Saturday, September 3, 2016

Spithamn

Geodashing Dashpoint Log
2016-08-29 19:25:53 UTC
GDDE-MUSU

Player: Haraldpoiss
Team:   FinEst Dashers

GDDE-MUSU is near Nõva, Estonia.

> Date, Points, TeamPoints, Dashpoint, Country, State, Lat, Lon, Distance
2016-08-20, 3, 3, GDDE-MUSU, Estonia, , 59.2140, 23.5462, 0

New extreme west  visit this year for Estonia: GDDE-MUSU
If this is not correct, please notify the Geodashing Webmaster

Number of previous hunts by Haraldpoiss: 83

The point had fallen to the forest near the village named Spithamn, in the most north-western corner of Estonia. It's the Coastal Swedish district, where mostly Swedish people used to live few centuries ago. Almost all of them fled back to Sweden before the end of 2nd World War, so they ain't there any more nowadays, but the names of the villages are still Swedish.

It was possible to drive to 350m, from where I continued my approach through the forest. The carpet of cowberries and blueberries had been laid down everywhere on the ground. I ate huge amount of them on the way, and it was impossible to make a step without getting them between my feet and sandals, their juice making purple spots on my socks. So if you wanna pick berries in Estonia, then that's really the place, where to go.

The point was only 100m from the coastline, so afterwards I went to the sea to take a small walk on the beach. But it was so nice and pleasant there, that I ended up walking 8km one way and then back. I went swimming 3 times on the way. I never knew that we have shrimps in Estonia, but now I know that we do have them in this place. And they are huge there, having 15cm total length from the head to the end of tail, which I've never seen before in my life. So it's no wonder that the whole beach was full of fishermen, who were fishing out shrimps.

As I actually hadn't planned to spend the whole day out there, I didn't have any food with me, so I was pretty hungry when I reached back home 11pm in the evening.

http://geodashing.gpsgames.org/cgi-bin/dp.pl?dp=GDDE-MUSU


fishermen at work


sunset between Põõsaspea peninsula (on the left) and Osmussaar, the tiny island on the right


Tuula

Geodashing Dashpoint Log
2016-08-28 18:44:41 UTC
GDDE-MYYN

Player: Haraldpoiss
Team:   FinEst Dashers

GDDE-MYYN is near Ääsmäe, Estonia.

> Date, Points, TeamPoints, Dashpoint, Country, State, Lat, Lon, Distance
2016-08-13, 3, 3, GDDE-MYYN, Estonia, , 59.2586, 24.4829, 0

Number of previous hunts by Haraldpoiss: 82

It's the first dashpoint near Tallinn this year, that's been accessible by public transport. The bus dropped me off 2km from the destination. It had been raining almost the whole day and later it started raining again. The point was in the middle of a meadow. There were some cranes on it that flew away when I approached. There was a big yellow field of rapeseed nearby. Rowans were ready on the trees. I also found some dewberries, gooseberries and wood sorrel from the forest.

http://geodashing.gpsgames.org/cgi-bin/dp.pl?dp=GDDE-MYYN


a couple of cranes as seen from the dashpoint

swimming?

say hello to a snail!

Thursday, June 30, 2016

Kolu

Geodashing Dashpoint Log
2016-06-30 19:00:03 UTC
GDDC-NASH

Player: Haraldpoiss
Team:   FinEst Dashers

GDDC-NASH is near Lõmmelu, Estonia.

> Date, Points, TeamPoints, Dashpoint, Country, State, Lat, Lon, Distance
2016-06-25, 3, 3, GDDC-NASH, Estonia, , 58.7928, 25.2038, 0

New extreme south visit this year for Estonia: GDDC-NASH
If this is not correct, please notify the Geodashing Webmaster

Number of previous hunts by Haraldpoiss: 81

The point was actually quite close to a bus stop. Unfortunately, as I checked, there's never any bus stopping in this bus stop!!! So I decided to drive instead. It was possible to drive to 700m, where the road became impassable. The point was on the edge of a swamp. There were huge swarms of flies and horseflies flying around me the whole time while I was out there, together with some mosquitoes. I took a longer walk in the swamp and forest after visiting the point. Wild strawberries were here and there, and actually they were amazingly nice and big, but it was little bit uncomfortable to pick them, because I was almost eaten alive by horseflies as soon as I stopped. Taking water from my backpack was a dream that I made to come true only few times, because for that I had to stop even longer. It's not such a good idea to go to woods in the middle of summer in the middle of Estonian mainland.

http://geodashing.gpsgames.org/cgi-bin/dp.pl?dp=GDDC-NASH


inside hunter's tower

on the edge of the swamp

say hello to horseflies on my jeans

Kõrveküla

Geodashing Dashpoint Log
2016-06-30 18:07:09 UTC
GDDC-NIAS

Player: Haraldpoiss
Team:   FinEst Dashers

GDDC-NIAS is near Jäneda, Estonia.

