#2: [26-Dec-06]

06-Jan-2007 -- The planning to visit the Confluence started before our family left for our December Holidays. Planning was done using Google Earth, Mapsource, Tracks4Africa and OziExplorer. I was confident that there is a road to within 1.1 km from the Confluence.

We left Kleinmond (34.29687°S 19.04788°E) the morning of 6 Jan 2007 on our way back to Pretoria, South Africa. The plan was to incorporate the confluence visit on our way back home. The route that included the Confluence was a bit (200 km) of a detour back home, but in light of the fact that it is the last land based Confluence that is unvisited in South Africa, I thought it would be worth a try.

We departed Kleinmond at about 08:00 and knew that it would be a long stretch to get to the Confluence before dark. After 800 km of travelling through the arid West Coast region of South Africa, my fuel was dangerously low. We managed to reach Kenhardt, which is about 40 km South of the Confluence, and refuelled as quickly as possible. It was 17:30 and time was running out to get to the Confluence before dark.

Five kilometers before the turn-off I saw a speed POI appearing on my GPS and could not get rid of it. I loaded some custom POI's before we left for the holidays and obviously something went wrong as result of this. My map set was also not displaying for some or other reason. My GPS "crashed". I feverously battled to get the GPS going again - removed the batteries whilst driving, switched it off and on several times, removed the power from the 12V cigarette lighter, almost drove off the road, family screaming, but to no avail. At least the waypoints from the tar road to the confluence point were still on the GPS and I decided to only drive on them when we ventured off-road.

I slowed down to see if there was a gate where I marked the point (as per Google Earth co-ords) and the turn-off was spot on. I saw a chain on the farm gate but no lock. I climbed out in anticipation and inspected the chain. Dammit!! - the farm gate was locked. The lock was hanging on the inside of the gate and could not be seen on my approach.

What a disappointment!!! Although we did not manage to visit this Confluence, we all enjoyed the excitement and the scenery of this less travelled road between Cape Town and Pretoria. We eventually got some accommodation in Upington and enjoyed a nice meal and drinks to reward ourselves for our efforts.

I provide all of the planning information here so that someone else can use it and hopefully get this point logged:

• Possible farm name: Melkboom
• Owner: Unknown. Maybe one can find out from some B&B's in Kenhardt or Keimoes
• Route: There is a farm road that takes you to within 1.1 km from the Confluence. Contact me for a route plan in Mapsource GDB from the gate at 28.99832°S 21.12543°E to the farmhouse at 29.01165°S 21.05720°E and through to the Confluence.

Best of luck to the others that try!!!