On the way to Ghana

I don’t know how my readers of this blog feel about traveling but I always enjoyed the process. So usually I am not driven by getting to a particular destination, but I actually love traveling, talking to people—the whole thing—to me that is part of the adventure.

So, this morning Turkish Airline picks up two passengers, me and a gentleman who presently resides in Michigan and is a citizen of the US. He is originally from Bangladesh, has four children -- two of them got married (double wedding, two sons) in Bangladesh and he is just returning to Michigan from an 8-week whirlwind visit in his home country. So we talked about flooding in Dhaka (capital of Bangladesh) and how he sometimes goes shopping in Dearborn, Michigan—an area that has a huge market primarily frequented by Middle Easterners and others who have similar traditions (check out here), another such community with similar market is in Paterson, New Jersey (check out here ).

Then the bus stopped at a different hotel, the Hilton that actually had a view –picture of the view below.

 Both of the gentlemen that entered the bus work in the Ukraine but are not from there, one was from Macedonia. That of course started a lively conversation of recent Russian politics, the fear that some Eastern Ukrainians are feeling and of course the all engulfing question on what Putin is trying to achieve with his 20^th century political moves. Time in the bus just zipped by and I forgot to take pictures.

At Istanbul airport you cannot go to your airline to check without having to subject all your stuff and yourself to x-ray machines. This is then followed by a more rigorous security check after the boarding pass has been issued. Then…you get to be in Duty Free Store Heaven if one likes this sort of thing. I have learned from my daughter to go to some perfumes that I like and use testers to make myself pleasantly smelly. This passed the time and made me more knowledgeable of what is out there.

On the tarmac there was this plane which caught my attention. It is a Libya plane.

Have you ever noticed that all flights are always ‘filled’ and that there might not be enough room for bags? This flight was no exception except that as far as I could see all middle seats were empty. Needless to say, again a pleasant flight space-wise with me at the window seat -- I knew we were crossing the Sahara desert.

Flight Itinerary

After an ascent that I wouldn’t want to be repeated (I have been way too lucky and spoiled with non-turbulent flights) but which got me acquainted with my African neighbor quickly  we finally reached an altitude where turbulences stopped. And a few hours later the clouds in the troposphere vanished, and the vastness of the Sahara desert imprinted itself on me, it went on for hours and hours.

 So, here are some pictures of certain dune formations (the google earth photo above shows relief changes, maybe dunes as well) by which you can tell the prevailing wind direction.

Barchans or transverse dunes migrating towards the right (in west wind zone)

Longitudinal dunes upfront.

Most likely star dunes--dunes that form when winds come from various directions. Source.

Wadis, an Arabic term traditionally referring to a valley, can be seen as well.  In geographic terms it refers to a dry riverbed that only carries water in the rainy season. These hills are noticeable in the google earth photo above.

This amazing sightseeing event concluded with a spectacular sunset which should  be expected over the Sahara because it is the little particles in the atmosphere that make the sunsets special.

 It is the same particles that make life really difficult further south and westwards such as on the islands (Cape Verde) because living with this dust has effects on human lungs. In West Africa the Harmattan wind, a dry and dusty northeasterly trade wind blows seasonally and its dusty contents makes things reddish, impossible to get out of clothes.

The dust storm coming off west Africa, in late September of 2011 showed amazing gravity wave patterns, amid very thick bands of dust and sand. Source

Actually, the typical pathway for the transport of Saharan dust clouds is westward, all the way across the Atlantic to the Americas. In fact, Miami often suffers from poor air quality due to this dust. The reason for this is a phenomenon known as the Saharan Air Layer. Extreme daytime heating of the Sahara creates instability in the lowest layer of the atmosphere, lofting dust particles into the air. The dust-laden air layer continues warming as it travels westward across the Sahara (northeast trade wind path). As the Saharan Air Layer moves off the west coast of Africa, it passes over a cooler, wetter layer of air. This temperature inversion (air usually cools with altitude) prevents mixing, enabling the dust layer to travel across the ocean intact (at times). Usually the dust enters the ocean via precipitation.

Sahara Air Layer (red) moving across the Atlantic.
This air layer is also responsible for inhibiting tropical wave formation
or reducing intensity of tropical storm.

  And dust clouds have also been tracked from the Gobi desert all the way across the Pacific primarily to North America's west coast but the dust travels at times as far the East Coast of the United States and probably right to Virginia. Some of the dust travels with the prevailing west winds, some of it via jet streams. For further information on this topic go here. Depending on the wind direction, Sahara dust can make itself known in Europe as well, particularly with the north-eastward moving wind called Sirocco that may last for hours or a week carrying dust particles into mostly southern European countries but might reach as far north as Scandinavia.

And then it set..and it got dark in no time.

I need to conclude today's blog with the observation that the Turkish are friendly but their English is often really non-existent which makes communication difficult. Arriving in Ghana is a totally different story--friendliness and humor galore. For example, as I came out into the arrival area I noticed that a bunch of hotel drivers were waiting for their particular customers but my hotel wasn't listed. I talked to several of the guys and they decided which hotel I meant (oops, I had promptly forgotten the name figuring I'd recognize it) and called my hotel. My guy arrived within 6-7 minutes. Really a nice welcome.