Before anyone asks what a strange name this is for our cache series, I would like to point out that we, as owners, are Saarlanders and it is quite common in our linguistic environment to express phrases like "along the Saar" or "along the Saar" in our own idiom. "Langs der Saar" means exactly that.
Long ago, the idea of laying a series of caches of this kind had been floating around in our heads, but the task seemed too great.
And then, in August 2019, after a bicycle tour to Mr. and Mrs. Saarbock in Weiler, it was there again, the idea. And no sooner said than it was clear that we were not the only ones who were toying with the idea.
The distances seemed too great for hiking, so the only alternative was to cycle "along the Saar". And so it was clear that there would be no fishing caches and that the distances had to be chosen so that you didn't have to get off your bike every 161m. That gets on your nerves at some point.
On a "measuring round", the idea came up that where you go, you also have to go back. So all the routes are laid out in such a way that you can find caches on the left and right of the Saar and that in between you can always find opportunities to cross the Saar and drive or walk back again.
At the end of August, beginning of September, the time had come for the Whatsapp team "Langs der Saar" with me, Skrolan3, saarbock, oldie86, nicolaxe and, with a little delay, elpahi and moonlight86 to complete the first round, 34 caches on a route of just under 44 km, Dillingen - Besseringen and back, to the left, back to the right or vice versa.
But since we had further plans, the rounds were split up, this first one was done by the two of us and Saarbock.
No sooner had we published our plans than we started planning round 2, this time in the other direction, Völklingen was to be the destination. In mid-September, the first "measuring round" with me, oldie86 and the male part of nicolaxe, the route was a bit longer overall, but the number of caches was lower, due to the fact that around Völklingen there is no possibility of getting back to Dillingen on the right side of the Saar by bike or on foot. So at the end of the day, the distance covered was just under 47 km, peppered with 28 caches.
In order not to lose the overview and to minimise the effort, we then considered registering a joint account at Geocaching.com, so that everyone in the team is always up to date. "Team_Langs_der_Saar" was on.
For days now we have been creating listings, submitting the 28 caches for checking (hopefully everything fits), checking for spelling mistakes, collecting information. The next step is tinkering, as far as that is necessary, then it's time to lay out the caches.
And the whole thing only came to an end when we had placed more than 130 caches between Saarhölzbach and Güdingen on the right and left of the Saar in four stages with about the same number of kilometres cycled. Unfortunately, the number of supporters had also decreased over time, so that as of 2022 only Saarbock and we are still available to maintain the caches, occasionally supported by helpful cachers like Knoe96 and others, who then relieve us of the long distances to Saarbrücken as much as possible.
Thank you at this point!
