2023-10-18 49 10

Location

In a field near Birnbaum

Participants

Expedition

I started this expedition to get my first consecutive geohash after yesterdays successful hash. Without yesterdays expedition, I would not have tried: The scouting indicated this hash is inside a field, so I'll have to be lucky to be able to access it without damaging crops. But there is a possibility to reach the hash, and I have the time, so I start my expedition after work.

As is usal, I'm going to arrive by public transport. This hash is located near Birnbaum. And Birnbaum has a bus stop! Birnbaum is a small collection of houses, and the bus stop is not served often - but there is a bus this evening that calls at Birnbaum, and it arrives 17:37 - and I can work out a connection that will allow me to use it.

It takes me an hour to get to its starting position in Neustadt (Aisch) - again using one of the mayor railway connections, this time leaving Nuremberg westwards to Würzburg. I have twenty minutes of wait time here, which gives me more than enough time to compensate for most types of delay. But I don't have to worry: I arrive on time, giving me my full 20 minutes to wait for the bus to arrive.

The bus starts by serving multiple different stops in Neustadt itself - the train station (where I start), two different schools, the central square, ... It is clear that this isn't a quick connection, this is the only connection, and everyone has to be able to get on. We don't stop meandering once we leave the town: The bus makes a lot of turns to serve many tiny bus stops along the way. Since I want to leave at one of these tiny bus stops that are only kind of on the straight way from Neustadt to this bus' terminal station, I appreciate that.

But when I arrive at Birnbaum, I see a road sign back to Erlangen - the city I started from. I've hopefully added it to the galery. It sais '24 km to Erlangen'. It took me 62 km and two hours to get here, giving me an effective speed of only 12km/h. I do love my public transport and I love being able to go to tiny places like Birnbaum, but this speed is so slow that many people (not me) would just take the bike. Or the car. Or - not go at all.

Walking from the bus stop to the hash is very quick. You see, Birnbaum is tiny. Sadly, I am stopped 30 meters short of the hash. As expected, the hash is inside a field. And something is growing in this field. The plants are tiny, but they are uniform and clearly planted intentionally. I am unable to identify which kind of plant is growing here, so I assume it is some delicate crop and I do not disturb it.

Sure, maybe I am overly careful. Some crops don't care. Some farmers would not care. Entering a field for 30 meters is probably not even noticeable even if I damage the plants I step one. The farmer is going to drive over these plants with his truck anyways. But this is my line in the sand, so I'll have to be happy with a No trespassing consolation prize instead. It had to happen eventually.