2017-05-06 49 8

Location

Today's location is in a meadow near Ubstadt-Weiher, next to a nature protection area.

Country: Germany; state: Baden-Württemberg (EU:DE:BW); Regierungsbezirk: Karlsruhe; district: Karlsruhe rural district

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I had been in Baden-Baden for a meeting and was driving back to my parents' place in my parents' car (I had taken the train from Dresden to them since I didn't want to drive so far, then the car for the last part of the journey). The evening before I had already seen that the hashpoint would be along the route, not far from the Autobahn. So after the last talk (well, the last interesting one at least, there would have been two more hours) I left the meeting and drove along the A5 Autobahn until I came to the Bruchsal exit. From there I took the B35a federal route before leaving that one as well. One intersection to early, so I had to do a 2 km detour. I parked my car next to the Ubstadt train station and started walking. I took a track that looked like it would take me nearer to the spot than the one it branched off from and this was technically true. The problem was that along that track there was dense shrubbery, preventing me from getting to the spot. Since the weather was nice I continued along that track, walking a looong tour all around the spot. Along the way I saw the protected wetland and heard many birds, including a cuckoo. After about 1.5 km I was farther from the spot than the car was but finally there was a way past the shrubbery, down the slope next to a water regulation installation. Then I was on a good tarmacked track and walked towards the hashpoint again. I noticed a stork on its nest with chicks, thanks to my camera's 48x zoom I was able to see more details than just "black-and-white thing in the distance". While I was taking pictures an elderly couple walked past me, the man telling me "those storks are here every year" to which I nodded friendly. They continued along their way. When I passed them a short time later after they had talked to a woman with two dogs the man told me that one of the dogs had ran away after hearing the shots from a nearby shooting range and that it had taken a while to find it again. Again I nodded friendly. After having walked along the track until I was as near to the spot as possible I took a stroll across the meadow to the spot. At one point I turned around to look back, just to see a hare start running away from where I had passed within about 2 meters from it without seeing it. By the time my camera was ready it was only a small speck in the distance. Then I was at the hashpoint, next to a small tree.