17-Mar-2001 -- OK, so this is the second confluence we visited on Saturday, 17-Mar-2001.
Starting with our car parked near 48N/12E we took the Autobahn which was
heading almost directly to the east but a bit to the south. For this area
we only had an old 1:100.000 map but that was OK to decide where to
leave the Autobahn and how to approach the confluence from there. We
decided to drive almost as long as possible on the Autobahn and leave
at the small village of Metten, because on that way we also could visit
a small Castle we had seen on the map, "Schloss Egg" on the way.
This time, even though we were again cruising at 155mph, we didn't miss
the exit, and almost directly found to "Schloss Egg" where we stopped
and looked around a bit. Of course we also took some pictures which we'll
make available at our confluencing page http://conflu.i.st
together with all the other pictures we took and of course Oliver's
360 degree quicktime VR.
After about an quarter hour we continued to our real destination. The
area was quite hilly and the road had a lot of serpentines going up
and down, so we prepared for a tougher walk through the woods this
time.
After missing the right roads a few times :) we finally were in the
direct neighborhood of the confluence, on a road going around a
small forest which was constantly about 0.6 miles away from our
destination. We drove it 2 times trying a few small roads in the
hope they would bring us nearer, but they all ended much to soon te
be of any help. We almost had accepted that we'd have to walk the 0.6
miles through difficult looking terrain, when we decided to give it
another try and drive the other way around, which didn't look very
promising because the forest was on a hill and the next road we
could see from there was far below, but as it was beginning to rain so
we tried it anyway.
We had to drive over a mile away from the confluence point when we found
a road which at least led back into the right direction, and following
it we saw another road which seemed to go up the hill directly into the
forest, and yes, it did. Following it we could get 0.1 miles next to
the confluence, where we even found some place to park the car, this time
marking it with a waypoint in the GPS.
Following a footpath into the woods we this time tried to get a better
impression of where north is (still having no real compass but the
GPS) than last time and even though GPS reception wasn't the best
due to the many trees we finally found a position which looked
promising. We didn't manage to get a perfect all-zero reading from
the GPS this time, but decided that 49°00.001N,13°00.000E is good
enough and put up a stick on the position so we could take our
photographs.
As it was quite dark, due to the trees, the weather, and the fact that it
was 5PM, the photos aren't perfect, and the ones with flashlight look
as if it was deep in the night, but I think they're OK to get an
impression how it looks in the area. Taking the auto-shutter picture
of us on the confluence this time my camera almost fell of the tree
we put it on, but I managed to catch it and we suceeded on the second
try (except for that you can't really see the stick because Oliver is
standing in front of it :).
Going back to the car was much easier this time, we even wouldn't have
needed the GPSs for that. But for finding the right way back through all
the small villages we had passed on the way, the recorded track was
quite helpful. We took the exact same way back as we were becoming
hungry, and Sec had noticed a sign leading to a McDonalds in Metten
before, which became the most difficult to find location on our
trip after all, not the sign, the McDonald's. But that's an other story,
in case you're interested,
it is at 48/51.057N, 12/57.624E, why can't they print that on signs instead
of misleading arrows? And it wasn't even worth the searching as
there was an other one directly on the Autobahn back to Munich.