#2: [14-Aug-12]

08-Jun-2004 -- Iran is a big country - with lots of Confluences! I am working on a Telecommunications project in Tehran - hence we are surrounded by good maps with many tempting Confluences to bag. However, when you look at the map, many of them are in remote desert areas - miles away from easy access - and with the added thrill of knowing that Iran's military have a large presence here and may not appreciate keen confluencers wandering around with GPS devices!

Anyway... a new project takes me to Ardabīl province. All the maps that I can find show 38N 48E to be slap-bang on a road and only 30 km away from where I am staying. I persuade my colleague to visit it with me and he is only too keen to share the 'glory' of the 1^st completed Confluence in Iran.

We set off one afternoon and head through beautiful green rolling hills - occasionally punctuated by fields of purple flowers. Our first obstacle is one of the many police roadblocks and I chat happily into the GPS as if it were a mobile phone while my colleague picks up a 250,000 Rial (29 US-$) fine for a vehicle paperwork problem.

After turning off the main road, we head off on a small road through fields of wheat. I think the Confluence in on the road, but suddenly the GPS points us off to one side, so we park up and pick our way over the fields.

Well, I have to say, our target was not that exciting - just a patch of ploughed soil. But the tranquillity and panorama of mountains in the distance more than made up for it.