2021-03-26 53 9

Location

on a boggy heath-like meadow in Quickborn, only 77.7 m from 2020-05-03 53 9

Participants

π π π (talk)

Expedition

A geohash only 77.7 m from a previous one? What luck! According to my (impromptu) calculations, the chances of it being this near to a previous hash after this few expeditions (79) and this little time (2.79 years) are only 9.64 %, with the expected time of it occurring (at my current pace of 37 hashes per year) being 5.71 years, and even chances of it happening after 4.05 years. Quite some chance! Can't guarantee accuracy, but I do love me some casual stochastics. And that's including my seven hashes abroad, where I have no chance of reaching (or even noticing) a hash nearby (maybe should've excluded those)! Additionally, it was one of the hashes closest to my home at 6.9 km and less than year ago, which makes it even more exceptional.

I cycled to Ulzburg Süd and took the A2 train to Quickborner Straße, then cycled 1.6 km to the hash. I didn't even have to look at the map, because I knew the path from less than a year ago. I parked my bike at the same gate, then walked across the very same meadow, passing 20 m from the retrohash (this was the shortest route). Today's hash lay, like the last one, on a boggy heath-like meadow between grassy areas, but in contrast to the old location, this one was 46 m and three fences onto the almost-swamp. I had to crawl under the first fence, getting my trousers dirty, then walk 35 m and crawl under the second (both barbed-wire) and immediately step over the third. Then I had to walk another 12 m across the strange surface, the ground filling up with water under my shoe at every step, so I had to very careful, and my waterproof shoes narrowly saved me from soaking my feet. I found the location, took pictures and tried to lie an x with the only material around, some extremely thorny dead plants, and pricked my fingers through my gloves in the process (and again several times after because of the stuck spikes). I laboriously made my way back across the weeds (unkept meadows (if you can call it that) like this one are very rare in my area).

Getting the retrohash was extremely easy, as all I had to do was walk 25 m towards my bike, jump over a small ditch and stalk another 5 m across the same vegetation as before. I took some more photos, including a view of the other hashpoint (did it from both points), then made my way back to my bike and headed off to cycle home. On my way, I came through a large forest and decided to enjoy it for a while, inspecting a forest kindergarten and encountering two dogs. A while later, I noticed I'd never been in the other side of the forest across the train tracks, so I made a detour and explored this part too, coming across a cool shelter and having to push my bike more than 100 m across a barely-visible path blocked by countless logs. Needless to say, I really enjoy forests. After that, I cycled the last of the total ca. 9 km home.