19-Feb-2008 -- This was my first confluence visit on the island of Sumatra. Going from north to south I initially wanted to get to 3°N 99°E first, but then found out that this point was just visited a few weeks before. So I decided to try 2°N 99°E.

After spending a few days at Lake Toba I took a minibus from Parapat to Tarutung, a small town a couple of kilometers south of Lake Toba. Since the confluence is only about 6 kilometers from the town center, I thought about finding a hotel room there and go to the confluence in the afternoon. But the bus emptied quickly on the way and I became the only passenger. So I explained the purpose of my visit to the bus driver (or at least I tried to explain...) and asked him to bring me near the confluence for some extra money. He agreed, but at the terminal he was asked to do another job. Two of his colleagues stepped in and one of them became quite enthusiastic about (what he thought was) my purpose of the visit.

We drove through a suburban area and came to within 700 m to the point. They said they had to bring back the car, but would pick me up again later. While I had all my luggage with me, the other guy offered to join me and carry my backpack. While I thought that I could leave it with someone at a shop near the road, he insisted to carry it.

So, a little unprepared, we started along a small path along an irrigation channel into direction of the point. The path soon became narrower, steeper and very muddy. As we passed the point 350 m north I tried to find another path leading south, but people told me there wasn’t any and the area was to steep and overgrown to walk through. But I was told that there was a cemetery which we hat already passed, from where we could get nearer to the point. When we arrived there we couldn’t find any path further on, and the afternoon rain was just beginning. So we went back to the street. Since I had already decided to continue my bus journey, I didn`t try to find another way to the point. But when I later looked on the satellite map of the area, it looks like there could be other paths starting from the road a little further south. When you look on the picture with the general view of the area, it looks like you have to pass the hill on the right side, not on the left as I did. At least it seems that the point is not inside a forest, so it should be possible to reach it.