#2: [08-Oct-10]

#1: [01-Sep-01]

01-Aug-2016 -- My final visit of the day was to this point; thereby completing visits to all of Lithuania’s nine ground Degree Confluence Points. I parked at the start of a dirt road that branches north of the highway - about 800 m south-east of the point. From there, I hiked diagonally across a large farm field (currently fallow, with nothing growing but grass) towards the point.

Hiking was very easy as I approached the point. However, I knew - from satellite imagery - that just before I got to the point, I’d have to negotiate some sort of drain or creek, and that the point was just beyond this. (I found out later - from a nearby road sign - that this is a creek named the “Santaka”.) Would I be able to cross this creek without getting wet? As I got close to the point, I saw that the creek was narrow, but deep. The scrubby, sloping banks meant that I couldn’t jump across it, and wading across it would get me wet. By standing on the near (i.e., eastern) side of the creek, I could get 10 m from the point, but no closer. So I took my photos from the eastern side of the creek, then removed all my clothing and waded across the creek (with my GPS receiver) to get to the other side, to get ‘all zeros’. Taking my clothes off was a good idea, because the creek turned out to be waist deep!

At this point I should note that it should be possible to get to the precise point - without getting wet - by hiking along the western side of the creek all the way. This would require a little more hiking, through what is often rough, scrubby vegetation. But the two previous visitors to this point also chose - as I did - to approach the point from the east.

The last laugh, however, was on me. Later, when I tried downloading the ‘all zeros’ GPS screenshot from my GPS receiver, I found that - for some unknown reason - it had disappeared. So my naked wading was in vain!