Nothing prepares you for flying over the Sahara – a desert the size of Europe – the continent where I live. Most of the maps we are used to on a small scale distort northern regions, making Europe look bigger than it really is.
About an hour and a half from Kigali, there was a large plume of smoke. I think this is the volcano that erupted for the first time in documented history a few weeks ago and had me concerned because the ash cloud from it had caused air traffic disruption as far away as Saudi Arabia, However, it was still streaming to the north east, away from our path, we were unaffected, If my memory serves me correctly, there are stable winds from the south west in these latitudes at this time of the year.
It also seems strange that as we go south in the summer, it gets dark earlier. I know why this is true technically, but one tends to associate heat with the sun, and thus you expect more sun as you go south and less as you go north. This is true for half the year – between the autumnal and vernal equinoxes i.e. over the winter months.
This is my first trip to Africa – I have only seen it in the distance before from Gibraltar. I have travelled extensively in Europe and North America, but outside of this I have only been to Israel, which I suppose is technically Asia. Unlike my daughter who is only missing South America and Antarctica from her tally.
For most of the next two weeks, we are all going to be out of the country as Doug is being sent at a few days notice to Taiwan and China for most of it as well.
It will also be my first visit to the southern hemisphere and I am interested to see if the Coriolis Force, which featured so heavily in my oceanography degree, really does make the water go the other way round down the plug hole.
Being sat on the left side of the plane, I have been able to see the Nile for much of the flight over Africa, as our flight routing took us down the Greek coast before crossing into Africa just west of the Nile delta.
On our descent, we turned first to the east and then a sweeping turn to the west. I thought I could see Rwamagana out to the west – I recognised the snake of the main road from my study on Google Earth, which means that we were turning onto the final approach quite close to where Camilla lives.
We got a taxi to the hotel the instant we got out, there was an overpowering scent from evening flowers – I think it might be Hibiscus. And on into the hotel. Never has a beer seemed so good.
It was great to see Camilla after 6 months, looking well and happy.
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