Dude, Where`s My Phone ?

Around lunchtime on Sunday we were served coffee and cake at Jimmys. He and Tom had done some work on a few cartons of red wine the evening before, but were surprisingly coherent when I arrived.

Over the coffee we discussed where to go, and what to dig. Usually we dig a dumping ditch, but today it was going to be a more relaxing "free hunt", where we just roam around picking signals and at the same time locate potential dumping pits for future expeditions. The weather was much more pleasant for digging than it ever was the last month. A light cloud cover and only 12-14 degrees Celsius, opposed to the near 30 Celsius we have been blessed with the last weeks.

We parked as close to the site as we could and prepared for the day. Backpack with tools and water, mosquito spray, gloves on hands and turn on the metal detector.

Tom strolled out to the slope in front of us, found a signal, removed a little bit of moss and soil, and lifted up an Edelweiss cap badge, got back up on his feet, said "Good luck, imbeciles" and strolled right back to the car, and off he went. Done for the day.

Man ,that was the most effective digging trip if I ever saw one :D

A few meter deeper into the forest stood the foundation of a barrack, and around it I picked up lots of signals from good metal.

There were no Edelweiss badges for me this afternoon, but I was the lucky winner of several meter wire, and a good handful of hinges and nails from the building that once stood here. Jimmy had found a small garbage pit filled with bits from a radio, lots of throatmicrophones and bakelite switches. We also saved a few data- and instructionplates from the radio.

I found a small spot with lots of signals and stripped away a little of the moss to see what was going on. It was leftovers from a fire. It looked like a crate or two with some personal effects had been thrown out and burnt.

I picked up buttons and clasps from trouses and jacket, a spurr, iron bits from Gebirgsjäger boots, a spoon, a few coins and some gaming pieces, broken porcelain and lots of nails. While digging I noticed the cloud of blackflies around my head and 5 or 6 horseflies were trying to gnaw their way through my gloves, next time I am going to wear chainmail and a mosquito netting.

Meanwhile Jimmy had found a large shell casing full of small relics he had dug up several years ago and just abandoned next to a path. Here was a loader for the MP38/40, parts from a rifle cleaning kit, screws and bolts, keys and a few other bits. He said it came from a dumping pit nearby, and we tried finding it again, but all we came up with were some 7.92 and 9mm casings.

The very last part of the day we checked out a "corner" in the forest and discovered a few dumping pits. Checking a little in one of them produced a pair of M39 eggs and a gaming piece, so it definately might hold some good stuff.

We withdrew back to the parking place, filled the cars and took off home. A few kilometers up the road Jimmy had pulled over and was running around the car, opening doors, so I stopped to ask if he needed help with something. Prehaps there was a moth in his car? Something he is deadly afraid of.

- "My phone! My phone!" I could hear the frog in his throat grow, so I tried to calm the big guy while calling his phone. No sounds anywhere. -Oh,god. It is gonna be a looong night. Goodbye warm shower and dinner, I thought to myself.

There was little else to do than to return to the parking. It was not there either. We then walked back to the last place we knew he had used the phone and luckily it was still there, the wights hadn`t snagged it and taken it to the underworld yet! Great luck! :)

Thanks for reading. Enjoy your day :)

A lump of soil and Edelweiss.

Aluminum numbers on a fallen electrical pole.

Some rifle ammo.

A few gaming pieces.

The M39 eggs seems to have been cooked in a fire.