Flight 18) Luxor – Khartoum – Home Pilot Adventures 2024

The winding snake of vegetation continued below as I continued my route south. I began by following the rive Nile yet again until it opened up into the Aswan Lake. Seeing a body of water this size when surrounded by such dry environments seemed rather surreal. I had to stop following the water to continue south as the Nile twists and turns through the landscape as I wanted to head directly south. I crossed large expanses of dry, uninhabited lands and had a keen eye on my fuel gauge as getting stuck out here would almost certainly mean the end of the tour. Leaving Egypt and entering Sudan, I crossed the river Nile once again as it flowed from east to west before leaving it in the distance. Enjoying the long views from 10,000 feet or a little more, there was little need to study the ground. There was nothing there to see.

Finally the Nile had reappeared ahead of me and I began to descend. Flying the last miles of this gruelling flight as low as possible over the water, I broke up the boredom of this long dry flight by skipping over small river islands and banking the wings to follow the water.

Khartoum sits at the junction of the White Nile and Blue Nile but I didn’t know this in advance. It would have made it easier to spot if I was looking for a fork in the river. To be honest, Khartoum is a place I had never heard of before.