2014-10-16 49 8

Thu 16 Oct 2014 in 49,8: 49.0060978, 8.0332128 geohashing.info google osm bing/os kml crox

Location

In the little French part (northern Alsace) of the Mannheim graticule.

The hashpoint is located in the forest near the D3 road leading from Lauterboug to Wissembourg, about 6.8 km east of the center (railway station) of Wissembourg.

Participants

• DODO
• RecentlyChanged
• DLichti

Plan

DODO: The whole graticule is waiting for this for more than five years: HP in the french 0,1 % of it. And before I could even look out for the tomorrows HP I already got a message from Q-Owl about it and he has also already created this page, because he knew, someone will go. Well, it's pretty far from home and I have to go to work tomorrow of course, but I guess I can leave pretty early. So here are my plans:

• I can offer a free ride from Speyer to the hashpoint for up to 7 persons (including me). So if anyone wants to join, I would be very appreciated, to pick you up (i.e. at the station) and have a real nice meetup. If this take place, I would start around 5 pm.
• If nobody else wants to gain all those pretty ribbons (or at least, no one wants to go there with me), I have to go there on my own. In this case I wouldn't feel fine to use all the fuel and I would go there by bull direct from work (what makes it a nearly 90 KM-ride one way). I hope to arrive before 7 pm (and catch the train home from Kapsweyer at 19:41).

As nobody (except me) wants to travel to the hashpoint via Speyer, I'll take the second option. I will leave work around 15:45 and hope to reach the HP between 18:30 and 19:00, so I hope to meet RC and DL (and feel really sorry for Q-Owl).

Q-Owl: I waited about one year for this occurrence but can't join (cough, fever). :-((

RecentlyChanged: I would like to meet-up! I can take the train for parts of it and then make the rest with my bike, but I have to wait 'til after 6pm because my ticket will be usable at this moment. I think it is possible for me to arrive shortly before 7pm with train and bike.

DLichti will probably take the train to Kapsweyer or Schweighofen and walk from there. ETA around 18:30.

Possible activities nearby:
Confluencing by visiting N 49° 0.000 E 8° 0.000 (2.5 km west, near the D244)
Nearest Geocaches: GC24NAR (2.3 km east) and GC52QB3
Safari Cache: OCF495 (0.0 km^^)

Expedition

....

• i will be late -- RecentlyChanged (talk) @49.0458,8.2729 18:24, 16 October 2014 (CEST)

• Seven still possible -- RecentlyChanged (talk) @49.0257,8.2550 18:37, 16 October 2014 (CEST)

DODO: I really got out of the office at 15:35, only 5 minutes later than I wanted to, saddled the well feed bull (alright, he already made the 16 KM to work) and started southwards. Most things worked as expected except the quite strong headwind. OK, that does not really matter for the speed of the bull, but in this case it matters for the cruising range, and so I was shocked, when the bull said 46 KM more to go, but I still had 70 KM in front of me. So I had to reduce speed a little bit. Except a short stop at a bakery to buy some cake and at a fuel station to buy some beer to celebrate our success the ride processed uneventful and at 18:30 I reached the french border. I took some pictures, but borders have become a little bit boring and unimpressive in western europe nowadays (no, I don't complain abut that), especially when you are on a small and muddy forest path.

A few kilometers and minutes later I was near the hashpoint, and while I was looking for place to chain the bull, DLichti broke out of the forest and welcomed me. We went back into the forest to the hashpoint and after we have waited a while on RC, we celebrated our success with some pastry and some cookies. We continued waiting until 19:15, but then we decided to leave, as I had to catch my train and I wanted to ride the unpaved parts with at least a little light. As DLichti and I went of in different directions of the only path that lead to the hash, I still hope, RC and DLichti met (as obviously I did not).

The way to Kapsweyer turned out to be a forest path and so I decided, not to ride there but to go back to Steinfeld. We should have waited 6 minutes more, because that was the time I had to wait at the station. All the trains were in time and I reached home at 9 (with power for 5 more kilometers in the bull).

Photos

Will follow. ...

Achievements / Honorable Mention

xxxxxxxxxxx earned the Land geohash achievement by reaching the (49, 8) geohash on 2014-10-16.

xxxxxxxxxxx earned the Border geohash achievement by crossing the Germany-France border on 2014-10-16 to reach the (49, 8) geohash.

xxxxxxxxxxx earned the Reverse regional achievement by reaching hash points in all 3 regions of the Mannheim, Germany (49, 8) graticule on states level.

xxxxxxxxxxx earned the Reverse regional achievement by reaching hash points in all 2 regions of the Mannheim, Germany (49, 8) graticule on countries level.