2016-10-15 50 11

Location

On a meadow between Schöngleina and Kleinlöbichau, Thuringia.

Participants

Juja, Benjy and Frankie Mouse

Expedition

Geohashing is stupid, let's not forget that.

I started this day at 7am, which is way earlier than I normally start days, and consequentially I only kept myself awake with the help of lots of coffee while I was volunteering at Jena's "Kernberglauf" (an annual running event) in nice, sunny weather. When all runners had passed us the work was done and I could go geohashing! So I cycled up the hill all the runners had to run up before, then on to Schöngleina airport and to the point. Fairly easy, I even found a way there and although it was a bit bumpy I reached the point without problems.

The bumpy way led further down the hill, so I thought it was a good idea to follow it even though it wasn't on OSM - that's always a stupid idea, so I rumbled down the hill, even slipped once and then I stood in front of a massive iron fence door that was locked, of course. Fence to the left and right of it, as far as the eye could see, and next to the fence strong thicket, no way to just walk your bike around the fence. Damn. So I pushed my bike back up the hill (yes, it was my old bike, the heavy one) and visited the Geohash point a second time, this way crossing the meadow to see if I could find another way downhill. Yes, I should have turned around and taken the way I came on, but I am too adventurous and 200m distance doesn't seem so much, so I rumbled over the field and couldn't even tell whether I had a flat tyre (I had not) because it was just bad to cycle over all that dirtbumps. Anyway too many dirtbumps to just turn around and cross them again to get back, so when I reached the other edge of the forest and it was just as scrubby I just shouldered my bike (the old, heavy one) and tried to make my way down through the bushes.

We don't exactly live in the rainforest here, so I didn't think this would be so hard, but I learned that also in Thuringia we have some kind of plant that grows liana-like tentacles that just hang down from trees as slings and like to sling themselves around trees, bikers and bikes. I was really pissed when I had finally made my way through that mess, just to find that at the bottom edge of the forest there was another fence, this time a small, electrical one. A cow pasture. I tried to push my bike parallel to the fence, but after a while this did not work any more, so I threw my bike and myself over the fence when no cows were looking and ran over the meadow as fast as I could before they'd notice me (no apparent danger), until I finally reached the street near Kleinlöbichau und was safe. Phew. Enough Geohashing for October, let's try sane activities, like bungee jumping or something.