14-Jul-2006 -- After spending the week planning routes and checking inventories for the trip, we finally left Tripoli for Confluences 31N 12E and 31N 13E at 18:00 on Thursday, 13 July 2006. Our plan was to drive to Mizda, turn west and head into the desert past Wādiy Fassānū and find an suitable place to overnight. At 22:00 we found a spot and prepared a dinner of lamb chops, aubergine and baked potatoes over an open fire under the starlit sky. Tiredness soon crept in after eating and it wasn't long before we were asleep.

At 05:30 on Friday morning we quickly finished breakfast and got moving to start a long day of relatively slow off-road driving and Confluence hunting. Shortly after 08:00 we reached our first Confluence point, which was surprisingly easy to get to, considering that a cursory inspection of Google Earth indicated that the point seemed to be on the side of a steep hill.

After taking the necessary photographs I decided to have a look around and found some mollusk shell fragments from a far earlier period in time when the area formed part of the sea floor.

Having had a rest and a bit of a stretch, it was time to attempt the second Confluence for the day: 31N 13E.