21-Mar-2004 -- We were on a 5-day trip with a group of 7 people on 6 dual-purpose motorbikes. I knew we would be in the vicinity of this Confluence and therefore brought a GPS along. Our trip brought us from Cape Town (Leon and Riël) and George (Herman) along mostly dirt roads to the Baviaanskloof, which starts just north of Uniondale. We travelled through the Baviaanskloof and turned north just before Patensie and then northwest again towards Steytlerville. This is of course not at all the normal way to get to this Confluence, but hey, the journey is sometimes more important than the destination, right? We had camped for the third night of the tour next to the Grootrivier and found ourselves at Steytleville shortly after 9 am. Our destination for the day was The Hell, at the end of the Gamkaskloof, but since we started the day early, we decided to take a northerly detour via Baroe and Klipplaat, bringing us close to 33S 24E.

Our detailed maps showed a track splitting off the road between Klipplaat and Miller, a few kilometres east of 24°E and passing quite close to the Confluence. However, the most likely track we could find was closed with a gate and although the gate was not locked, a faded sign said "No unauthorized entry". At this point some of the party decided to forego the Confluence and rather head for lunch at Willowmore. Leon, Herman and myself decided to try and find the track from the other side, somewhere north of Miller. My map showed the track turning off at a farm, The Wattles, but we missed it and stopped at the next farm, Vredepoort, where the owner explained that there is no one at The Wattles and that the Confluence is probably on his neighbour, Mr Schalk Featherstone's farm, Glen Loch. We tracked back and turned off onto the Glen Loch farm road, opening and closing a few gates along the way. We reached the farmhouse, guarded by a number of large dogs, about 2 km from the Confluence. Fortunately, Mr Featherstone met us at the gate and was very friendly. He have us permission for our quest and was quite interested to know exactly where the Confluence was situated.

We followed a farm track to within 500 meters of the Confluence and then, guided by the GPS on my tank bag, we just headed into the veld, still on the bikes - a BMW F650 GS, a BMW 1150 GS Adventure, and a Honda XRV750 Africa Twin. I stopped 100 meters from the Confluence, not wanting to negotiate the gully ahead of me, but the two BMWs powered through - nothing to do with the capabilities of the bikes, just that of the drivers!

We took the necessary photographs and since it was getting hot and we still had a distance to go before reaching The Hell, we made tracks towards Gamkaskloof. What a great trip.