2012-12-29 46 11

Location

On the side of country road SP74 north of Banco, Sanzeno municipality, Trentino.

Participants

Werther

Plans

Note: I wrote this AFTER I reached the hash

After I checked coordinates yesterday, I realized this was seriously reachable. Easy to get close to it, at least- the hash fell into private property (apple fields). I spent the whole evening of yesterday wondering whether to go or to not go but in the end decided I'd give it a shot even though it would probably turn out to be a No trespassing consolation prize. I hadn't been hashing in months though, hence I didn't really care about the outcome: just wanted to do some pointless travel.

I had to take the train from Trento to Dermulo, which is still included in my bus pass as the line is managed by the same company; from there, I would have to take an intercity bus to either Banco or Sanzeno. Being Saturday, and being Christmas break, my choices were really slim: the train timetable wasn't affected, but most of the coaches weren't running. I planned to leave Trento with the 11.13 train, get to Dermulo at 12.10, take the bus from there at around 12.30 and finally arrive twenty minutes later. I'd have more than an hour to reach the hash (which was a lot- it took me around fifteen minutes and I tried to take the longest detours I could find), as the first bus back to Dermulo was at 14.10. I would also have to change bus in Sanzeno on the way to the train station, and then take the 14.33 train back to Trento.

Expedition

When I decided to go yesterday, I set my alarm clock at 9.45, giving me about an hour to get prepared, as I would have to leave at 10.40 to get to the station on time. That looked like a lot of time, as my plans only included breakfast, preparing my gear and checking the route once again. But it proved to be a smart choice, as my kitten suddenly escaped from my fenced garden.

To make it as short as possible: I recently got a kitten. She's still very young so she isn't allowed to go outside the garden yet- still, we are all pretty comfortable in letting her play in the garden, as we thought we got every possible escape point covered. That was the case until this morning. My sister was really afraid and my parents weren't home so I had to go look for it, and even asked a couple neighbours for help. It took us a good twenty minutes to find her, and I only had ten minutes left to get prepared (note- I left the house in pajamas to look for the cat). I did as fast as I could, I grabbed everything but I was still late so I had to run to the bus stop. It also proved to be extremely difficult to get there, as the few snow left from the recent snowfalls had pretty much converted into ice. And a kilometer-long downhill country road can become quite troublesome in such conditions. Somehow I survived and I managed to get the bus to the train station.

Once on the bus, checking if I remembered everything, I noticed I had no money in my wallet, so I would have to look for an ATM too before taking the train. Luckily the bus arrived to the station on time so I had around 15 minutes to find a bank and take some money. I was once again in a bit of a rush but I managed to get on board on time and depart to Dermulo.

Once on the train, all my problems dissolved. I made it! That was the first step to success. The only obstacle between me and the hash was now the fact that it lay in an apple field. The valley the hash was located in, Non Valley, is famous for its apples. There are apple fields everywhere, and Non Valley inhabitants aren't exactly depicted as warm, welcoming guys. Of course this is just a stereotype, but I wasn't sure how to explain a farmer about geohashing. Think of it like hashing in the ruralest area of Texas. From my train window, I could see that most apple fields were deserted though, and I came to the conclusion that I wouldn't probably need any formal talk to reach the hashpoint.

The train arrived in Dermulo five minutes late, but I was perfectly fine with that- after all, I had time to kill there before my bus arrived. I knew of a place called Dermulo, mostly because it sounds kinda funny, I passed through it many times traveling with my family, but I had no idea what it was. It was a very small village alongside a major communication road between Trento and many popular alpine resorts. As it lay at an intersection, it sort of served as a transport hub. It was sort of melancholic, yet fascinating- a bunch of houses, travelers waiting for trains and buses and cars blazing by.

The bus was already parked there, but we had to wait for another bus from Cles (the biggest town in the area) for people who needed to change. Eventually no one needed to, and I was the only passenger for the whole ride. As a result, I arrived fairly early and decided to get down in Banco instead of Casez, and to take a longer road to the hashpoint to keep me occupied. Banco and Casez were cute mountain villages surrounded by apple fields. It looked like no one was around, so this helped me get confident I could reach the hash. Silence was astounding: no people, no cars, no animals except for some dog barking (I love how most of my hashes are in silent places. I appreciate that).

I eventually got to the road the hashpoint was on. There was some guy working in the fields 300 meters south, but it looked like that the hash was lying in someone else's property, and that property was deserted. Also, he couldn't see me snaking in, so that wasn't going to be a problem. I took a road that didn't look like it was completely private property, checking the coordinates, but nothing: it was right in the middle of the plants. I went back to the main road, thinking to call it a No trespassing consolation prize; but then I suddenly decided to try it, hoping that the landowners wouldn't happen to visit their property right while I was reaching the point: I think it was mostly the fact that I still had forty minutes before the bus came, or maybe the fact that I had already been intruding a deserted construction site and got away with it: let's just say that my interior 13 years old teenager was screaming YOLO, so I went and took the pictures. I felt very glad I did. I kept on wandering around the apple fields and the two villages, until the bus finally arrived. It was the same bus and the same driver as before- and again, there was only one person besides me on board. We reached Sanzeno early, so he drove us to Dermulo instead of making us wait for the other bus to pick us up. I had lunch there and then got the train back to Trento. We were late arriving at the station so I missed the bus there, but eventually I reached it at another stop (another run).

To sum up... it was once again a very beautiful expedition, despite all the mishaps (actually thanks to the mishaps, in a sort of way). I got to visit places I had never heard of, and got to take many beautiful photos. Yay for geohashing! I was happy to do this again, after more than three months of abstinence!

EDIT: today (30-12-2012) I finished writing a summary of all the geohashing stuff I did this year, which you can read here

Photos

The Trento-FTM rail station, adjacent to the main one.
Free Wi-Fi on board? Had I know this before...
Scenery from the train window 1- Leaving the city
Part 2- Wineyards near San Michele all'Adige. Quality vines are produced here.
Part 3- Alpine villages (This one's name is Taio)
The train leaving Dermulo station
The bus I took to and from Banco
The small village of Banco, just got off the bus
Apple fields, the only sight around here
This view would make for a good wallpaper.
SP74 - The road adjacent to the hashpoint
The apple fields the hash was in. Can't remember the exact point but they were all the same after all
Coordinates (close enough, I didn't want to wander inside someone else's property for too long!)
Mandatory grin time!
Guess what those boxes are used for? Storing apples. And there is so many of them, and so many places where they are found.
The bus to Dermulo approaching the bus stop in Banco.