#1: [14-Feb-02]

11-Feb-2016 -- This site was initially documented for the Degree Confluence Project back in 2002, but since it's near Dinesh's hometown of Jodhpur, we wanted to visit it. Unlike our previous confluence hunts, this one was a spur-of-the-moment decision, undertaken with little advance preparation. We were spending the day with our relatives Vandana and Alok Tyagi and thought they would enjoy the adventure, too.

After a very pleasant lunch at Fort Chanwa, a lovely heritage hotel in Luni, we made our way to the part of this small town where the confluence is located. Coming more-or-less unprepared, we did have to spend some time wandering around the village and chasing the GPS coordinates through the dusty streets, assisted by local residents.

We discovered that the exact spot (at least, according to the all 0's reading on our GPS) is just inside the courtyard of a private home. The owners, with the hospitality that we've always found in rural India, invited us inside their walled compound to take our readings and our photos.

While Dinesh, Alok, and Candace concentrated on taking the GPS reading, snapping the photos, and talking to several Luni residents, Vandana (a physician) chatted with the lady of the house about public health issues, such as the treatment of local well water.

Although this confluence had been previously documented, we were pleased to have revisited the site and photographed it from inside the residential courtyard. Earlier confluence hunters had taken their photos from just a few feet away — outside the courtyard. Perhaps the two sets of pictures will give viewers a more complete image of the confluence and its environs.

This seems like a good place to give a shout-out to Dominique and Claude Wacker, who first visited 26N 73E in 2002. It's impressive to realize that this - as well as their 5 other Rajasthan confluences — were found 14 years ago, at a time when large scale, error-prone road maps and a GPS device were their only tools. Today Google Earth and quite accurate and detailed phone maps make confluence hunting in India much easier.