2021-09-24 54 10

Location

in a forest in Boostedt, Schleswig-Holstein

Participants

π π π (talk)

Plans

take the train and bike there and also visit the 54°N 10°E confluence point, which is only 1 km away, while I'm in the area

Expedition

What exceptional coordinates – in the southernmost 8000th of the graticule! At least east of 30W (and thus also for the Globalhash) it is second-southernmost hash ever, behind only the coordinates that triggered the legendary 2012 South Pole Globalhash – today's Global is also only 2.3 km from the pole. According to the Shotgun tool, it is also the fifth-closest hash to a graticule corner (a confluence point) ever west of 30W (in degrees, not necessarily distance) – interestingly, each corner has had exactly one that was closer, and all of them were 0.014° (rounded down) from the corner! (I could not yet be bothered to look up the statistics west of 30W.)

And because the hash was also conveniently close to a station, I couldn't pass up the chance. I've also wanted to visit a confluence point ever since I discovered the Confluence Project, and this was the perfect chance.

So I took the only convenient 40 minute train to Boostedt in the early afternoon, almost missing it due to a memory error, and then cycled the 2.5 km to the hash in relatively heavy rain. I had to take off my headphones because I wasn't certain they'd withstand the pour, and held together my overcoat over my legs so I didn't get completely soaked. I managed to briefly lose my way in the forest, but eventually arrived at the right crossways 25 m from the hash. I easily located the coordinates beside some young conifers and took photos with Jackie & Eagle. The forest was, astoundingly gorgeous in the rain, with plenty of undergrowth. But again, I couldn't linger, so I took off again and cycled 1.6 km to the confluence point, which lies at the edge of a field.

To my surprise, a cyclable path went along the edge of the field, and I could park my bike only 15 m from it. As I arrived, it stopped raining. I'd half-expected there to be some sort of sign or whatever to mark the remarkable location (there are only two confluence points in all of Schleswig-Holstein), but found nothing. The field consisted only of low grass with and a bunch of hay bales, so I walked right over to the confluence point and started the hashdance (confluence dance?). I tried for many minutes to get my coordinate app to show exactly 54 and 10 to the sixth decimal point (around 10 cm), but only managed to get as accurate as 3e-6° (still much more precise than the actual GPS accuracy). I took some more photos with Jackie & Eagle, who was excited to pose for a second time on one expedition, and was surprised that I still had plenty of time left.

After eating some candy, I slowly cycled 3.9 km south to Großenaspe station. I again took a wrong turn and only noticed a few hundred metres in, but still arrived a few minutes before the train was due to leave; it departed another few minutes late and brought me back to Henstedt-Ulzburg.