Flight to Johannesburg

The overnight flight to Johannesburg began with a connection through Paris, two hours in the opposite direction. We then flew back within view of Barcelona again and onward across the Mediterranean, reaching the African continent over Algeria. The bright coastal cities there soon gave way to the pitch darkness of the Sahara desert.

The annual Gemenid meteor shower, peaking exactly tonight, sent a shooting star across my view every few minutes. A bright one crossed just over the plane. The pilots must have had a grand view of the spectacle.

Most of the passengers in the cabin were asleep by the time we passed Timbuktu. It was too far away to see. There was only blackness below and an occasional speck of light: maybe the campfire of a caravan of camels?