2013-11-12 47 10

Tue 12 Nov 2013 in 47,10: 47.2741173, 10.7888744 geohashing.info google osm bing/os kml crox

Location

In a swamp near Dollinger, Imst.

Participants

• EleanorAbernathy
• LeslieHapablap

Plans

Coming from Germany via the Fern Pass, the plan was to take a 6 min. detour on our way to Innsbruck via Imst instead of Mieming and pick up an easy hashpoint. But as you know, with geohashing you sign up for surprises. On the satellite image it looked like the point was surrounded by meadows and fields, although the area itself didn't seem to be cultivated. We were about to find out why.

Expedition

Unfortunately this time the occasion for our visit to Germany was a dolorous one. Geohashing on our way back to Innsbruck on this quite chilly but charming November day was kind of a welcome opportunity to take our minds off things.

After roughly four hours of driving we arrived in Dollinger, a tiny settlement with only a few houses. We tried to keep a low profile but must have been very conspicuous to the locals who were standing at their garden fences chatting: two Germans (easily recognizable from the accent as soon as we say "hello") arriving in a car with Innsbruck license plate, wandering off to nowhere, smart phone in hand, and returning shortly after with wet feet and muddy cloths. We saw a few cats, one playing with a mouse (well the cat was playing, the mouse was struggling for survival), but none of them cared enough to come closer and award us with the hashcat achievement.

The reason for the wet feet: mother nature decided to present us with an extended swamp surrounding the coordinates. The area was covered with reed, and as soon as we arrived at the boarder of the marsh with 90 m to go to the coordinates, EleanorAbernathy was somehow reluctant to continue and exclaimed "Where these things grow you will be standing ankle deep in water soon!". And she was right of course. But in my we-have-come-this-far-blindness I spotted a path which looked reasonably dry and made my way into the vegetation. Trying hard to avoid erroneous steps into puddles of mud and water on both sides it felt a bit like Gollum finding the way through the dead marshes, of course without the Nazgûl chasing us. I'm sure there were plenty of alligators all around us, although strangely enough we didn't see any.

We crossed a small creek, and of course each of us made steps into water now and then accompanied by shrieking and curses. By the time we arrived at the hashpoint our feet were thoroughly wet, but this couldn't dampen our spirit. We did what we had to do at this yet another random location, including stupidly grinning into the camera, and waded back the same way.

Photos

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  Welcome to Dollinger.