17-Sep-2005 -- We were on our way back from a 'safari' to Katavi National Park and Rukwa Game Reserve where we had paid an incomplete visit to 8S 32E and had successfully visited 7S 31E. So after 8 days of travelling, we intended also to pay a visit to 9S 33E that had been visited already before (and had been declared as an 'easy-going point').
Having spent the night in Sumbawanga and with the intention to drive as close as possible towards Dar es Salaam (as on Sunday we had an appointment to watch the elections in Germany...), we started in Sumbawanga at about 6:00 a.m. Shortly after leaving the town, we had a beautiful sunrise (actually several, as we drove up and down some smaller hills) and reached Tunduma after approximately three hours. The best moment was when the car was finally back on tarmac road and we left the gravel behind us.
In a village where we seemed to be closest to the point, we made out a track road leading in the direction of the Confluence and bringing us close to less than 100 m after having passed a railroad track. Some women were washing there cloth in a small riverbed and a man was working in the field. We parked the car and started to find the best way to cross the small water flow, as we assumed the confluence point to be on the other side. The man welcomed us friendly and seemed to be interested in what we were doing with some electronic device that we were constantly watching while crossing the fields straight towards some special point. After only a few meters we reached 9°00'000"S 33°00'000"E on the spot.
We took our pictures and left the place to continue our way to Mbeya, where we still had an appointment for a Project visit (New Airport at Songwe/Mbeya), before we continued our way up to Mikumi, with a great (nearly) full moon that again rose several times that night in the hilly area of Mikumi. We can now confirm: this was really an 'easy-going Confluence'.