Brandnetel Eiland

by Prof. Y. Lupardi
The position of this cache is (WGS-84):
N 52° 06.898'
E 004° 25.079'
 and is situated in the Kingdom of The Netherlands (Holland, Dutch, Amsterdam, Ajax, cheese, tulips, wooden shoes, dikes, cows, water, windmills etc.)
and is hidden on 05/29/2003

Here is a map.
Here is a scenic picture with weeds.
And here another scenic picture with a frog somewhere.
Here is an new colour aireal photograph (summer 2000).

Adapt your clothing: in summer any kind of short trousers are out of the question!!

The cache is a medium-sized ammo box containing the normal stuff like:

On the Dutch topographic maps with Amersfoort Grid the position is 88614 / 458967
From an Easterly direction you can go to there by car for most of the way.

In the summer the place is only marginally fit to walk in because of the stinging nettle plants. Along the only path of entry there are growing some Heracleum sphondylium. It is possible that they are (it is to early in the growing season to see) Heracleaum mantegazzianum. These plants are poisonous. If you touch them, clean the skin with water (do not rub the dust on your skin), do not touch your face and stay out of the sun that day.
Oh yes, it is here full of nasty plants. Wear good clothing: short trousers are a no-go in summer at least! (and in winter for other obvious reasons)

If you cannot find the cache because of overgrowth then go standing in the middle of the bridge and find the bearing (with a compass of course) of 160 degrees where there is a tree. Take care: there is also an old wooden plank across the water that is so rotten now that it becomes very adventurous te walk on! As long as your compass functions; there are electrical currents in the high-tension wires above your head and there is electricity flowing through the ground because of the trains. And who knows what all the iron beneath your feet is doing...

Some biology lessons:
Urtica (the common nettle) is a real cosmopolitan. You can find them everywhere on earth. They all prefer nitrogen-rich damp soil. Their famliy is Urticaceae.

Nature helps!
Even when moving carefull in good clothing you can be stinged by the nettles. Luckily nature provides a remedy that grows also where nettles are growing. It is Plantago major L.. Fresh leaves are crushed and used as first-aid for insect-bites and stinging nettles.
If you can not figure out what plant I am talking about: See here a photograph.

grote wegbree Plantago major L. grote weegbree Plantago major L. ruige weegbreePlantago media smalle weegbreePlantago lanceolata L.

And to end this expanation something about the healing properties of Urtica:
Thea and young leaves and roots boiled in wine are used as a household remedy agains slime in lungs and bronchia, skin rashes, hepatitis and haemorrhoids.

As always my cache is marked with a yellow ribbon for the well observing seeker.

Spoiler hint and photographs: (click here)

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