29 July, Dehli, Amman to Cairo
Caught Royal Jordanian Airlines this morning. I was pretty exhausted no sleep and won’t be sleeping for 18 hours, oh well just have to hang in there. I will put an alarm on if I have to sleep at the airport. I was really transfixed by the desert in the middle east. It is a different desert to the Australian desert. I noticed it was more wind swept and looked more like rivers of sand, whereas I remember the salt lakes (like dots in Aboriginal paintings from the sky) in Australia and the sands are much redder.
The desert stretched to the horizon, I thought about its purpose in nature, the way deserts were needed as part of the system of climates and landscapes. In parts there appeared to be scars from previous water courses, but I am not sure. I noticed from the sky some tree planting, I felt good with relief, but noticed only a small amount of trees. The lady sitting next to me is from Israel and I thought about their oasis in the desert. This is something that would be a panacea for climate change, but it has to be extensive to be effective and we have to understand the ecosystem flow ons with other plants and species. I always laugh when I recall Mr Microsoft, Bill Gates seeking technology to extract Co2 from the atmosphere, the best technology is trees I smiled to myself. They have been designed over millions of years.
Amman, Jordan was a stop over, just a small airport in the middle of the desert. I thought it would be bigger. I sat in transit for about 5 hours with no sleep. To kill time I just edited my photos on my laptop. I tried to go through customs to my gate but they were surprising strict. Usually you can go through customs at any time, but not here, I was turned back 4 times. The guy even said come at 11.30, so I come he turns me away. I had to laugh. Anyway, 10 minutes before boarding they let us through. Customs is pretty casual no delays. I hop on a plane, smaller than the airbus I was on previously. Then flew across the desert, it was very beautiful.