2009-01-11 47 9

Sun 11 Jan 2009 in Sankt Gallen, Switzerland: 47.9460426, 9.0540563 geohashing.info google osm bing/os kml crox

In a field in front of Katzenmeierhof, south of Krumbach, Germany.

Preparations

This expedition was not intended at all. After reaching the geohash on Saturday we stayed at Lukas’ place and as it was getting late, we thought about getting back to Constance. Someone said, hey let’s check where tomorrows point would be just out of curiosity. Well, it was, with just a small detour, on our way back home. So we decided to spend the evening in Pfullendorf and try to get to Sundays hashpoint at around midnight.

Expedition

At around half past 11 we got in the car, stuffed with delicious Pizza we got in bar in Pfullendorf. Thanks Lukas for taking us there. It was little hard navigating in the dark, going through more and more remote villages. But we were eager to get there, no matter how great the obstacles.

We got close to the spot just a few minutes past midnight. It was freezing cold, -10.5 *C. We thought we would make the Cold Geohash achievement but Tomcat already hit the same temperature on Saturday , which I just found out. Congratulations! Tomcat says it was even colder at his place on Saturday. I have to admit, I hope it gets colder. My predatory instincts are wide awake now.

Well, we got out of the car and walked along the little road towards a little farm house. After a short while, Hagen said it would be 20 meters into the field on the right. As we walked off the road we almost fell into the ditch, which was completely covered in snow and impossible to make out. At the point, we fiddled around with Pan Lumis (Gosia’s camera) to figure out how to enable the flash. As we were standing there in the middle of the night in a field somewhere in Baden-Württemberg, a car drove down the small road we had come. It stopped in front of our car, waited, and drove on. Strange, I thought and went on taking pictures. As we were leaving, the car came back, having turned a little further down the road. We put on our smiling faces and did as though nothing had happened. The van stopped right next to us, lowered the window, and the driver asked what was going on. I explained we were on a scavenger hunt and had to be in that field at around midnight. “A scavenger hunt, eh!?” the man replied. “Yes, exactly. It is this Internet game that gives us random coordinates each day. If we happen to be close and have some time we go there.” The man still looked a little baffled. I said: “We are university students and have a lot of time to spare, you know.” Ahh, everything was clear. We went on chatting a little and it turns out we stood in his field. I wrote down the URL for xkcd and maybe Mr. B. is reading this story right now. It was very nice meeting you Mr. B.

Pictures

Pan Lumis took these pictures.

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  We are there just after midnight

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  Hagen, me

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  Hagen, Rafal

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  The moon showed us the way

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  It's darn cold outside

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  Mr. B.

Ribbons

Hagen, Rafal, Nahtanoj earned the Midnight Geohash achievement by reaching the (47, 9) geohash on 2009-01-11 in the middle of the night.

Hagen, Rafal, Nahtanoj earned the Frozen Geohash Achievement by reaching the (47, 9) geohash on 2009-01-11 while the temperature was -10.5°C.