26-Jul-2008 -- This is the 16th out of 23 confluences that I visited on my bicycle trip to the North-East of China. The story starts from 40°N 117°E.

On confluence day, I started from the little town Túlǐhé (图里河), 130 km from the confluence point. In the morning, I didn’t know where I would end up that day. First, I thought of visiting 52°N 122°E, but I abandoned the idea, because it would have meant to ride 50 km into a dead end. In general, I made up my plans spontaneously – in the evening, or in the morning – and I changed them oftentimes during the day. This way of confluencing is in contrast to Targ Parsons, who does prepare and organize his trips very well.

After riding 3 hours (50 km) from Túlǐhé, I reached the city of Gēnhé (根河) at 7 a.m. While I had breakfast there, I decided to try this confluence. The nice thing about it: it is located only 3 km from a town (which is normally not the case in the sparsely populated Dàxìngānlǐng Mountains (大兴安岭)). The bad thing was that the point didn’t really lay on my route towards the North. Secondly, access to the town was only possible on a road which was in an extremely bad stage.

However, I gave my best and reached the town Déěrbùěr (德耳布尔) at 16:00 pm. I went through the town – I even saw the hotel, but I didn’t stop in order to directly go for this confluence. Over some roads and tracks I made it up to a distance of 900 m. Here, I met some mushroom pickers, who were puzzled about my appearance in the forest. I told them that I am going for a “special mushroom”.

These last 900 m were not easy. After hiding the bike and luggage in a thicket, I made my way through swamps and forests. I think it is no lie to say that I stayed at the confluence point less then 1 minute – that included taking all the pictures. The reason for my short stay: mosquitoes. See the South picture, where a fly directly occupied at the object lens. Meanwhile I had already used some repellent, but it would not help at all. I should have bought some nets that the mushroom pickers use to have.

At 18:00 p.m I was back to the town Déěrbùěr (德耳布尔), right in time to have a deserved dinner.

CP Visit Details:

• Distance to an asphalt road: 3.5 km
• Distance to a road: 2.5 m
• Distance to a track: 900 m
• Distance of parking the bike: 876 m
• Distance to houses: 2.2 km
• Time for detour: 2:00 hours
• Time at the CP: 16:58 p.m.
• Riding time (distance) from Túlǐhé: 8:45 hours (135.0 km)
• Measured height: 848 m
• Minimal distance according to GPS: 0 m
• Position accuracy at the CP: 4 m
• Topography: gentle hills
• Vegetation: mixed birch & larch tree forest.
• Weather: sunny, 24° C (felt temperature)
• Description of the CP: In the north-eastern part of Inner Mongolia, in the Dàxìngānlǐng Mountains (大兴安岭). Deep in the forest, but not far from the town Déěrbùěr.
• Given Name: The Mashroom Picker Confluence

Story continues at 52°N 122°E.