19-Jan-2004 -- Luckily I have a local friend, David, in Jakarta, who is an excellent guide. David also has training as a seaman and understands what GPS is and does.

We started from his home in Cililitan (South Jakarta) at around 10:00, in the hot and mucky air of a cloud day, and made our way via Tanjung Priok and Cilincing to the PLTGU power plant in North Jakarta, arriving at around noon including quick Padang food lunch at a warung. The transport included a variety of buses, Mikrolets (share taxi) and flimsy motorbikes (helmet? too hot!). At that point the GPS showed a remaining distance of ~10km and according to my map information (MS Encarta) the confluence should be in the water near the village of Muaragembong, so we chartered a small boat from a fisherman in a nearby village for 70,000 rupiah. (~ Aus$10)

The boat trip took over an hour, mostly going north, but we had to circumnavigate a lot of fishing nets that the local fishermen had installed on poles in the shallow, muddy water.

I was worried that the confluence might, due to inaccuracies in my map, not be in the water after all but in impenetrable woods on the shore, but sure enough we got to the point with a couple of hundreds meters to spare to the shore. We got as close as 20m according to the GPS which is pretty good since it's not so easy to pinpoint a spot with a boat that has some momentum.

The scenery is pretty bland, with some forested shoreline visible to the north, east and south and the open sea to the west.

On the way back we did stop in the village of Muaragembong which is on a little canal off the sea but there is nothing to see (or eat) there. The whole boat trip took 3 - 4 hours and with the trip back to Cililitan and dinner at a dodgy chicken place it was almost 19:00h when we got back.