16-Jan-2005 -- Sunday, 16 January, 2005 was the day we selected to visit the confluence 6S 38E after we had discussed end of 2004 about giving it a try. Just on Saturday, we finalised our preparations and decided to 'take action' next day. Starting from Dar es Salaam at 8:15, intending to take the road via Bagamoyo, we reached Bagamoyo at about 9:15 after 60 km of good tarmac road. From there we had to follow a gravel road to Msata (Chalinze-Segera Road), passing a lovely landscape, reaching tarmac road again after another 62 km at 11:40. From Msata we drove direction Segera to reach Mbwewe, where we intended to take a small road that would take us closer to the selected Confluence.

Leaving the main road, we started to use our GPS where we followed a waypoint we had set at 6S 38E. The road seemed to be just made for us, recently maintained, and leading us closer to our selected Confluence. We were prepared to leave the car at a certain distance and reach the Confluence on foot. Apparently we realised that the road took us around our Confluence and we decided to return to the nearest village to park our vehicle.

We found someone who was willing to accompany us on our walk through the bush and we were promised to find our car safe upon return. Just ready to leave, the Village Executive Officer came up to us, welcomed us and insisted that we should sign in the village's visitors' book.

GPS at hand, we set off in direction Confluence 6S 38E at about 13:15. After climbing uphill for 15 minutes, we realised that we forgot the spare batteries for the GPS, so that the logistic part of the team returned to the car to fetch the spare batteries. Continuing our walk for another 15 minutes, the intelligent person among us realised that we were close to another road. After confirming with the village support staff that this road would lead towards the direction we expected the Confluence to be, the person responsible for the logistic issues again returned to the car to collect it and fetch the others at the road side.

We decided to have one team member with the GPS posted on the cow-catcher of the car to lead the way, while the others were happily seated in the car with AC and no CC flies around. The road actually at one moment changed to a foot path, but eager to continue we decided to just follow the GPS indications. This led us through grass as high as our car and hidden ditches.

As we got closer to the Confluence, our intention to reach it by car as close as possible increased and we ended up one person walking in front of the car, getting closer and closer, while the other was following with the car. At 15:24 we reached 6°00'00.0"S 38°00'00.0"E at an elevation of 473 m and with an accuracy of 7.6 m. We placed the GPS on the Confluence, took as many pictures as we could, celebrated the successful visit with a delicious birthday cake (as one of us had his birthday that very 16 January 2005), cold drinks, and some CC-flies that would not leave us in peace.

After quite some time we decided to return to the village, as we did not want to return after sunset, and left the Confluence at 16:58. Using our GPS for the way back trough the grass, we safely reached the village, thanked our supporters, took some further pictures and started our way back to Dar es Salaam, keeping in mind a great adventurous day, a Confluence visit, and lots of fun.