03-Jan-2001 -- My first trip outside the US was to my wife's native country
Bulgaria, and I was determined to make it worthwhile. We were staying in
Sliven so there were 2 confluences in the vicinity - N43E26 and N43E27.
N43E27 was a little closer, about 60km (straight line - a 2 hour drive) and
it looked to be about 300m from a nearby road. Well, not only is Garmin's
Worldmap way off (close to useless in Bulgaria) but it's probably based on
some of the Bulgarian maps which also showed it close to the road. The 300m
turned into a 2km hike up foothills and forest. The actual confluence is on
a steep hill so I had trouble getting a perfect money shot of the
coordinates, and besides that sheep herders were gathering close by curious
to what we were up to, and we didn't want any trouble. I had hoped that the
confluence lay before the forest line began so I could get a beautiful
southern shot of the mountains but it ended up being 200 meters or so deep
into the woods, so there's not much of a view at the actual confluence itself,
but I included a southern mountain shot about 250 meters south of the confluence,
and a northern shot of the confluence area from a kilometer or so away.