#2: [22-Nov-14]

31-Aug-2002 -- The Gauteng schools closed early for the World Summit on Sustainable Development. This gave us an opening for a one week vacation in the Transkei (now part of KwaZulu-Natal) and a chance to visit a few Confluences. There were two reasonably close to the area we would be visiting (31S 29E and 31S 30E), and I still had an open account at 29S 30E.

Then there were a few very tempting ones in Lesotho, but we were not sure about the roads. When a little research showed that it might be possible to travel through Lesotho and get both 29S 28E and 30S 29E, the plan started to fall in place. When Ferdi suggested that we go via Winburg, I realised he had a sixth Confluence in mind - the unvisited one near Excelsior in the Free State at 29S 27E. So we would attempt six Confluences in a week in some of the most rugged parts of Southern Africa.

The first one was easy. We left Pretoria at four in the morning and travelled via Kroonstad and Winburg to Excelsior. From there a 10 km dirt road took us within 100 meters of the Confluence, just before ten in the morning. As we were looking for a farm house to get permission to enter the farm, a vehicle stopped next to us. It happened to be the farmer himself, Mr Mike Clayton, of the farm Kildare. He knew about the Confluence, as he is a pilot and considered using the Confluence as a turning point in air races. He was interested to see exactly where the Confluence was and accompanied us to the point. He invited us for a braai afterwards, but unfortunately we had to decline, as we had another Confluence to visit the same day in Lesotho.

Continued at 29S 28E.