#2: [04-Feb-12]

30-Nov-2003 -- Conquering this Confluence was a result of long lasting planning and exchange of e-mails between the members of the team. Finally Sunday the 30th of November 2003 was set as the date when the expedition would take place, as visitors from Finland Mr. Vesa Jaakola and Dr. Pasi Miettinen could take some time off from their busy schedule in order to join the fellow countryman Mr. Matti Oksanen for this adventure.

According to the Burkina Faso road map the Confluence was not too far from the capital Ouagadougou and should be quite easily accessible with the help of a 4x4 vehicle and a GPS device. With this information in mind the three-member team started the journey in the morning from the capital by taking the road up north to Ouahigouya. The tar road was in excellent condition and the team travelled quickly 120 km north to the small town of Yako. Only some domestic animals and broken down trucks on the road made us take an occasional brake. Observations were made of frequent bush fires as well, this region being already very dry in this time of the year. Unfortunately the community based bush fire management project funded by Finland has not got the resources so far to include this region into its very successful activities.

From Yako the three Finns took a gravel road leading east to Kaya. 26 km later our GPS device told us that we were approaching the Confluence and that it would be about one kilometre south from the road. We drove 800 m of small paths and continued to pursue the Confluence by foot. On a 20 m wide strip between two already harvested millet fields and next to a narrow seasonal water course the team managed to get the «zeros». 500 m northwest from the Confluence is a small village where the team exchanged a few words with local farmers. Before that observations on the flora and fauna around the Confluence were made. Tree species in the very proximity included a variety of Acacia species common in the Sahel as well as some Balanites aegyptiaca and Vitellaria paradoxa. Just 3 meters from the Confluence a nest of a weaver bird was hanging from a branch of Acacia seyal, mild dusty harmattan wind making it bounce back and forth in the air.

The very successful conquest of the Confluence was celebrated in Yako with some cold beers and soft drinks. While enjoying the taste of very palatable West African beer in a local maquis, plans of future confluence conquests around the world started already forming themselves in the minds of these three adventurers.