01-May-2004 -- This was my first "hunt" for a confluence point. It was successful, thanks in large to Mr. B.G.Pereira who was instrumental in helping find the confluence point. The point was about 25 kilometers at a place called Iruvail village close to Moodabidri (about 15 miles from the place where we stayed, called kateel). Our plan was to get a fair idea of the locality before we set out on the actual hunt. So we went on a surveying spree the previous day and realized that the confluence point was in the middle of a forest on a hill. There was a road where we could stop our car, my GPS showed the point to be 1.5 miles from the road. We decided to come the next day and catch those sweet numbers on my GPS the next day.

Day 2 turned out to be quite an adventure. What looked like bright sunny day when we set out from home turned out to be a really wet day (for which frankly we were not prepared). So it was all hunky dory until we reached the road, parked the car in the side and were about to set out to the point’s thought it was a piece of cake walking a mile and half, thanks to the sudden downpour, it made the adventure even more memorable. There were some rice fields that we had to cross initially; it started to rain heavily once we crossed the fields. We were soaking wet from head to toe. The GPS led us to the foot of a hill and the compass was pointing uphill. Here apparently we met a local who advised us that there was nothing beyond the point only forest and that it was dangerous. We were totally discouraged by his words. However My father-in-law offered to engage the guy in sweettalk, while I slipped into the forest.

I still had about a mile to go into the forest. I had quite a time trying to reach the point since there was no path and I had to clamber over in the forest terrain. The GPS was showing the spot to be only a few meters but I felt like it was miles!! I had to actually climb up the hill and then climb down, since the spot was on the other side. As I started to climb downhill (slipping many times due to some loose gravel!!)I realized my GPS showed 'em the magic numbers! Took the mandatory pictures(it was still raining when I took the pictures) and returned basking in the glory of a hunted confluence point!!