2013-08-31 50 11

Location

In a forest north of Bad Berka, near Hexenberg (?) hill.

Participants

crissar
GeorgDerReisende
Juja, her favorite Ninja and Woschi
Rincewind and Yakamoz

Plans

GeorgDerReisende: I will spend the night in a shelter near Erfurt, then I will hitchhike to Bad Berka and look for the hash. Maybe a place for satuday's meetup?

crissar: Go there, maybe meet others

Juja: As always, this was a badly planned chaos expedition.

Rincewind & Yakamoz: no plan, spontaneously decided in the evening, at dusk.

Expedition: crissar

I'm sorry that it took me 2 days to write the log, but no Inet, no log. ;-) After I had done my Saturdays geocaching tour at Stiefelberg, I drove on my way back home near to todays hashpoint. I parked near Pestilenzeiche, a place where in the 14th century goods were exchanged outside Bad Berka, a city were the black death was in. From there I walked up the hill to the hash, that lies nearby a mystery cache final, that I placed there. The way ended some meters before I was able to do the 0m shot. OK, then I have to go through the bushy little trees and make it there. At 12:15 I made it. After I took some photos I returned to the wooden path and dropped a XKCD-sign made of hay, that Rincewind and Yakamoz found later that evening. First I expected to see someone, even I wrote Georg a mail, but unfortunately he hadn't answered, so I was not able to synchronise my time with him or others.

Photos: crissar

Hashpoint reached.

Grin.

Hay Hay - XKCD-Sign at daytime.

Expedition: Juja

The last week at work wasn't so great, so it was really nice that there would be a Saturday Hash at a distance that would get me a bike ride of several hours to get happy again. My Ninja and I had a date in the afternoon and of course I also didn't check the wiki for other hashers' plans (assuming that Manu, Reinhard and Jens are the only active Geohashers in this area and I already knew their plans) - so I'm sorry for not getting there at official meetup time. Instead I started by bike right after breakfast together with my Ninja, we had a nice tour to Bad Berka but every bigger street was terribly full of cars (should have been no problem to find a ride for hitchhiking). So the Ninja's adventurous spirit was already used up when we left the street to go the last bit to the point, he waited with our bikes and let me climb the last bit of hill alone. Clever Ninja - what I found was a lot of beeches with thicket in between. I could get 8m near the point on something like a 'way', but then it was time for the machete again. I got back to the Ninja with scratched and bleeding legs and we cycled home - a little less relaxed because my back tyre still had problems to keep its air...

Photos: Juja

Welcome to the desert: new freeway near Schorba.

Way to the Geohash (1).

Way to the Geohash (2).

'Way' to the Geohash (3).

Finally there!

Lovely view from the Geohash.

Woschi enjoyed it all.

Expedition: GeorgDerReisende

After spending the night in Erfurt in a shelter and a short sightseeing tour I started for the hash. I started to hitchhike at the resthouse Haarberg, got a lift to the exit Bad Berka on the A4, from there I got a lift to the forest road, of which I have thought it would lead me to the hash. I have walked through the forest, at first I have found a place about 29 meters away, but no way through the forest, the young trees are standing there away from each other by a hand's width. So I tried another way, maybe nearer to the hash.

There I have found a gap between two parts of the forest. It looked like, that there had somebody walked through the bushes and the trees, but I haven't seen a sign. So I struggled with the forest and have found the hash. Then I returned to the forest road and waited there until 16:00, but nobody showed up. At about 3 o'clock I have heard somebody talking and laughing, but I couldn't read the direction. So I looked around the field and looked for a possible way from the other side, but there was no path.

Afterwards I went to the road junction nearby and hitchhiked home, I needed four cars until the service station Kassel. Then I have taken the bus and I arrived home at about 22:00.

Photos: GeorgDerReisende

the shelter in Erfurt where I have spent the night
the forest road, where the search began
another forest road, which I have followed
view from the western forest road into the forest
the southern forest road, with crissar's sign in the foreground
a track to the possible hash
proof1
here is the hash
the internet was here!
proof2
the internet was here!
grin?
the open field eastwards of the forest

Expedition: Rincewind and Yakamoz

We spent most of the afternoon at Erfurt's ega (Erfurt garden exhibition), which is a really beautiful park, partly "just nice", partly decorated with a combination between artwork and gardening. It's worth a visit. We walked around quite a bit, so we were rather tired afterwards and didn't really want to go hashing.

When we decided to go, after all, it was already half past seven (19:30h), and Rincewind didn't really consider the fact that it gets pitch dark at just after eight nowadays. So we arrived at a water punping station at around 20.00h in rapidly darkening dusk and only had Yakamoz' mini LED torch. Not quite perfect.

The first road leading near the hash was completely overgrown and not even distinguishable from the woods around it. Coming from the other side, though, there was a gravelled road leading almost directly to the hash. The hash itself was, as noted before, in thick beech shrubberies. When we walked back, we almost walked through it, without noticing in the dark, but Yakamoz still spotted it: An XKCD logo made from straw on the path, assumingly to be from Juja and company or GeorgDerReisende? Using the flash killed all structure, but you can guess what it looked like on the night shot using just the LED flashlight. The way back was uneventful and so we treated ourselves to a late dinner at home. Sorry for the planning, maybe we get to have that meetup another time. :-/