Travel Woes

Sometimes...well, actually most of the time, the getting to and from a place can be far and away the most unpleasant part of any trip.  Sure, enjoy the voyage and don't stress about the destination, but they're talking about life, not actually travelling.  I do enough of both to be quite sure.  First and foremost North West Africa was getting some of the worst weather they had ever seen the morning of my departure.  While driving winds and low visibility are fairly common on Canada's East Coast, Morocco's drainage is just not set up to cope.  Schools were closed, and some earlier flights were cancelled, but I headed to the airport anyway, well before first light.  The terminal was shaking and the power was out, but they started boarding only forty minutes late, and we were soon off to Casablanca, bouncing and rattling but I'm certainly no stranger to turbulence.   Then Casablanca....

No, that's not Casablanca in the photo, that's Heathrow's fancy new digs.  Very impressive, very organized, very efficient, and very far removed from Casablanca's debacle. I have to say, that was thee worst security check I have ever done.  There were four long lines for four open security checkpoints, and I was at the very back, but then there was this big rush and the line thickened at the front to ten abreast per line, then again the line thickened at the front to twenty abreast, then forty, and soon there was a disorganized mass of culture and language barriers pushing and shoving and elbowing forever forward towards a chance to get through one of the four gates.  It took me over an hour.  It was not pleasant.  I'll apologize in advance if I offend anyone but the flight was filled to overflowing with pasty white overweight Brits happy to be headed home, and there was someone nearby with a stench of BO so overpowering I was nauseous. I did sit with an interesting English historian with a penchant for early British influence in East Africa, so with the vent directed towards my nose, the conversation was enlightening, and the flight was not a complete nightmare.

With the travel I do, averaging over 85,000 miles a year, I'm a pretty efficient traveller, but sometimes I break my own rules.  Fifteen years ago on a tour in Baku, Azerbaijan, I desperately wanted to purchase one of the famous carpets they are world renowned for, but carrying two mortgages and dancing with bankruptcy, I couldn't justify the cost.  But now in Morocco, significantly more flush, I put some effort into finding a Berber rug and found some very nice ones, so I purchased some cheap luggage at the market to get them home, but now I've got one extra bag to lug around.  I didn't think it would be a problem, but with an overnight on the way home through London, all the cabs refused a local fare paying with plastic, and with very little local currency in hand, I decided to lug all my bags to the Central Bus Station, and stumble my way onto a city bus, who dropped me off with two city blocks of cobblestones to wrestle and trip and fight my unweidly bags to the airport hotel my company had booked.  Did I mention it was raining?  It didn't matter much as my bags spent enough time sitting out on the ramp in the driving rain in Agadir, Morocco to soak most everything inside of them.  That first beer in the hotel bar went down very , very well.

Next morning I head down for the standard complimentary breakfast buffet, only to find out afterwards it was not included, something I had NEVER heard of, so twenty British pounds poorer, I start making my way back to the airport, the devil's luggage in tow.  The efficiency of Heathrow's completely redesigned terminal was appreciated, even though I was a tad lost.  I had been through here a dozen times a year over the past decade but it's been completely revamped, and I must admit for the better.  There was quite a commotion at Air Canada's check in desk but I sauntered up to my privileged Priority check in and flashed my 75K card, only to discover St.John's airport is closed due to an ice storm and my flight has been cancelled.  75K (for having flown over 75,000 miles with Star Alliance the year prior) has it's privileges, and although I lost my business class upgrades, they did manage to get me another flight through Montreal, and still home today (hopefully- this adventure is still unravelling), only I'll now miss supper.  I'm still in the Heathrow lounge now, killing a few extra hours, and my travel home is far from over.  I still have to collect all those bags in Montreal and clear customs, recheck them in for the final leg to Halifax, and I know I turn around again in less than a week and head to Aberdeen....the price to pay having the best job in the world....

Goodbye Morocco

My time in North West Africa is quickly coming to an end, with an overnight in London, then back to my woodsy home in Nova Scotia, for at least a week.  I'll get a few days of hunting out of our whitetail deer season before I'm off again.

