#2: [29-Sep-07]

29-Aug-2004 -- 8:45 am. Our driver Matthew, Armin, and myself were a couple of km outside Gwarzo, Kano state, and busy loading our enduro bikes onto the pickup. We had just visited confluence 12N 8E and our aim was also to visit confluence 12N 9E before going back to Abuja.

We drove from Gwarzo back to Kano on a good road. As we entered the town, Armin directed Matthew from the GPS data that we had recorded the day before. We drove via the A 237 to Wudil, at Wudil we turned off, passing Gaya to Ajingi. At Ajingi we turned off towards Chula. After a few kilometres, the road split one way to Chula and one way straight ahead leading exactly in the direction of the Confluence. This road was not indicated on any of my maps but it was a reasonable good, tarred road. With excitement rising, we followed this road and got closer to the Confluence. We managed to drive as close as 570 meters to the Confluence. We tried to drive off-road on the hard ground but decided after a couple of meters to stop, as there were small thorn bushes everywhere. We parked the car under a tree and walked up to the Confluence passing some Fulani herdsmen with their cattle. At 11:40 am we were at the Confluence. The confluence 12N 9E is in the middle of a sugar cane field. It was already quite warm by this time. We took our pictures and returned to the vehicle to get some cold refreshments.

The village Sali is close by and some of the villagers had gathered around the vehicle and curiously watched us. We stopped at this large village and had a look around. We were directed to and met with the "Sariki" of the village. We exchanged our greetings and well wishes and left again. We were escorted by a group of children back to the vehicle who eagerly wanted their pictures taken. By 12:30 pm we were in our vehicle again and driving back to Kano. Before reaching Kano, we got onto the A2 and headed back to Abuja via Zaria and Kaduna. Approximately 20 km outside Kaduna we stopped at a roadside bushbar belonging to an acquaintance of us and had ice-cold Star beers. We were back in Abuja by 6 pm.