#1: [28-Dec-03]

28-Dec-2024 -- I visited this confluence during a one-week trip through Eritrea. My wife and I had planned to make the visit on the second day after leaving the capital city Asmara and spent the first night in the nearby town of Decemhare. However, on our travel permit was defined that we spent the night in Mendefera. So we squeezed in the visit of Decemhare and of this confluence on the first day. It was already 3 PM when we parked on the road between Decemhare and Mendefera in 8 km distance of the confluence point. We tried to drive closer to the confluence on a sandy track, but progress was slow and the track potentially harmful to the car. So we decided that I quickly run to the confluence while Elionora stays by the car.

We could have gotten by car much closer to the confluence, if we had approached it from the village Mai Edaga in the south-east. There is actually a drivable road withing 100 m to the confluence point. However, we decided to do less driving and more hiking by approaching it from the north. It took me less than 2 hours to reach the confluence and return to the car. The quick run & hike was diverse: I ran for a while along tracks, followed by cross-country or footpaths, mountain paths with some climbing and traversing dry rivers. I didn’t meet anyone or didn’t see any building during the hike. However, the confluence itself was just 30 m from a house, and even more astonishing was, that someone was standing on the roof! I got a little nervous, because this situation reminded me on my arrest 20 years ago when visiting the confluence 14°N 39°E one degree to the south in the Ethiopian province Tigray. I hasty took the pictures and immediately returned back. The confluence is on a plain with short grass, which is dried up in winter.

After the visit, I returned the same way back to our car and continued our trip to the town Mendefera, which we reached at nightfall.

CP Visit Details:

• Distance to a road: 100 m
• Distance to a track: 100 m
• Distance of car parking: 8 km
• Time to reach the CP from the car: 100 min
• Time at the CP: 4:02 PM
• Measured height: 1864 m
• Minimal distance according to GPS: 3 m
• Position accuracy: 5 m
• Topography: flat
• Vegetation: dry grass, scattered bushes.
• Weather: sunny, 25° C (felt temperature)
• Given Name: The Roof Standing Confluence

The whole story of our trip though Eritrea can be read in the following: Eritrea (Reiseblog Deutsch) or Eritrea (Travelblog English)