> Date, Points, TeamPoints, Dashpoint, Country, State, Lat, Lon, Distance
2016-06-23, 3, 3, GDDC-NIAS, Estonia, , 59.2283, 25.6376, 0

New extreme east  visit this year for Estonia: GDDC-NIAS
If this is not correct, please notify the Geodashing Webmaster

Number of previous hunts by Haraldpoiss: 80

It's possible to drive to 400m. The point was in forest, on the border of Kõrvemaa landscape reserve. Tere were huge swarms of flies and horseflies flying around me the whole time while I was out there, together with some mosquitoes. Wild strawberries were ready on the road-side.

http://geodashing.gpsgames.org/cgi-bin/dp.pl?dp=GDDC-NIAS


forest flowers

"Winter-canteen" for wild animals. The black object in the sky is not an alien spaceship, but a one of the horseflies that were orbiting around me.

wild strawberries

Tuesday, May 31, 2016

Vahastu

Geodashing Dashpoint Log
2016-05-31 17:42:03 UTC
GDDB-NAYM

Player: Haraldpoiss
Team:   FinEst Dashers

GDDB-NAYM is near Põllika, Estonia.

> Date, Points, TeamPoints, Dashpoint, Country, State, Lat, Lon, Distance
2016-05-28, 3, 3, GDDB-NAYM, Estonia, , 58.9145, 25.2343, 0

New extreme south visit this year for Estonia: GDDB-NAYM
If this is not correct, please notify the Geodashing Webmaster

Number of previous hunts by Haraldpoiss: 79

It was possible to drive to 460m, wherefrom a small trail took me to the destination. The point was near an intersection of ditches and some wild strawberries were blooming around it. Afterwards I took a walk in the picturesque swamp and Piiumetsa landscape protection reserve nearby. I went swimming to a lake in the swamp. It's maybe 1.5m deep, but the bottom is so soft that it's not possible to stand in there, but only to swim or to hold from the shore. And the shore ain't made of soil, but of Sphagnum plants that have grown on top of each other over centuries and millenniums. The shore is actually floating on water and it's so soft and elastic, that all the small trees and bushes around you swing along if you jump on it. The lake gets deep instantly and as I checked, the shore is actually hollow from underneath. It's possible to get out only by using the strength of your arms to heave your body, until you get a knee on the edge. And you must be careful when standing up, because the shore is soft like cottonwool and bends backwards. As I wasn't careful enough, I lost my balance and splashed all the way back in, which was quite funny in fact.

http://geodashing.gpsgames.org/cgi-bin/dp.pl?dp=GDDB-NAYM


baby frogs

a tree fallen by beavers

the lake

Saturday, May 21, 2016

Vetepere

Geodashing Dashpoint Log
2016-05-21 17:53:16 UTC
GDDB-NIGA

Player: Haraldpoiss
Team:   FinEst Dashers

GDDB-NIGA is near Albu, Estonia.

> Date, Points, TeamPoints, Dashpoint, Country, State, Lat, Lon, Distance
2016-05-15, 3, 3, GDDB-NIGA, Estonia, , 59.0982, 25.5378, 0

New extreme east  visit this year for Estonia: GDDB-NIGA
New extreme south visit this year for Estonia: GDDB-NIGA
If this is not correct, please notify the Geodashing Webmaster

Number of previous hunts by Haraldpoiss: 78

It was possible to drive to 1.6km, wherefrom a prepared wooden hiking trail took me through the swamp to 300m from the point. How nice :)  The trail was actually part of Peraküla-Aegviidu-Ähijärve hiking trail, which goes through the whole Estonia and is 820km long, but after long consideration, I decided to skip passing the whole distance last Sunday. The point was in swamp and nearby there's a free-to-use self-service public guesthouse with smoke-sauna and several camping facilities.

http://geodashing.gpsgames.org/cgi-bin/dp.pl?dp=GDDB-NIGA



Kollassaare free-to-use self-service public guesthouse. The black tepee on the right is smoke-sauna.

a spider stepping on water

Väike-Pakri

Geodashing Dashpoint Log
2016-05-17 18:02:18 UTC
GDDB-MYKI

Player: Haraldpoiss
Team:   FinEst Dashers

GDDB-MYKI is near Paldiski, Estonia.

> Date, Points, TeamPoints, Dashpoint, Country, State, Lat, Lon, Distance
2016-05-14, 3, 3, GDDB-MYKI, Estonia, , 59.3356, 23.9715, 0

New extreme north visit this year for Estonia: GDDB-MYKI
New extreme west  visit this year for Estonia: GDDB-MYKI
If this is not correct, please notify the Geodashing Webmaster

Number of previous hunts by Haraldpoiss: 77

It was raining when I left Tallinn and most of the way, but in the area nearby the dashpoint it was dry and not even a single drop of rain fell on me during the whole day that i spent there. The dashpoint had fallen on the easternmost island of Pakri archipelago, across the 3km wide strait from mainland. It's basically not deep between there and if you go from the right place at the right angle then, according to the map, it should possible to cross strait Kurkse on foot. But if it's cold and stormy and you loose your way then you may easily drown, like it happened to 14 people on 11 September 1997.

It would have been possible to reach to 500m from the point by sea, but as it would have been basically in front of the doorstep of a household, I decided to disembark little bit further towards north-west, next to an old wooden boat-wreck. The point was in forest and there was nothing interesting around the place. After having reached successfully to the destination, I decided to visit also the western island of the archipelago, where I was greeted by a dead cow laying on the ground at the place where I landed. As the island was lacking dashpoints, I just went to a randomly self-generated point that happened to be on a meadow with some bovines on it. There's 6 people in total living at the archipelago and I didn't happen to meet any of them during my visit.

http://geodashing.gpsgames.org/cgi-bin/dp.pl?dp=GDDB-MYKI


In memoriam for the soldiers that died during the attempt to cross the strait on foot

It's not the boat that I used to reach to the islands :)

I'm sorry for posting this, but it's the first time in my life to see a dead cow