29-Oct-2005 -- It was the first day of our annual week-long biking vacation to the Hadejia-Nguru wetlands in Yobe state and further on to Borno state. Due to work related matters our group left at different times during this day. We managed to leave Abuja before daybreak. Our aim was to visit the confluence 12N 11E on the way and to reach the Dagona waterfowl sanctuary tourist camp.

We drove from Abuja via Jos to Bauchi. At Bauchi we took the road to Potiskum towards Gashua. Outside Tarajim we parked our vehicle and off-loaded the bikes. We had a very pleasant ride towards the Confluence. It was the end of the raining season and the first little bit of Hamattan was starting already.

We found the Confluence next to a huge Baobab tree amongst a field of Guinea Corn with occasional reeds of millets. Between the spaces the ground was planted with beans. It was a very peaceful place with an abundance of bird live and a lot of interesting insects buzzing around. After having had a short rest at the Confluence we returned to the vehicle and continued our journey to Dagona.

Dagona village is located 6 km off the road between Gashua and Nguru. The road got eventually so bad that we offloaded the bikes and continued the last 80 km to the Dagona tourist camp riding our bikes. At sunset, we reached the Dagona camp and received a very warm welcome from the park rangers and from Abdullahi Abdulhameed who is the head of department of Eco-tourism of the Chad Basin National Park. He is based at Maiduguri and newly appointed to this position and he especially drove to Dagona to meet our group. This National Park camp has very good accommodations but is hardly visited and month and month go by before some tourists find there way there.

Continued at 13N 11E.