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the Degree Confluence Project
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Uganda

near Kikorongo, Western, Uganda
Approx. altitude: 945 m (3100 ft)
([?] maps: Google MapQuest OpenStreetMap ConfluenceNavigator)
Antipode: 0° 150°W

Accuracy: 3 m (9 ft)
Quality: good

Click on any of the images for the full-sized picture.

#2: Taken from the Confluence - this is literally somebody's backyard! #3: Wonder what it's like to live this close to a Confluence? There's certainly some energy to this particular spot. #4: More bush: another view from the confluence spot #5: The path ended right on the Confluence, in the middle of this bush #6: Looking down on the confluence spot: notice the suspicious-looking whitish pat on the ground. Yikes!

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  0° 30°E (visit #1)  

#1: General area

(visited by Julian Blanc and Linda Yeo)

30-Dec-2002 -- By the time the GPS signalled that we were within 10 km of this Confluence, I began to regret not having checked on the confluence.org website whether it had already been done. Although a road map had suggested that the point would be very close to the main Ishaka-Kasese road, I'd simply assumed that few or no Confluences had been done in Uganda. But this was beginning to look too easy. As we were driving north, the arrow on the GOTO function in the GPS seemed to be trained onto the road. By the time we stopped the car at a junction a few meters past the Equator signs, my fears were turning into horror: the GPS indicated a distance of just 30 metres to the Confluence. The 40 km detour we had taken from our planned course just to do our first Confluence, was beginning to look more and more idiotic – especially at a time when Uganda was experiencing a major petrol shortage. If the Confluence was that close to a road so frequented by tourists travelling to major attractions like Queen Elizabeth National Park and the Rwenzori mountains, and so close to an equator sign where virtually every visitor stops for a few snaps, surely some confluence.org-aware GPS enthusiast would have already happened upon the place.

All the same, this wasn't the time to give up. We left the car, crossed the road and followed the arrow on the GPS display, which took us to a wide path leading up to a house. As there was nobody around to ask for permission, we carried on – we were within 10 metres of the Confluence. With some trepidation I noticed how the arrow led me to another, much narrower path along the side of the building. To my horror, the path entered a small bush and ended abruptly right at the point where the GPS indicated that the Confluence was. Although excited at having reached the Confluence so easily, this seemed to confirm my worst fears: it hadn't been just one or two GPS enthusiasts who had already happened upon the place, but scores of them! Nevertheless, we took the requisite photographs and walked back to the car carrying our heads low.

With no web access while in Uganda, we had no means of verifying my fears until our return to Nairobi one week later. While it was delightful to find out that the spot had not even been attempted, the realization of the likely truth was not quite as rewarding: all seems to indicate that the place where the path ends abruptly is the spot used by the dwellers of the nearby house to relieve themselves.


 All pictures
#1: General area
#2: Taken from the Confluence - this is literally somebody's backyard!
#3: Wonder what it's like to live this close to a Confluence? There's certainly some energy to this particular spot.
#4: More bush: another view from the confluence spot
#5: The path ended right on the Confluence, in the middle of this bush
#6: Looking down on the confluence spot: notice the suspicious-looking whitish pat on the ground. Yikes!
ALL: All pictures on one page
  Notes
Close to the border of the Queen Elizabeth National Park.