01-Mar-2007 -- The confluence point 25N 21E was an easy catch like 27N 19E visited the day before.

Lots of smuggler tracks lead from the small oasis town of Tāzarbū along the eastern edge of the Rabyāna Sand Sea to the South in direction of the frontier of Chad, some 450 km away. For tourists like us this area is not regarded 100% safe since these smugglers are often armed, and stories of occasional robberies are told. Closer to the southern border also the danger of mine fields, relicts of the Aouzou Strip War, rises.

For these reasons we did not spend much time in the area. We had filled up our three Land Rovers with fuel and water in Tāzarbū for the 850-km trip through Erg Rabyāna to the famous volcano crater Wāw al-Nāmūs, and on to al-Qaṭrūn. From Tāzarbū it was only a 2-hours' fast ride over flat ground to the confluence location where we arrived on 1 March 2007 at late lunch time.

As you can see on the pictures, there is nothing but a sandy plain in every direction, except for some small dunes to the West. Also the digital camera was not able to find anything to focus on, so please excuse the blurry quality of the pics. On the approach we collected one of the numerous wooden sticks which are left in the desert by the oil explorers to mark the point. After the short celebration we left the tracks and crossed the dunes of the Rabyāna Sand Sea in western direction.

Continued at 25N 14E.