09-Aug-2003 -- This is the second of the three confluences in mazedonia we visited during our summer hollidays.

Both the description on confluence.org and our map indicated, that the confluence is actually in the Prespa Lake, about two kilometers from land. Our macedonian friends however insisted, that the confluence should be on dry land. They argued, that every year in summer the water of the Prespa Lake withdraws a great deal, because there is scarcely any inflow at this time. We were not convinced. We started our approach in Resen, a town in the fertile plains north of the Prespa Lake. First we went by bus to Asamati, a small Village beside the Lake, and rented a pedal boat to get to the confluence from south east. After 45 minutes we saw that we had wasted our time: my GPS clearly pointed to the shore. So our friends were right after all!

We brought the pedal boat back, and started to follow the lakeshore to the northern end of the lake. It turned out that north of the lake spreads a vast swamp and marshland, thickly covered with reed and shrubs. It looked like most of it would be covered with moss or shallow water at other times of the year, but had dried up. There were many cart tracks leading through the area, so we had no problems to get as close 350 meters to the confluence, but none of them brought us nearer. We were very reluctant to leave the tracks, because it looked like hard work to thrust our way through the thicket. But after all we had no other chance to get to the spot. We needed almost one hour for those last 350 meters, and were rather exhausted when we finally arrived. At the confluence everything is covered with reed, 2,5 meters high, but fortunately the confluence is near a group of small trees, so we climbed them to make some pictures.

After taking the pictures and fighting our way back to one of the tracks, we looked for someone to give us a ride back to Resen, but except us, a few million frogs and salamanders, there was no one we could ask. We had to go 3 kilometers north to a small village, where one of the apple and peach farmers there invited us for coffee, listened to our story, and gave us a lift back to Resen.