Morocco has been a blast.  I've made some new friends, dined on some amazing cuisine, tasted some old world culture and took some sun.  What more could one ask for?  I might just have thee best job in the world.  I may be saying goodbye to the Italian AW139 for awhile, an aircraft I really enjoy flying, but I can't say I was disappointed to hear I was headed back onto Super Pumas.  I've had the big old workhorses out in some of the worst conditions I could have imagined and they always got me home safely, and being an instructor, giving countless ground schools on it's various systems and running quite a few pilots through initial and recurrent type training on the Norwegian simulator, it will be like going back home.  After a few days of relaxing and tromping through the dense woods of Nova Scotia with my .308, I'm off to Scotland for some training myself with some old friends I haven't seen in ages. There's a very interesting ferry flight in the cards in the new year, and at the end of it, another SAR contract in a tropical climate where I'll be the instructor once again.  Things just keep playing out.....

Holding it together...

It's been raining for a few days now, strong winds rustling through the palms, the Atlantic surf pounding and booming, hail rattling off the metal on my deck's railing.   As I sit in an English pub, one that doesn't serve dark beer unfortunately,  the strong smell of leather creates a nostalgic sense of having been here before, but it is only my vintage "satchel".  The soft old thing's scent leaves little doubt it came from an animal, permeating every space it occupies.  Ex-pats watch whatever sporting event is playing out on large screen on every wall, but I've got my nose buried into Charles Bukowski's Factotum, sipping Kronenbourg, damp, smelling of leather.  I could be in a bar in Stavanger, Aberdeen, or even Halifax, but I'm still in Southern Morocco.  It's funny how weather creates so much ambience.

I flew some six hours the other day, with some good solid fog and IFR approaches to offshore rigs that I sorely miss from my years of flying off Canada's East Coast.  But now there's only a myriad of logistical headaches preparing for a base mobilization out of Morocco, destination still uncertain.

While tackling managing this base mobilization was something I've undertaken to keep me from getting overly bored pining away at home while my next assignment gets sorted, it does seem like my next posting is finally firming up. It's someplace I've never been before, so I'm looking forward to some new adventures!  I'll say it's a new continent for me, but I don't want to let the cat our of the bag in fear of jinxing it!

In the meantime, the flying is all but finished, as the logistics of moving aircraft, equipment and crews across International borders looms heavily.  My days are spent trying to understand tax implications of importing and exporting, consumables or temporary, VAT exemptions, etc., something I've been exposed to managing base moves from Turkey to Romania, Romania to Scotland, Tanzania to Kenya, and back again, and after this month, Morocco to........but it's certainly not my forte.  I think I'm better off getting airborne and dealing with the joys of aviating.  Enjoying the challenge nevertheless.....

I'm in Morocco!

The flight was quite a pleasant one; upgraded to business class Halifax to Toronto, exit row seat on a Dreamliner with six feet of leg room for the trip across the big pond, a full day kicking around London (took a city bus with all my luggage, that was a treat!), then seriously over tired, scored a very nice seat on Royal Air Maroc to Casablanca where I nodded off for a few hours, then hanging out in Casablanca's very boring domestic departure gate, wondering if I missed my last flight as lights started going out with airport staff obviously heading off home, lunch pails in hand, but eventually, an hour after the time given on my boarding pass, only three of us boarded a very empty Boeing 737-700 for the last leg to Agadir.  We requested to sit up in business but the stewards wouldn't have it.  Passport control, immigration, customs, drive to the hotel, check in, crashed....and woke up, stumbled out onto my deck to this view!

It's good to be back, in far, far nicer digs than last time, this place is serious five star!  The crews have been together for a good spell and everything just gels, so I've been getting on with the admin end of running one of these operations.  I spent the morning with airport security, the afternoon in a bank dealing with things I really don't have a clue about (photo below), but it's all part and parcel dealing with international exploration contracts.  Picked up a nasty head cold, but it was in a pool in Morocco!  How cool is that?

I really don't know how long I'll be here, and the management gig has the phone ringing and emails binging constantly, but I've been here many, many times before.  You just do what you can and be proactive and things seem to work out.  Meetings with the customer most of tomorrow.  As I'm doing up the schedule I've got myself flying Friday, and it will be a treat to pull pitch and blast off into the Moroccan skies once again, but I seriously doubt I'll be able to sneak away for any camel riding in the desert......but maybe.......