I was rudely awakened this morning by an explosion just outside the hotel, but the hustle and bustle never seemed to escalate. From what we could see, a group of youths would drag a tree across the road somewhere, dose it with gas, then light it ablaze. The riot unit would show up in short order, fire off a bit of tear gas, maybe fire a few rounds from their rifles, and the group would scatter to light a tree afire elsewhere. It seemed very quiet in comparison to the festivities the day prior. It actually looked to be jolly good fun and I was almost envious. But the road to the airport was barricaded, and we were unable to get to our helicopters to move the oil and gas crews to and from the rig, and goddammit, they wanted to fly! So a convoy was organized, with a police escort no less, and we were whisked off to the airport, barricades be damned, so the quest for the world's resources could continue unabated. The drive to the airport was thee best drive to an airport, EVER! Bouncing crazily over dirt roads through thick dust, taking air and skidding around corners. I fully expected the riot police, at least the guys unfortunate enough to be relegated to standing in the rear, to be scattered all along the route as they were tossed out each time we hit a bump, but we didn't lose a one.
Eventually, the entire lot of us arrived at the airport, warmly greeted by a few of the crew that had been stuck there for the past twenty four hours, and we loaded the birds and flew off into the wild blue yonder towards Dar es Salaam. We set up for the next days flying, then headed off into the Dar traffic, mundane and boring after the excitement thus far, when the darkening sky drew my view upwards. Overhead flew a seemingly endless line of huge vampire bats, low level and in a thick dark mass a hundred feet across, and as long as the horizon carried my view. And they just kept coming. It was surreal. We ended up at the beautiful and luxurious Serena Hotel, thee swankiest hotel in town, for a fine dinner and wine. Yet another very, very good day.
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