07-Dec-2002 -- During the second half of the Ramaḍān `Īd religious holiday, we joined four other vehicles on a four-day camping trip in the desert. This was a 1,500 km trip that took us over sand dunes, along sand plains, through lava fields, and around granite mountains. During the trip we managed to visit three new confluence points (also see 22N44E, 23N 44E).

We only reached this Confluence on day three of the journey, 7th December 2002. The first day was spent travelling away from civilization for five hours and then romping in the Daḥiy sand dunes. This was capped by spending a glorious night under the bright stars.

During the second day, we explored the dunes further south and stopped in at the small town of al-Haddār for fuel. We also bid farewell to one of our party who was only able to spend two days with us. Pressing on south, we arrived at the lava hills of al-Ji`lan, where we spent another moonless night under the stars.

On the third day, we headed SW towards this confluence point. We initially drove directly west in order to avoid the bumpy tracks that characterise the foothills of the Ṭuwayq escarpment. Once we were away from the escarpment, the tracks took us over smooth undulating sand plains. We found the confluence point in the middle on these vast sand plains.

To the west we could see a small line of dunes, and to the east we could just make out the outline of the Ṭuwayq escarpment some fifty kilometres away. But to the north and south we could only see sand that went on until it met the sky on the horizon.