18-Jan-2002 -- My 1st confluence point : N 51° E 2° Calais (fr).

January 18th 2002.

There was a bit of concern regarding this confluence point : Map Blast showed it in the water, so…I crossed my fingers, and hoped this point could be reached at low tide. Low tide was around 10 a.m., so I had to leave early in the morning, to drive from home, 20km NW of Brussels (be) to Calais (fr), over a distance of approximately 190km.

Exit 21 Oye-Plage, and further on direction Les Hemmes de Marck. My Garmin Etrex showed me gently the right way, I drove as far as possible, and parked my car next to the camping places “Les Oyats”. Less than 2 km to walk, direction “Plage des Hemmes”. Another concern arose : battery low. But, no panic, I had some spare ones, recovered from an earlier visit to a cache in my backpack. The beach, however, was covered with mist…and at 220 meters from the confluence point… the low battery was empty now, and switched off my Etrex. I searched and placed the new ones…but these displayed “Battery low” too. Oh gosh,…and there yours truly was running in the mist to reach the confluence as soon as possible, and to make a shot of the GPS before it powered off again. Mission accomplished.

The mist almost disappeared 90 minutes later, my shots were taken, and this guy went home with satisfaction, and dreaming of visiting some other confluence next summer holidays.