#3: [11-Nov-07]

#2: [30-Oct-04]

26-Aug-2004 -- This is the second confluence out of a 29-confluence hunt, the story continues from 42N 26E.

On the sixth day, we started at 5:30 a.m. in Istanbul. With such an early start we could escape Istanbul's chaotic traffic. It was not even 10 a.m. when we passed Ankara. We did not visit Turkey's capital, since our main purpose was to visit Iran. So we went further east on highway E88. Shortly after Kırıkkale, the 4-lane divided highway ends and continues as a country road. We approached the CP coming from the north via Delice, Sungurlu, Alaca. From Alaca it is another 26 km south on country road No. 795. According to our map, the CP was supposed to be in the town Deremahal. But during our visit, we never came across that place. I guess our map isn't correct.

From the road we could only get within 1.9 km of the CP. We turned around and then found a small road to the village Çatalkaya, which was not Deremahal. From there, we tried to approach the CP on another track. But we soon got stuck with our Toyota Corolla. Actually, we could have moved further, but we didn't dare to, because there was a huge bump ahead. Not being in a hurry, we left the car behind and hiked the last 1.4 km. The track lead us as close as 400 m to the CP, and then we hiked up a grassy hill. The location is not too spectacular, but we were nevertheless happy to have made it to the point.

As a reward, we sat down and had the rest of our Bulgarian bread and Salami. I don't know why, but most of my CP visits occurred in a rush. I hardly ever enjoyed sitting at the confluence point and resting for a while. Usually it is about to get dark, or you might not get a bus or train if you hang around; I never seem to actually enjoy the point, only enjoy having gotten there. Well, this time we found a shady place nearby and had our salami-bread and savoured the moment for once. That day we reached the city of Sivas at 7:30 p.m. and stayed the night there.

CP visit details:

• Time at CP: 3:10 pm
• Duration: 1 hour 40 min (until we were back to our route)
• Distance of car parking: 1390 m
• GPS height: 1076 m
• Description: Grassland on a slope, nearby uncultivated fields
• Given Name: Salami Confluence

Story continues at 40N 41E.