Khartoum

The time in Frankfurt passed quickly. Got a bottle of duty free whisky, checked my email, ordered a toasted ham and cheese sandwich and a coffee in German. Good news: they understood and spoke back to me in German. Bad news: Worst ham and cheese toastie ever!

Shortly after take-off the stewardess asked the guy sitting beside me if he wanted to move so we could both have an empty seat next to us. Oh joy! A window seat, with the adjacent aisle seat empty! Managed to doze on and off in various almost-comfortable positions.

The clouds cleared as we left the Mediterranean and started to fly over the Egyptian desert. Started to see circles of crop irrigation, then the Nile came into view. We were somewhere like Abu Simbel, where the Nile widens out into a huge lake. Amazing! I’m not really fond of flying, but I love seeing the earth from a plane.

About an hour age we began our descent into Khartoum. First mud houses and mud roads appear, then a big and apparently thriving city with apartment buildings, mosques, and some quite fancy architecture, with concrete moulded into sinuous curves. Lot of unusual looking planes around the airport, the one next to us is labelled “Marsland” which sounds a bit like science fiction. The sun is beginning to set and we have to stay on board for refuelling.

Two hours till Addis….