Sunday, 1 January 2012

Observations from a plane seat

Over Lake Tanganyika – endless stretches of water.  Sandy coves and plunging hillsides.  Veins of vegetation stretch to the horizon under the cover of cotton wool clouds.  Small towns cling to the lake edge and sprawling urban areas spread close to the shores.  Dark green and light green, blue water with black patches, beige shores and white clouds.  The sparkling new plane interior gleams – seats are shining, cushions puffed, carpets bright.  Black shadows from the cotton wool puff clouds.  Cold. White.  Wine.   The cart rolls down the aisle...Macadamia nuts – yum!  Orange roads snaking the ground like string laid out on a page, wide rivers meander into the distance like flat grey/blue ribbons.  Enormous gleaming city sprawled below.  The cotton wool puffs gather up forming octopus tentacles which reach out and water vapour glides like smoke around the plane creating a hazy blur.  The trolley arrives – cold. White. Wine.  Ahhhh.  Glee on the tv – so out of place on this African flight.  How can people here begin to understand that this is an almost reality for some people in the world?  Thick blanket of cloud appears and the view is lost.  Gaps in the cloud blanket reveal blobs of green; light green, dark green, stippled effects from the trees.  A graceful dip of the wing as we circle around.  Green, green jungle below.  Braided channels of rivers make islands of trees.  Meanders as wide as lakes, endless true sky blue above the white.  More huge lakes as big as seas with patches of green and orange surrounding.  Sand bars block lagoons.  Thin rivers, wide rivers, windy roads and straight roads.  Outside it’s -57°C, inside it’s warm.  A half empty plane, an overflowing coffee cup.  Dark green jungle and pale green savanna dotted with trees.  Dusty brown soil and dry river beds.  Clouds like steam billowing from a cooling tower mushroom into the sky.  And what is hidden down there?  Lions and elephants and giraffes slip away unnoticed below my feet.  Hills give way to wide flat dust covered plains criss-crossed with roads as straight as pins. Leading to shimmering gleaming rooftops that shine in the golden sun.  Parcels of land laid out like patchwork quilts of brown, orange and green.  And, then, after a thousand or more miles of wilderness...Jo’burg!  Traffic and shopping malls and highways and busy, busy, busy.  A completely over-whelming assault on the senses.  So the holiday begins!

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