#3: [12-Mar-09]

#2: [28-Nov-06]

#1: [22-Feb-02]

11-Feb-2013 -- This confluence visit is the sixth out of a series of 15 visits in Malaysia and Thailand. The previous confluence is 6°N 102°E. It is in turn part of a 4-month bicycle trip starting in Tasmania at 43°S 146°E.

5:10 AM: I wake up in my hotel in Songkhla (140 km from the confluence). I never have to set an alarm clock to wake up. I seem to need less sleep than normal people.

5:30 AM: Breakfast buffet in the hotel restaurant.

6:15 AM: First daylight. I have already packed my luggage of altogether 9 kg and hit the road. First I take the "Tha Phae Khanan Yon"-ferry across the bay of Songkhla (สงขลา), then I ride northwards along the coast on tiny roads where I watch the people's life at the roadside.

3:15 PM: I leave the coastal road and head inland towards the confluence point (again on minor roads).

5:00 PM: A local cyclist takes me to an out-of-the-way hotel located 1 km north of the town Cha-uat (ชะอวด). It is a great insiders' tip. And, above all, the beeline distance to the confluence point is only 2.8 km

5:30 PM: I set off again from my hotel to visit the confluence. I simply follow the pointer on the GPS display and get on a main road with 30 m distance to the goal. At a branching road, the distance is even less with only 20 m.

In contrast to previous visits, this road is now asphalt. It is worth having a look at previous visits, because the nice series of four visits with an interval of three years documents well the changes of the confluence area. Remarkable is the change of the undergrowth. What was a lawn in 2009 is now an impenetrable thicket. I tried to get through it, but soon decided that this doesn't make sense. Then, I went to the neighbor’s house and asked for permission to cross their property - which was granted with pleasure and without asking for my visit's purpose.

The exact spot is behind the thickets on a little area with grass. The land is dry now (validity proofed only for the dry season though).

After the documentation I cycled back to Cha-uat downtown to have my well-deserved dinner.

CP Visit Details:

• Distance to an asphalt road: 20 m
• Distance to a track: 20 m
• Distance of bicycle parking: 20 m
• Time to reach CP from bicycle parking: 5 minutes
• Time at CP: 5:45 PM
• Measured height: 24 m
• Minimal distance according to GPS: 0 m
• Position accuracy: 6 m
• Topography: flat
• Vegetation: grath, nearby dense undergrowth, gardenland
• Weather: sunny, 30° C (felt temperature)
• Given Name: The Neighbor’s Thicket Confluence

More pictures of the trip can found at mautz.net.

The story continues is at 9°N 99°E.