2008-10-22 49 7

Wed 22 Oct 2008 in Kaiserslautern: 49.4256092, 7.6821185 geohashing.info google osm bing/os kml crox

Location

Today's location is on a track in the forest near Kaiserslautern.

Expedition

Danatar

After visiting 2008-10-22 49 8 I boarded the train at Heidelberg main station (12:05), not going east to Würzburg as my mother thought but going west to Kaiserlautern. I arrived at Vogelweh train station at 13:47 as scheduled and walked into the direction of the hashpoint, which from the map would be almost straight ahead along the road.

Five minutes later I came to a fence, which as turned out belonged to the local U.S. Air Force bases. American street names (Kansas street, 5th avenue) in a German town should have made me think earlier. I walked west along the fence until I reached a gate, where I asked the guards for directions. They told me the only way would be to walk around the base, so I set out, back to the east (about 14:10). I reached a corner of the base, turned right (south) and continued along the fence. I passed the main gate and continued along the busy road by the fence. Finally I reached Kaiserslautern-Hohenecken where I found a map (I had left the area of my printout long ago), turned right (to the west) and entered my printout's area again at the forest's border (about 14:50). I had only half an hour left to the return train (which goes only once every two hours), so I put down my backpack, bag and jacket behind a tree and started running the last kilometer along the forest track until I saw the house, which I knew to be next to the hashpoint, between the trees. I made my way between the trees to the correct road next to the house where the hashpoint is situated (arriving at 14:56), snapped photos and ran back to my belongings.

Heavily packed again, I started to jog back to the train station. The thought of passing two hours at Vogelweh train station made me push out my thumb at the first passing car, and it stopped (15:09). The driver was a very nice lady from Michigan whose husband and daughter are working at the Air Force base. She was heading to the base and agreed to take me to the main gate, but then she drove me all the way to the train station. I had never hitchhiked in my life and she had never taken anybody in her car, the only thing I could give her was my bar of white chocolate. We arrived at the train station at 15:15, in time for the train which arrived at 15:18 and took me back to Würzburg at 19:20. In total, I walked/ran between 7.5 and 8 kilometers.

Achievements: Nobody seems to have visited this graticule before. I rode by train >95% of the way to the hashpoint (about 90 km) and then back to Würzburg (another 250 km). This is my second expedition today (after 2008-10-22 49 8) and I've been geohashing for three days in a row.

Danatar earned the Graticule Unlocked Achievement by being the first to reach any hashpoint in the (49, 7) graticule, here, on 2008-10-22.

Danatar earned the Multihash Achievement by reaching the 2008-10-22 49 8 and 2008-10-22 49 7 geohashes on 2008-10-22.

Danatar earned the Public transport geohash achievement by reaching the (49, 7) geohash on 2008-10-22 via train.

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  Blue: the route I took

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  Vogelweh train station

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  You shall not pass! And I won't argue with American military personnel...

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  Air Force base main gate

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  Coordinates reached. Behind me is the house which is visible in the satellite image

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  Do they have a doctor here, what do you think? At least there will be no raptors.