Haystack 2 - Needle 0

A few years ago while on one of my hikes in the hills near where I live, I snapped a photo of this old bottle. It became one of the photos in the pub of our local Restaurant.

On Friday I was asked by the owner if it would be possible to have the bottle to display together with the photo. Needless to say I can't remember whether or not I actually collected the bottle at the time, and If maybe I left it at B's house when I left. So instead I decided to head out on Saturday morning and go look for it.

First I went through my photo archives to find the photo of the bottle. Once I found it I then looked at the sequence in which the photos were taken, to get an idea of an approximate area where the bottle could be. There was a photo of a fallen tree, an old ruin with tiled floors, the photo of the bottle, and a few of the area after that. I new where it was and it left me with an area of about fifty square meters to search in.

G asked if she could accompany me to help out, and since four eyes would be better than two I happily agreed.

We agreed to meet at the spot at 7am on Saturday and parted ways. Early Saturday I headed over to the hills and met with G. The place was completely grown over and nowhere near as open as it was the first time I was there. The chances were slim, but we started searching anyway.

I had made copies of the photo sequences before I left home, so armed with these we started searching in the general area. G decided she would start from the outside perimeter and search inwards while I would search outwards. I can tell you with confidence that it was hell. The entire area was overgrown with Blacjacks, and pretty soon we looked like we were camouflaged for the war zone.

After an hour of searching we both agreed that it was fruitless. Although we had found every item and place preceeding and following the bottle on the photos, the bottle was nowhere to be found.

G had brought a flask of coffee and some biscuits, so we sat on a rock and contemplated the chances of success in finding the bottle. Unless we could find a way to rid the place of all the undergrowth, we both agreed the chances would be pretty slim. So we parted again, but both willing to give it another try the Sunday morning. Of course our attempts at finding the bottle did not improve the following day either.

Our only chance of finding the bottle would come if the winter fires burnt away the growth, or as G jokingly added; that we hire two weedeaters and rip the place apart. As tempting as that was, we decided to check in now and again as we pass the area, to see when it had burnt down.

With the shanty town a kilometer or two down the road, our wait might not be that long after all.