Thursday, October 1, 2009

Refueling in Dakar

It's 3 AM ET and dawn is breaking over the Western Sahara.

We're being treated to a 60-min pitstop in Dakar, following an unremarkable 8.5 hour trans-Atlantic flight. Approximately 50 people departed and others boarded. Another 9 hrs to Joburg. I learned later from a South African Airlines (SAA) pilot that the planes make this stop only when warmer temperatures in departure cities prohibit loading enough fuel to make the trip nonstop. 


I'm running a GPS logger on the flight (don't tell SAA), which captures speed, altitude, and bearing, as well as coordinates. Will run it on the trek, if it works.


2 comments:

Anonymous said...

YEAH!!! The adventure begins!

Andrew said...

And the excitement builds here by the minute. Am going to walk over to the hotel we're supposed to meet at in a bit, just to see if the circus has started. The UK riders should have landed in Joburg about an hour ago. Give them another 3 before they show up. Should be interesting here soon!