08-May-2005 -- Sunday morning just after 5 a.m. Malte walked from house to house knocking on our doors to wake us all. Our aim was to visit confluence 6N 6E.

We had spent the night a few km outside Agbor at the guesthouses, which were kindly provided by the consultants company "TEAM". We had arrived the previous day late in the afternoon and had had a lovely dinner and interesting evening at the Clubhouse. Malte had worked at this site for four months when he first arrived in Nigeria. Incidentally, we found out that his nickname at this time was "Schnuppi". Needless to say that this happens to be also the name he was called from then onwards.

The visit to the confluence 6N 6E was planned already several months ago but we never managed to get onto the road. Babs' motorbike was for repair several months because her mechanic got severe bush fever (state of mind where everything is too much and the smallest things take ages). Schnuppi's bike keeps on breaking down that's why he had to fix his bicycle, and together with Uli on his bicycle they made it at least for this trip.

The planning from which side we should approach the Confluence proved to be difficult since the Confluence lies in the tropical forest and there were a lot of rivers on the maps we possessed. Thanks to Schnuppi's early morning drumming sessions on our doors, we got an early start and headed to Agbor and wanted to find the way to Ugo. We got directed into several directions and ended up driving in circles. We decided not to look any longer for the direct road to Ugo and took the road via Abraka to Ugo. About 4 km from the Confluence, we found a small, tarred road, which was in a terrible state, but we managed to get 2 km closer before we offloaded our bikes and bicycles. Along this road we looked for a suitable path to get into the tropical rainforest and managed to ride as close as 460 meters. The remaining distance we were fighting through the thick rainforest. The progress was very tiring and slow. With every meter we got more cuts and bruises from the thorns, monkey robs and the thick undergrowth. The last 70 meters were exceptionally difficult because it was an abandoned field and the undergrowth was very thick.

A couple of meters from the Confluence, Uli lead the way but got his surprise of the year as he saw through the thick undergrowth a motorcycle passing by. The rest of us did not believe him at first but after a couple of minutes we were all out in the open on a small path. We were generally overwhelmed with joy as we found the Confluence there, and secondly because we would not have to walk through the rainforest again to collect the bikes. After we made all the compulsory pictures and our group pictures, we set off in the direction of the main road, which should not be too far away. We were wrong, as we discovered that the path was leading eventually parallel to the road. The motorbike boots proved to be very protective in the thick rainforest but walking in them now was very tiring, and that is why we stopped the first motor bike driver we saw and asked him to drive us back. What an experience to ride an Okada with three persons on it on a narrow bush path! John the Okada driver brought us back where we had left our bikes and collected the rest of us.

On the way back to Abuja we took a small detour to find the closest possible point to the confluence 7N 6E that we could drive to by car. Thereafter we were heading back to Abuja. We reached the outskirts of Abuja at sunset, what a better time to stop alongside a bush bar for a few cold beers to celebrate our visit to confluence 6N 6E!