2024-10-28 52 12

Location

In a forest between Damsdorf and Göhlsdorf.

Participants

Plans

I considered trying to also reach the 52 13 point near the Tesla factory, since both were within 10km of the RE1 train line. However, the bus serving that area seemed to be a RufBus I'd have to request by phone, and I didn't feel like doing that or cycling so far. This point, on the other hand, was close to a normal (if infrequent) bus route.

Expedition

In the morning I bought a day ticket covering the full route between the two hashpoints. Then I realized that only some RE1 trains served the Groß Kreutz station most useful for this one, and different trains than usual due to track work. So only after squeezing in some lunch did I start heading west.

ETA 15:30 -- Coyotebush (talk) 13:11, 28 October 2024 (GMT+01:00)

The track work (or at least some of it) turned out to be happening right at Groß Kreutz, reducing the line to a single track. The change in train schedule meant I had to wait about 50 minutes for the next bus - still worth it over walking - which never appeared on the stop's departure board.

I got off the bus at Göhlsdorf/Lehniner Allee since this looked like the most promising entrance to the forest. Had a nice walk along the paths, then discovered the last turn led along an unexpected wire fence. Worry grew as the fence continued to separate me from the point. But just after the closest approach, the fence turned and fell off a post such that it was just possible to step over. Which I did, feeling a bit uneasy and hoping there would be another way around, but also uncertain (Chesterton notwithstanding) whether the fence was necessarily to keep humans out. Only a bit of lumpy ground then remained to reach the point.

After returning to the path, I traced the fence back around until I was east of the point. Then I had to give up following it and head back to the bus stop to avoid waiting an additional hour. As of writing, my partial mapping of the fence is mostly rendered in the tracklog map below.

Back at the train station, I was surprised by how early it got dark - good thing I wasn't continuing to another hash - until I remembered the previous day's switch to standard time. Pairs of trains stopped facing each other through the station, with the westbound train proceeding through the single track first and the eastbound train next. I realized too late that I could have boarded the first eastbound, then took the second as planned to return to Berlin.