Flight Over Africa

January 24, 2023

Flight Over Africa

Finding time and internet access to post to a blog is more challenging than I thought. At the moment, I have sufficient wifi access on my Ethiopian Airlines flight to Delhi to work on it, but I probably won't be able to finish until I'm in the airport at Delhi tomorrow.

My one-light-pack-around-the-world plan is going well, I have to say. I would also say that it reduces the chance of something getting lost or left behind, but my laptop experience at Orly makes that a shaky argument. Essential to making this work is doing laundry every night, or as often as possible (right now, with an overnight flight, I'll be going about 36 hours between laundry opportunities. I only have one each of long pants and long sleeve shirt;

The little dry laundry soap wafers I brought work okay, but I'm using about 5 at a time, instead of the recommended two. Every article of clothing I have with me is quick-drying synthetic, but the key to making it work on a wash-in-the-sink-tonight, wear-the-next-morning cycle is to get as much of the water out of the cloth before the still night airs do their work. I've been using the internet advice of wringing with a hotel towel: 1) roll up in a towel, 2) stomp on it with your feet (my innovation), and 3) hang up somewhere.

At the bed and breakfast, Amadou had offered to make arrangements for a taxi to pick me up at 5am for the 8am flight, and I happily let him do it. At 4:45am there was a hardly noticeably knock on the door, and Amadou brought a tray with a warm croissant and a cup of espresso. Amadou said absolutely pay no more than 25,000 XOF (about $42) for the hour ride to the Blaise Diagne International Airport. The taxi was there right at 5, and I had my first and last peaceful, non-confrontational Dakar taxi ride.

One last picture from Dakar I didn't have time to put up. These two shy, charming girls came up to my table at the restaurant, selling fruit. I bought 2 bananas and a pear that I didn't want for about 65 cents and asked if I could take their picture:

My flight to Delhi on Ethiopian Air was in two parts: Dakar to Bamako, Mali (one hour stop, stay on the plane) and then a 7 hour flight from Bamako to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. That leg on a 787. Change planes there for a 6 hour overnight flight on a 777 to Delhi, getting in around 7am.

I now despise the electronic window dimming system on the 787. I had looked forward to this flight, spanning the width of sub-saharan Africa mostly in the daytime. The path of the flight took it over 11 countries: Senegal-Mali-Burkina Faso-Niger-Nigeria-Cameroon-Chad-Central African Republic-Sudan-South Sudan-Ethiopia. (The nighttime Addis Ababa-Delhi flight also added Djibouti to the list).

After crossing over Burkina Faso into Niger (the aircraft flight map displays are great) sometime in late morning when lunch service was over, the cabin or flight crew used their absolute power to dim all of the windows so that people could sleep. It's awful and I missed views of most of Africa. What I missed was probably similar to what I did see, which was parched and dry, relatively flat.

Here is the Niger River in Mali:

...and here's pretty much all the land away from the few rivers:

A lot more people got on in Bamako, but it was a small airport. There was a UN plane parked near the terminal:

Anyway, not many pictures after Mali, but some screen shots of the flight tracker:

When the airline decided we could wake up and look out the windows again, it was night. But the approach to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia was thrilling. Much of it is built on hilly and mountainous terrain. From the lights of the outskirts of the city, you can see some of the terrain revealed. It's also a mixture of modern (streetlights everywhere) and ancient (the old pattern of haphazard development).

The best part of the day, and it almost made up for the darkened windows, was the stop at Addis Ababa. It's a big regional airport, and since it's serving a big region, most of the planes are jumbos (787, 777, A350, etc.). There seem to be very few jetways, so we parked our big '87 out on the dark edge of the tarmac, and walked down the stairway to take buses into the terminal. It's just out of this world to walk around and next to these huge planes!