South Sudan Flight Intrigues
Oh… What a ride talk of delays, getting marooned in airports, cancellations, unexpected detours …man! it was one heck of a ride.
I started off from Nairobi, on a flight that took me about an hour and fifteen minutes, landed safely at the capital city of South Sudan- Juba. This was my temporary abode for a couple of days before I embarked on a series of travels that saw me traverse much of Southern Sudan. Been the organized person I am… I thought I should draw up an itinerary and plan for my travels. This turned out to be a bad idea. I lost close to a week (as per my well drawn out schedule)… all my anticipated travel time, my projections of when I’ll be done with my work, of course with some allowance of a day or two, all that and more was dashed, completely gone in the wind! The simple reason: flights out here are erratic; as much as they have a well outlined schedule, adhering to it is another story all together. That was a bitter pill I had to swallow; take each day at a time and more so moderate my over zealous expectations. A lesson well learned and fully internalized.
I did finally see myself out of Juba and headed out to my next destination – Pagak. This is a far away outpost on the North Eastern part of South Sudan. To get there I left Juba, mid-morning aboard the DC-9 -32, a twin engine single-aisle jet airliner, on a 50min flight to Rumbek. From there I got onto another connecting flight, this time aboard a lighter aircraft, heading to Nasir –a 30min detour which I wasn’t informed of in advance (aggrrhh….Not Again!). This was supposed to be a direct flight from Rumbek-Pagak …anyways I enjoyed the view from above and endured an extra 30minute of flying. The landing was smooth on a dirt airstrip, finally announcing my arrival to my designated destination- Pagak.
More on …next wk
Sight and Scenes of My Travels…..Enjoy!
Pagak Trading Centre
Remnants of War
Your's Truly getting some love from my beautiful Japanese and Sudanese Friends 