80 Zanzibar - Blantyre

10. Mar 2010

Coming from the national parks in Kenya, I may be spoiled – but I found Zanzibar boring. Friendly people and lots of ”Jambo” and nice beaches, but 3 nights here was 1 too many. 2 nights in Zanzibar itself with an excursion to see the local monkeys, and the last night spent on the North of the island in a ghost hotel – it must be very low season or something else? Boring place! On a drive along the west coast, the view was mostly to walls of resorts. And all the time – day and night, it was very hot and humid.

After the payment of no less than 160 dollars in landing permit and navigation charges, I departed Zanzibar for the 5 hour flight to Blantyre in Malawi.

Getting to a cruising level of FL 100, I had to take off my nice Captain shirt and hang it to dry. I was soaked in sweat from the time spent in the airport before takeoff.

Along the route I soon had to ask for a level change to FL 120 to try to get over the towering Cumulus clouds building in front of me. For a while I had to navigate left and right of track to avoid flying through them.

The routing was direct, and all the controllers on the way were easy to deal with. Approaching Blantyre in nice afternoon weather, I came in for a visual  landing on runway 28. I parked, as the only plane, on the far end of the apron. The controller called BP for me, and in no time I had refueled at about $ 1.60 per liter – and I could buy 2 liters of oil as well (lots of places they do not have it).

What a great little airport!