#2: [30-Jan-03]

05-Jan-2003 -- Thanks to the usual bureaucratic delays in getting our registration & travel permits issued in al-Kharṭūm, we arrived in the area at 21:20 - pitch dark with barely a sliver of moon, so no chance of walking the final half mile along the railway track, or getting any usable photos if & when we did get there.

Indeed, after 18 hours of flying & 7 driving, I would still have been fast asleep (passenging!) when we approached at 120 km/h, if we had not screeched to a halt within 10 m of the closest road approach to the Confluence, thanks(?) to some benevolent nomads deciding to pick this exact point & time to take their herd of camels straight across the main trans-Sahara road in front of us.

No Photos to show for the experience, but we will retry in the next 2 weeks, & hopefully get pictures of the skid-marks (on the road, that is - you don't want to know about the others!) as an additional souvenir. We receive our own driving permits & keys to the 4x4 this afternoon, so should be able to retry this and at least 3 or 4 of the other Confluences around al-`Ubayd in the next couple of weeks. Camels permitting.