 17

Location

Beyond crazy amounts of reeds 500 m from the nearest road north of Sigtuna.

Participants

Plans

Planning is for the weak!

Expedition

I was doing some extra work after my day job and when I got to the car the battery was dead. I had forgotten the light in the car on, when I got home at midnight Sunday.

And we all know that you should charge the battery by driving for an hour or so.

After the job was done, I checked the nearest geohash which was 43 km away as the crow flies. And I dashed off to it. Got to the last dirt road and parked the car in a field close to a house. The sun had already set so I grabbed my flashlight and walked into the woods. I avoided crossing the lawn of the house I had parked close to, which in retrospect maybe wasn't the best idea.

Got down to a field, this will be easy, only 500 m to go and this grass is easy to walk through, just 15 cm tall.

But then it gets taller, and taller... and taller. And turns into reeds. Pass through some reeds that are taller than me. Then some more tall grass, and the field isn't very flat now. Getting harder to walk. With 200 m to go, the reeds come back, and they are taller than me, and the stinging nettles go almost up to my face, and the tufts of grass are 50 cm tall like small mounds, and in between them holes and more nettles, I have to trample the reeds down to make a path I can walk through.

Sweating like a pig. And it is dark. And i have only 4% battery left in the phone. And the stinging nettles hurt through my clothes. And the GPS updates in large jumps, not smooth at all. I wish I had my machete with me. Eventually try walking in the woods, cause I know that the hash is just by the tree line. But the woods suck as well, tall grass and nettles, and now branches. At last I find the last free standing tree and according to the map the hash should be just to the left of me. The GPS on the phone refuses to update itself, but the point should be right here.

All of a sudden the GPS pops to life and I am right on the spot!

Fucking insane -- Cjk @59.6591,17.7044 21:31, 28 August 2012 (CEST)

I take a pic. I mark a tree. If any human ever ventures this far again they shall now the Internets have been here.

Start "walking" back. I try to walk further out in the field to avoid the damn reeds. But end up in them in the darkness anyway. I finally find my old tracks, the path that I trampled down on the way there.

When I have about 150 m left to the car, I can see headlights driving towards where I parked my car. As I get closer, I can hear voices. I guess I need to do some splaining when I get to my car. And there is one 4x4 and 4 people standing around my car.

I say, "Hi I'm Carl-Johan" and they answer, "we know". They are the people living in the houses nearby, and had thought that either the car was stolen or I was an escapee from a mental institution. So they checked my plates against the Swedish DMV and called the cops to see if the car was stolen, and it was not, and it had to many miles on it to really be a target for stealing.

So I explain all about our crazy sport and how I did it this night only really to charge my battery, and we laugh a bit and talk about how they were a bit worried for me, cause they live here and now how bad these parts are if you try to "walk" through them. And it is good having 4 people, and a dog watching over your car when you geohash.

So we all went our separate paths, and all was good.