As we landed back in Djibouti with the AN-24, I was done for the day. Tomorrow I was planned for another day in the AN-24, going to Ethiopia.
As I went inside and started the immigration procedure again I met up with the station manager who informed me that tomorrow’s flights were cancelled.
Aircraft had to undergo some maintenance, so they cancelled that day’s flying.
So, now he asked me if I wanted to take tonight’s flight out to Dubai instead of waiting 3 days in Djibouti.
I needed more material so I asked about the plans for the other aircraft but there was nothing planned, and things cancelled so I took the offer the leave on the DXB flight.
Now I had to move quickly, it was only 2 hours until departure for my flight.
I still had all my luggage in my hotelroom, downtown Djibouti City.
I got a driver to drive me to the hotel, where I rushed up and quickly packed my stuff and carried it downstairs to the reception. Checked out and put all my stuff in the car.
Now it was time to quickly get back to the airport in time for check-in. Unfortunately the local driver didn’t realise the rush, as he stopped several times to pickup friends who need a ride somewhere in the city, took an extra turn to visit a friend’s house to say hi etc… Frustraded ? Me ? Naaah, what makes you think that ?
Anyway, we made it in time and I got my luggage checked in, cleared customs one last time.
Now it was time to find the crew, as I was working on the flight to DXB. This would be the last leg of the assignment.
I found them and we all sat and waited for our 737 to arrive so we could board and make ourselves ready for the flight. It was late afternoon with only less than 1 hour of sunlight left of the day, It looked like my departure would be a beautiful sunset departure. Lovely.
The sun had just set as we rotated and headed towards Dubai. The air was calm and the light was beautiful. It slowly became darker and darker as we progressed on our route.
We passed a major active CB and the lightning show we were presented below was magnificent. I just sat there and looked at the cloud, seeing the bolts of lightning cross the cloud in all directions. Splendid.
We pretty much were allowed a straight in approach to Dubai and landed safely. Our 737-200 left the runway and we parked at the same gate as when I first joined them. Said goodbye to the russian crew and left with the passengers this time. Hoping to catch an earlier flight with KLM home to Sweden.
If not…then there’s always that hotel with the view, remember ?
