12-Nov-2012 -- I read about the Degree Confluence Project and decided to be part of the project. As 21N 74E near Maharashtra in India was not done by anybody, I short-listed the same for adventure. I spoke to my daughter Ujjwal and my nephew Shashank about the project and they were excited to join me in finding the 21N 74E confluence.

I stay in New Mumbai which is an extension of the city of Mumbai towards South. After exploring on Google map on internet I worked out an approximate location of the confluence and could make out that the point of confluence would be in the hilly terrain located in the South of Gujarat State or North of Maharashtra State. We had never been to the location or the area. To make our jobs easier for searching the longitude and latitude we had downloaded a GPS application on two of the cell phones.

On 11 November 2012 we started our journey early in the morning by 7:00 am IST by my own car. We were heading north on National Highway No.8 (NH8) towards Surat which is a large city in southern Gujarat State. We reached near Surat by 01:30 pm. Approximately 20 km before Surat we turned towards east and took National Highway No.6 towards Dhule (in Maharashtra State). We were continuously monitoring the longitude and latitude of the location on our cell phones while moving.

We passed Bardoli, Vyara, Songadh, Uchchhal, Visarwadi, and Navapur. We had continuously travelled about 160 km east from Surat and there was an abrupt delay of 2 hours as an accident had took place after Navapur causing a traffic jam. Overcoming that, we touched 74E near a small village called Bardipada but our longitude was 21°17’N and by studying the surroundings we could work out that we had to move approx. 35 to 40 km south from the 74E point. It was 5:40 pm in the evening and was already getting dark. We realized there was a mountain range about 3-4 km due south, so it was not possible to move in southern direction from the point where we had located 74E.

We inquired with the local people from the village and learned about a small town called Pimpalner in the South approximately 55 km far behind the mountain range. To reach there, we had to travel about 20 km back towards West and take a southeast road after Navapur village. There were no hotels in Navapur. Since it was already dark by that time we decided to go to Pimpalner and have a night halt so that we can start early.

While travelling to Pimpalner we were continuously monitoring the longitude and were able to sight 74E again but the latitude was 20°40’N. At least, we got sure that we were heading in the right direction. We reached Pimpalner by 09:30 pm. Finding an accommodation was a bit of a task as Pimpalner is a very small town in the northwest region of Maharashtra. We found a small guest house, had dinner and settled for the night.

On 12 November 2012 we started our journey back towards Navapur by 07:10 am and continued tracking for 74E and came across 74°E 20°37’N on the main road so we decided to proceed north towards the hills which are about 600 meters above msl (mean sea level). We reached a point where our reading was 74°E 20°50’N, we stopped there and decided to walk. Our journey came to a halt when we sighted 74°E 20°53’N but there was a huge mountain which was impossible to cross and we could not proceed further.

Keeping the spirit alive and not willing to give up, luckily we found some locals in that forest and barren land and we inquired about the way across the mountain. We took a detour of the mountain and reached a point where the confluence was close to what we were looking for. After walking about 4 km towards North and constantly maintaining 74°00’00”E we achieved 74°00’00”E 21°00’01” confluence.

Overall it was a great experience, exploring the sparsely cultivated forest land experiencing the breathtaking view of the life beyond city.

The location is in the hilly and forest range lying south of Gujarat State in northern Maharashtra State. The area is very lightly populated.

The details of degree of confluence visited are as below:

• Confluence of Degree: 74E 21N
• Location : Farm of MR. GHODGE YADAV CHOURE
• Village : TEKPADA
• Tehsil : PIMPALNER
• District : DHULE
• State : MAHARASHTRA
• Country : INDIA

We are very thrilled and excited and would be happy to visit more and more confluences. We thank the Degree Confluence Project team for running such an adventurous project.