30. March 2011
I spent 2 nights more in Dakar after the tour around the country. I needed some washing done and I had caught a cold sleeping in air-conditioned hotel rooms, which I wanted to get rid of.
In the morning I returned to the airport to shift the plane from the air force base to the aero club. Then downtown for some sight-seeing and in the afternoon some hours by the hotel pool.
Feeling good I went to the airport at 7.00, paid the landing fee and filed the flightplan (there was no landing fee, because I had been on the Senegal tour, but a gift of 20$ would be accepted).
Shortly after I took off, heading for Dakhla in Western Sahara. I had checked winds at DMI this morning, so I knew I would have a tailwind all the way and by the time I passed the Noadhibou in Mauritania, the wind was predicted to be up to 35 knots. It proved to be right on target.
Having talked to pilots who had crossed the territory several times, I had been given the advice not to take fuel in Dakhla, as the guy selling was a swindler! All in all I was rather eager to get out of Africa, and I made the decision to continue to Lanzerote in the Canarie Islands.
I called Bo Therkildsen over the satellite phone from the plane, and he checked, that avgas was available in Lanzarote Ð and the cost would be less than half of the price in Morocco. Another point was the fact that Mali had taken most of my cash but in Lanzerote I would be able to get cash from an ATM.
I could have continued directly to Lanzerote, but I landed in Dakhla, to file another flight plan and to transfer 40 litres of fuel from my ferry tank. In Dakar, the aero club had provided me with 140 litres extra fuel and Jean-Raoul, who is a general manager of Air-France in Western Africa, had kindly offered to outlay the money for it, as I just did not have enough cash.
Dakhla is a town in a desert, and on landing here on a very windy day, I was so happy I had decided to move on from there. No less than 4 police officers met the plane, and they wanted to search it, even though I said I just was passing through. I also had to fill in a lengthy formular. Afer that I had to go to the tower to file a flight plan. The tower was manned by military guys, and they demanded to see the aircraft papers!
I told them, that I had been around Africa, and that this was the first time this had happened, and I said they could have told me while I was in the plane, as I do not carry the papers. And they had had me park the plane furthest away from the tower, even if it was the only plane there. But I walked to the plane again, and returned with the papers. I don't know if they were looking for a reason to give me trouble, but at the end of the session, they relaxed and almost became friendly! I realized though, that I did not have my the radio licence paper but they did not take note of that.
