The overdue Kenya post.

I know it's long overdue but I was waiting until I received the rest of the pictures from the other other two pilots to post about the trip to Kenya. I have yet to receive them so I'm just going to post a few of the good pictures I have and give the story. If more pictures come I'll post them as well.

The trip started out much behind schedule, go figure. I was in Spokane Washington on a Monday and we did not get on our way until Sunday night. There were just to many things to get done before we went. Paperwork upon paperwork, and the FAA took two days of aircraft inspection before they let us go. All said and done though we took the aircraft on two separate test flights to work out the bugs. After all this bird had been sitting for over three years without flying. The aircraft was at my companies HQ so I was able to see all the corporate folks. And by the way I think they must have thought I was completely mad taking this old bird across the North Atlantic and then down into Africa.

Here is the only picture I took while in the states. On Wed night we took over the hotel breakfast area and stayed up until 4:00 in the morning doing all the flight planning. This was quite a job indeed. I don't know if the pic shows it to well but we basically overran the place with charts from all over the world. Charts were strewn about all over the place.

So lets fast forward a couple of days. Finally on Sunday afternoon we blast off for Fargo, North Dakota where we over nighted. I know what you're thinking. What a beginning for this trip, North Dakota. But hey we had to start somewhere.

So day two we left Fargo and spent the day driving through Canada. We stopped in Thunder Bay for customs and fuel, then stopped in Moosenee for fuel, followed by Kuugguack, then made it to our over night stop in Illuquat Canada. On our last leg of the day the aircraft got so cold at altitude that we had all our coats on just to keep us kinda warm. After flying the last leg and freezing ourselves to the bone in flight we disembark the airplane in waaaaay below freezing temps. It was about -18 C when we landed. After checking the oil as fast as we could and running to the FBO I thought my face was going to peal off along with my fingers falling off. It was a cold I have never experienced before. Of course the 40 mph wind did not help at all. If you look at a map you would see that there is just nothing north of this town. Any further north and you are over the pole.

Here are some pictures of day two. Thunder Bay, Kuugguak, and the thriving metropolis of Illuquat. In the city you will see snow mobiles at the gas station but what you can't here are all the sled dogs barking behind the gas station. Pretty crazy.

The following morning we had to overcome a few challenges regarding the airplane. You see Fokkers do not like extreme cold, not one bit. After 3 hours of working on getting the old bird back to life the weather was going down fast. The final verdict was a gung ho blast off with our fingers crossed the the gear would come up. After much anticipation the landing finally locked into place. And only after about 18 minutes of transit time. Yeah you read that last sentence right. Lets just say I'm was relieved when the first two locked in and after that the last one could take as long as it needed to make it's way into the wheel well.

So off we go to Greenland across our first of three over water legs. I however think it would be a stretch of the word to call this leg over water. It was over mostly ice. Then more ice, followed by a little bit of ice and water.





Getting to Greenland was very cool. Although we did not get off the airport, it was very pretty on the way in and out. Not much to say here other than it was cool to see. But as the pictures will show there was not much green about Greenland. I will say the highlight of Greenland was it was the first time I have ever used what they call a "Follow Me" car. At some airports they provide you with a car to follow to your parking spot. In the states they don't use these But I guess in Greenland they do. That was pretty cool.






So off the Iceland then. We leave the airport and as we leave we passed a very clear line. At one point you are over very rugged terrain. Then you leave all the rocks behind and you over glacier snow. We stared over the glacier for about an hour and a half before hitting our next water crossing. This time we were over the water for about two hours before seeing the shoreline of Iceland. It was on this leg I decided to read my book in the hallway to pass time.




Iceland was very cool. There was a lot to see in a short amount of time so we ended up walking up and down the main street in Reykjavik and finding some good food to grub down on. Nothing really eventful just a cool place to visit.




The next morning we left for Scotland. Our last real over water day. The weather was beautiful on the first leg to Wick Scotland. I will say that I was very glad to finally see land and know that I was going be flying over civilization for most of the flying from here on out. Getting to Wick was great. If I were to put words to it, it looked exactly like I thought it would. Just straight out of Braveheart. Lots of green and you could feel the history there. I did take on random picture you will see. In Wick there were these huge Dandelion looking flowers. They were about three inches across. Bouncing from flower to flower was a bumblebee I have never seen an equal to. This bee had to be two inches long!! So of course I had to get a picture of it.





Sadly the entire next leg we made in the clouds. We did not see any of England until about 7 miles out from our landing airport of Kemble where we overnighted. Kemble was very very cool. It was like taking a trip back in time to the 1700's. All the buildings were just incredible. My hotel was this old school English building at we had dinner at a local pub that was called "The Plough". This was where my local meals across the world tour began. I had the ever traditional Fish and Chips. Then I had to try a Kidney and Liver pie. The pie was very good. Rather like a beef pot pie here in the states. Just with a bit more bite.




To stick with my local food only motto the breakfast I had was interesting. It consisted of blood pudding (exactly as the name says), a large mushroom, some beans, a sausage, fried egg on fried bread, and a tomato half grilled. The blood pudding was obviously the highlight. Quite interesting to say the least.

After our hearty breakfast off to the airport we go. Passing all kinds of beautiful scenery on the way.



One cool thing about the stop in Kemble UK, was this was the place that we were "spotted" by a photographer by the name of Graham Wasey. I found a photo of us on Airliners.net and send him a message thanking him for taking the pictures and asking if he had anymore he could email me for the blog. He was kind enough to send the following wonderful shots of our plane landing then taking of in Kemble. It was very exiting to have been spotted in a plane I was flying at the time.





