2009-01-12 48 12

Mon 12 Jan 2009 in Landshut, Germany: 48.9716227, 12.1939858 geohashing.info google osm bing/os kml crox

In a frozen, snowy field south of Neutraubling, about 10km southeast of Regensburg. Just 400m northeast of 2008-12-18 48 12. Dawidi and Tomcat were there independently and did not meet.

Morning visit (dawidi)

Keeping my tradition of failed Sunrise Geohash attempts, I hit the road nearly an hour later than planned, at around 7:30 in the morning, even though this time, I did not oversleep. It had begun to snow a little, and for the first time in years I cycled a segment of my old way to school among schoolchildren - even while at the university I had only rarely been on the road that early.

As expected, while riding through the snowy, dull morning with a little headwind from the east, I reached and maintained a comfortable operating temperature despite measuring -8°C with a thermometer in a front pocket of my ski jacket. Apart from the last 500m, the way was the same as to the previous nearby hash, and generally a well-known route for me.

At the southern end of Neutraubling, which is essentially a business park, the destination field appeared as a featureless gray void that would require GPS navigation. The last time I was here a month ago at night, it was a black void and similarly featureless.

Except this time, the ground was frozen, so instead of making a mess of my bike on the muddy track, and then making a mess of my boots wading through the sticky field, I could just push my bike across the field easily and stop at the coordinates with essentially clean boots! I took this chance to revenge for last time and stuck my tongue out at the field.

I spent about 45 minutes at the spot, waiting for the thermometer to drop below Tomcat's recent Cold Geohash record of 10.5°C, but it remained at 9.9°C. Once again, the stupid field wasn't cold enough ;-)

While waiting, I walked funny to write "xkcd" into the snow and took pictures.

At around 9:30, my fingers got a bit cold, so I decided to leave and cycle to the office, where I caused a big cheer among my teammates for arriving unusually early, or "less catastrophically late" as I tend to put it.

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  Into the white void! The hash is a few hundred meters behind the signpost.

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  Dawidi at the coordinates.

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  Icy GPS.

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  A hashpoint in the middle of the white void.

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  Thbbthbt! No sticky mud this time!

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  Snowffiti: "xkcd".

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  It's too warm!

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  View north to Neutraubling.

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  End of the expedition, arriving at my office.

Evening visit (Tomcat)

Originally i had not intended to visit today's 48 12 hashpoint. But as things happen - finally i had to left office already in the afternoon to settle things in the city. On a closer look at Google Earth, i realized that the hashpoint was only about 500m away from the shop for animal need, where i usually buy stuff for my cat. So it was a clear decision, that this shop had to be visited today ;-)

Due to the actual weather conditions it was a fast, simple and clean expedition. I parked my car beside the road an walked along the way between the snowcovered and frozen fields to a point where suddenly some tread marks lead into the field to my right. I just had to follow this trace until i reached the signs "xkcd". Then i took the usual photos and walked back to the road.

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  Evening visit: Tomcat at the hashpoint.

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  The way to the hashpoint.

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  Signs of my predecessor at the hashpoint.

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  Exactly at the right spot.

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  The lights of Neutraubling seen from the hashpoint.