14 seater!

Flying to Kindu
The flight really does deserve an entry to itself. There were 14 passengers on the plane, which was a UN Humanitarian services flight. The inflight safety information consisted of the pilot turning round in his seat saying ‘Put on your seatbelts, turn off your mobiles, safety information is on the card and sick bags are at the front’. So much more personal than these videos they show on most flights…

I was sitting just behind the pilot – I could literally reach out and touch him (I didn’t, but was quite tempted to just to prove I could) so could see them working some of the controls. When we landed en route the co-pilot was showing me around the cockpit and what the various buttons did. There’s a whole section of de-icers, which apparently aren’t needed much in Congo! Take offs and landings were fine, very smooth, and when landing I was looking over the pilot’s shoulder to see our approach to the runway. So cool!

The first part of the flight was over Lake Kivu, where we’d gone by boat the day before. