Head in the Sand.

In Flight - We have been flying over the African continent for some time now and have been greeted by little more than a giant tableau of sand for as far as the eye can see – even while traveling at 900km/h. A stretch a few minutes ago proffered some outcroppings of rock and a brief change to an ochre-hued landscape, but from the air, we were still left with enormous rivulets of sand – a giant beach without the water, or a sandbox you wouldn’t want to be stuck playing in. There also appeared to be a section of farm plots layed-out in rectangles and hexagons, but with no other signs of civilization around, and definitely no roads. At first, I had thought we were flying over some really dirty water, but then it struck me: could this be the Sahara? Yes, it was.

We have been blessed with a perfectly clear day for nearly this whole leg of the journey (my first stretch with a window) and it has been fascinating to watch the topography change from lush, verdant Dutch farms fed by the tendrils of innumerable irrigation ditches to the mammoth crags of the Alps to now, the vast aridness of a seemingly unending desert. It was also particularly interesting to see the crisp outline of Italy’s boot at the southernmost point of the European continent.

A notoriously poor sleeper on planes, I’ve only mustered a single 10-minute nap since we left 21 hours ago. With only a few more hours to go until we land in Nairobi, I’ll likely hold off at this point – I don’t want to miss seeing the land shed its skin yet again as we pass over the Savannah on our approach.