On our next leg it was across the middle of Europe for a fuel stop in Verona Italy. I called dibs on this landing and did my best not to punish the runway to badly. I did not get any pictures on the ground but the other guys did. So these pictures I will post later. However I did get some good pictures of the French wine country and the Alps. After the Alps there are a few pictures of the descent into Verona. The airport in Verona was very nice. Very busy, but the people were very helpful. It was a the highlight of the day for me. Of course I had to get one goofy picture of me flying over Italy. Just for fun.

On our way out of Verona we basically flew down the Eastern coastline of Italy. The view was impressive to say the least. We even flew right past the tip of the "boot". The view was great.





The latter part of this leg was flown in the dark as we approached our next overnight wich was Athens, Greece. Even though I did not get any pictures after dark I did get these two sunset shots before the sun went fully down for the night.




Due to the late hour that we got into Athens and the early time of departure we did not get to go and see much aside from the hotel. I did however make sure to get a very good Mediterranean meal. It was a chicken covered in a great sauce served with a truly unique rice and vegetable mix. Very tasty. The following pictures are just of the hotel and some shots around the airport where we were parked. Not super exiting but all part of the adventure.




Taking of out of Athens was simply gorgeous. The islands were so beautiful and the water was a steller shade of blue. These pictures I know will not due it justice but you'll have to take my word for it. It was incredible.




After pasing over the oustanding colors of the Mediteranian we cam upon Egypt. As soon as we passed over Egypt we almost lost sight of the land. The wind was blowing so much dust around we were not able to see much at all. On thing we did see however was an oasis agricultural town. It was very interesting to see. In the middle of the desert we came upon this farmland that was surrounded by a city. It must have been 10 miles long and a mile wide. You could see the city outlineing the entire thing but there was no building in the farmlands themselves. After landing in Hurghada, Egypt we found that they were not going to allow us to leave the aircraft. This was most unfortunate because we all had to use the restroom. So after much debate and a rather unfriendly attitude from the handler there we decided the occation required us to relieve ourselves right there on the ramp. With all the trouble the handlers gave us in Hurghada it was the least we could do to express our feelings.




Our next leg was from Hurghada to Jedda, Saudi Arabia. On this leg we had to dodge a line of thunderstorms but after the first hour passed the weather got a little better. However the visibility was very low again due to the blowing sand. I did get a few pictures during the approach. You can see in these pictures some of the homes we flew over. After we arrived we were parked next to a Saudi Prince's Boeing 737 that had been converted to a uber lush travel machine. After the pilot of the BBJ came over we chat it up for awhile and after the conversation and a tour of the BBJ he gave us the sandwiches that we left onboard the aircraft. They were the most perfectly cut and prepared sandwiches I have ever seen. It was almost to perfect to eat. However I was rather hungry so I did consume the a samich or two.




The next leg was from Jedda to Djibouti. Djibouti resides on the western border of Somalia. We flew almost all of this leg across the Red Sea in the dark. So no pictures enroute. When we arrived in Djibouti there was some confusion as to who we were and it got the local law enforcement a little bit worked up. After lotts of talking and negotiating coupled with some large sums of money we were released to go and find our hotel. After getting to our hotel Adil and I immediatly left to go on a walk to find some local food. The walk was an eye opener. This was true Africa. We saw children sleeping on cardboard on the sidewalks. It was a reality check.






After we ate we went back to the hotel to get a nap before a early start for our last leg into Narobi, Kenya. During the cab trip to the airport we saw camels just wandering in the streets. That was pretty cool. The next set of pictures are from the airport in the morning getting ready for our departure. Just random stuff. One to note was right after departur we flew by a little shantie town.





Our last leg to Nairobi was in great weather. The sky changed from the dust low vis to a blue and beautiful sky. The terrian turned from desert to lush green. As we desended into Narobi, Kenya. I did not have to much time to clip off pictures simply because it got pretty busy really fast. But here are the pictures I did get along with a couple of the place I stayed. Where I stayed was very unique because it is basically a country club specificaly for pilots. It is very exclusive and they treat you very good.







After a night touring the town and having some great food the following day I just relaxed. Sat by the pool, read my book and enjoyed the club. That afternoon we went out again to the part of town where the expats live. It was very pretty. We then had dinner at a great restaurant with an outstanding courtyard view. And from dinner it was off to the airport to catch my British Airways flight to London then pushing on to DFW.





As far as a little final note this trip changed my outlook of a lot of things in my life. I now see how sheltered we all are in our little life in the States. It gave me a new outlook on more things than I can convey in one blog posting. It looks like the company is trying to purchase four more F27's from Empire and if that's the case I hope to be able to do this trip again. With all we have learned from this first trip the next one will should be much more smooth and hopefully we can stay in some of the places we only stopped for fuel at on this last trip.

As far as my favorite part of the trip, I have to say seeing Nairobi. This city was so not what I expected to see. It was cool, green, and very much a metropolitan area. With the added experience of flying right over the National Preserve during our turn to final. I was quite litteraly watching Elephants and Girrafs out my window just about 200 feet below me. In short I really enjoyed Nairobi and I plan on going on a vacation there with Jo to show her what is there. I will say that if you ever go to Africa seeing Kenya is a must see. The weather is like norther California and the sights were second to nothing I have ever seen before. I really hope this company calls me again to do another trip for them because I will just at the chance.

I hope you enjoye dthis post. I know it may seem long winded but it is nothing compared to how much I can talk abou tthis in person. I could easily fill an entire evening of conversation with all the things I saw.