When I undertake an interesting journey I usually add heaps of photos. Not today. Unfortunately, my cameras were locked away in my case in the hold of the aircraft, so retrieval was impossible at 11,000 m above ground and travelling at mach 0.8.
So you'll just have accept a list of interesting sights / sites. The first came a while after lift-off from DUBAI. The gulf was stinking hot and very clammy and we were given a reading of c. 38 degrees C at 6 am. The route took us past the Burj Khalifa, which if you don't know is momentarily the tallest structure in the world. Look it up on the internet. It's an impressive structure and I'd love to take a ride to the top.
Next came the empty quarter of Saudi Arabia. Miles and miles of nothing except dunes and a few craggy surface rocks. There was no vegetation, nor any evidence of human presence, and no feed for camels, which I presume is why Australia has more camels than the Saudis..
The we zoomed past the port of Aquaba (on the other side of the aircraft, but at least I saw the gulf itself. Blue sea water separated two desert shorelines. Then came the head of the Red Sea and a queue of ships awaiting their turn through the Suez canal (Suez was also on the other side of the aircraft)
Them it was it was our turn to see a wondrous site (or rather several amazing images). First came the River Nile, with a swathe of irrigated agriculture snaking southward towards middle Egypt on either side. After that, our plane passed right over the centre of Cairo - a seeming jumble of grey buildings below. After peering into the gloom for a while, I spotted the Pyramids - only visible from our side,l though the Sphinx eluded me at 11,000+ meters. We passed across the Nile delta and Alexandria awash (if that's the right term) with small irrigated and very green plots before heading out over the Mediterranean sea. In fact the southern shoreline of the Mediterranean cam back into view occasionally and we passed at one stage right over the top of Tunis and, later, we saw the feint image of Algiers. At other time we seemed to be well out into the Sea and at one stage the whole island state of Malta lay along side my window seat. Next it was the whole Spanish Island of Ibiza.
After heading across the Spanish east coast near Valencia, we across the very dry and brown centre of that country with heaps of small fields which looked rather uneconomic to me. Finally our route took us close to Evora in Portugal, which I visited last and, after swinging out over the Atlantic Ocean our plane made a majestic fly-past up the Tagus to the airport and I could see many of the sights of central Lisbon including the famous statue of Magellan.
All in all it was a riveting journey, though it took nearly 7 hours and also allowed me to finish my presentation for the conference I'm attending starting in a few minutes!
AS
So you'll just have accept a list of interesting sights / sites. The first came a while after lift-off from DUBAI. The gulf was stinking hot and very clammy and we were given a reading of c. 38 degrees C at 6 am. The route took us past the Burj Khalifa, which if you don't know is momentarily the tallest structure in the world. Look it up on the internet. It's an impressive structure and I'd love to take a ride to the top.
Next came the empty quarter of Saudi Arabia. Miles and miles of nothing except dunes and a few craggy surface rocks. There was no vegetation, nor any evidence of human presence, and no feed for camels, which I presume is why Australia has more camels than the Saudis..
The we zoomed past the port of Aquaba (on the other side of the aircraft, but at least I saw the gulf itself. Blue sea water separated two desert shorelines. Then came the head of the Red Sea and a queue of ships awaiting their turn through the Suez canal (Suez was also on the other side of the aircraft)
Them it was it was our turn to see a wondrous site (or rather several amazing images). First came the River Nile, with a swathe of irrigated agriculture snaking southward towards middle Egypt on either side. After that, our plane passed right over the centre of Cairo - a seeming jumble of grey buildings below. After peering into the gloom for a while, I spotted the Pyramids - only visible from our side,l though the Sphinx eluded me at 11,000+ meters. We passed across the Nile delta and Alexandria awash (if that's the right term) with small irrigated and very green plots before heading out over the Mediterranean sea. In fact the southern shoreline of the Mediterranean cam back into view occasionally and we passed at one stage right over the top of Tunis and, later, we saw the feint image of Algiers. At other time we seemed to be well out into the Sea and at one stage the whole island state of Malta lay along side my window seat. Next it was the whole Spanish Island of Ibiza.
After heading across the Spanish east coast near Valencia, we across the very dry and brown centre of that country with heaps of small fields which looked rather uneconomic to me. Finally our route took us close to Evora in Portugal, which I visited last and, after swinging out over the Atlantic Ocean our plane made a majestic fly-past up the Tagus to the airport and I could see many of the sights of central Lisbon including the famous statue of Magellan.
All in all it was a riveting journey, though it took nearly 7 hours and also allowed me to finish my presentation for the conference I'm attending starting in a few minutes!
AS
