10-Oct-2007 -- Continued from 13N 5E.

We had a very relaxed night at an air-conditioned container home at the JBN construction site in Birnin-Kebbi. Our aim was to visit today the confluence 12N 5E and return in the evening again to Birnin-Kebbi.

We left early in the morning and took the road to Jega, turned onto the A1 for a short while and turned off onto the road to Kebbe. This road was fine for a couple of kilometres only and started to deteriorated more and more as we carried on. At this stage there were not even tracks anymore and we decided to turn around. We drove several kilometres back before we eventually met someone who confirmed that it was the correct way. It was hard to believe but we turned around again and continued. We arrived at Kebbe and found a new road and continued along this road, after about 15 km or so we found out that we were on the wrong road and returned to Kebbe. We found a badly deteriorated sand track which lead us straight to the Confluence. All our maps indicated this road as a tarred secondary road. We got as close as 1.6 km on this road, made a further 300 meter along a path, and parked the vehicles at a small Fulani settlement. We were welcomed by an old man amidst several women and small kids who kept their distance.

There were only a few Fulanis at the camp, the rest was somewhere in the bush looking after their livestocks. It was already midday and very hot when we got to the Confluence. After all the documentation had been done, we returned to the village and the old man welcomed us again, this time with a bowl of cold water. We did not drink this water but it was a very welcome refreshment to splash this water onto our heads and down the back. There was no shade anywhere around, so we left and stopped at a big tree a few kilometres away on the road on our way back and had our lunch, which consisted mainly of a couple of cold beers and a few slices of salami. At 5:30 p.m. we where back at Birnin-Kebbi where we spent the night and left the next morning to the next confluence 12N 4E.