The Dark Continent

7:45pm (Belgian coast) -- Another miraculous sunset out my window. We are crossing the Channel. I am seated at the back of the plane on the right and the sun is turning blood red, setting through the vapor trails. We are heading almost straight south and the night will be long one. We should be arriving in Johannesburg just as the sun is rising.

10:35pm (North Africa) -- We are crossing into North Africa, coming ashore between Constantine and Annaba. I can tell by the shapes of the clusters of light on the ground below that I am somewhere very different. There are no "grids" and the lights seem to string out like running vines. Soon we will be over the Sahara. Tunis to my left and Algiers to my right and Orion my companion in the southwestern sky. What a vast world this is!

11:30pm (The Sahara Desert) -- We are almost directly south of Tripoli. The stars above us are blazing brightly; below us all is black, not a light to be seen in any direction.

11:55pm (The Sahara) -- A string of towns like footprints across the desert. Ghat far off our starboard wing.

More later...