2021-04-01 53 9

Location

on a field in Tangstedt, Kreis Pinneberg, Schleswig-Holstein

Participants

π π π (talk)

Expedition

I'm on a roll – this is my eighth geohash within 23 days and the fourth in 2-day intervals. How long can I continue this for?

Also, this hash was located in Tangstedt – not to be confused with Tangstedt, which is located next to my hometown and where I've done three expeditions including my first. Luckily, although they're only 9.5 km from each other, one is 1.5 km east and the other 3 km west of the 10th longitude, which means they qualify for A Tale of Two Hashes. I'll fulfill my challenge once the next hash in Tangstedt, Kreis Stormarn comes along.

For this hash, I took the train to Hasloh and then cycled 4 km, starting a new audiobook on the way (Steven Pinker's incredibly excellent Enlightenment Now). A field road led along the hashfield, but to my dismay, the field was fenced off from this side, and I saw two tractors on it. The coordinates were at the far end of the field from the street, only 3 m from the fence, so I'd have to cross the field in full view of the workers, which I didn't dare. But I'd also have to walk in their sight if I climbed the fence from the field road, which seemed challenging. So I decided to climb the fence to the next field over, then walked 120 m on a path along the fence to 3 m from the hash. Everything was very grown over, but I found a spot where I could climb the fence to the hashfield. It consisted of netting wire with a barbed wire independently above that. I tried to climb over, but unfortunately, the lower fence was very loose and gave way backward when I tried to step on it. I hung in mid-air, trying to hold onto the barbed wire and a fence pole, but then lost my grip and fell from a metre's height onto a very inconveniently placed metal rod sticking out from the ground, which got caught in my jeans, teared a hole through them and gave me a bad bruise.

Some might say this is what I deserve for climbing fences when it is somewhat discouraged by the Geohashing Guidelines. But 1. the field was not inaccessible as there was no fence on the street-side, I just didn't enter there because of the workers and 2. it is my personal credo that a geohash is ok to access if I do no damage, don't obviously trespass (private populated property etc, i.e. no Hausfriedensbruch in accordance with German law), and don't get told off.

Anyway, at least my fall had pushed the lower fence so far back that I could climb through between the fences. In my spot, the one driving tractor could theoretically just see me every time he reached the end of the field and turned, so I hid behind some pipes until he was off again and walked less than 10 m to the hashpoint. I quickly took pictures, being just out of sight of the workers, then climbed back through the fence and walked to my bike. I initially had nine minutes to spare, but after losing much time with the fence problem, I was sure I'd miss my train. I wanted to check, but for some reason my internet didn't work. So I cycled back to the station and was pleasantly surprised that my train arrived only two minutes later.