Raz's Photos: Geocaching, Brandenburg, Germany

When I discovered that Germany's first geocache was fairly close to Berlin and that I could catch a train to within about 4Km of it, I decided to go and find it.

Hmm, there's a lake in the way.

For the next 2Km, the tree-hitting-speed-limit is 80 Km/h.

Aha, the cache itself. If the sand is looking a little distrubed, that's because I dug most of it before noticing 'GEOCACHING' lightly scratched in the paint on the pole nearest the cache itself. D'Oh! Note the Coca-Cola CD holder from the cache in Lane Cove (November 7). By the time this photo was taken, I had already eaten with lunch the green-pepper dip that I found in this cache.

Berlin sits in an enormous plateau that covers much of Northern Germany. I had noticed that Berlin's streets were pretty flat, but out here you can really see just how flat it is. The city of Berlin is a state in its own right, but it happens to be entirely surrounded by another state: Brandenburg. Until the end of 1989, the easten half of Berlin and all of Brandenburg were well inside what was then East Germany. As a result, the entire area is unpopulated and undeveloped; about all that's out here is farmland and forest, for hundreds of Km in some directions. Apparently this is unusual in (western) Europe.

This structure is, apparently, a hide for hunters. If one sits in it for long enough, at the right time of year, a deer is likely to wander within shooting range. These are dotted all over the landscape.

A surprising detail on an otherwise unremarkable house.

The plate above the door claims that this house was constructed in 1911. I'm guessing that it's been renovated somewhat since then.