15-Feb-2013 -- Back in Chad for a new mission on behalf of IIFARMU. The objectives of that mission were very different of those I had during my former stays. I had to visit 4 provincial hospitals in wich my students were sent for a 5-months traineeship. The visits were scheduled in the hospitals of Bongor, Moundou, Sarh, and Abéché. This would be a perfect occasion to try a few visits on yet undescribed confluence points.

After studying the (quite untrusty) french road map and the Google earth pictures, I choose to make a try on 9N 18E and 10N 16E during the first week, then a second visit on 12N 18E on our way to Abéché during the second week. For each of these points I would evaluate the possibility of a visit during the first trip and make the try on the return trip.

After the Abéché hospital visit I would have the opportunity to keep the rented car and the driver for one more day on my own. So I planned to make a 1-day stage in Mongo on the return trip from Abéché and try to visit 12N 19E in the remote and mountainous area of the Guéra province.

The whole 2-weeks trip was done with Issakha, the local coordinator of the IIFARMU program, and Yayah our driver. Now let’s see what happened!

During our trip from Moundou to Sarh I had a surprise in discovering a very large dirt track opening itself on the north side of the road approximately 300 m NW of the toll station of Djouman (see ticket). This track is not visible on the Google earth pictures and seemed to be oriented quite perfectly in the direction of the CP that my GPS receiver gave me at 24.5 km NE. I decided that on our return trip on Friday, 15 February we would follow that track as long as possible and try to get as close as possible of the CP.

This track appeared to be very long and perfectly usable by car. It crosses the 10^th parallel 992 meters West of the CP. I decided to cover that distance on foot and asked my companions to wait for me neglecting their warnings about the danger of being a lonely white man walking through the savannah. Nevertheless, it was easy to reach the point after a 15 minutes' walk on flat ground. The CP area has been burnt recently and I don’t know if this has been the result of human activity. I met nobody during my short walk but a small village was visible 300 meters north of my direction approximately half way to the point.

Back to the car, we shared a few mangos that we bought earlier that day to relieve me from the harassing 2-way hike (outside air temperature 35°C). To celebrate this success we stopped for lunch in Bongor in the “American Restaurant” serving non-american food!

Continued at 12N 19E.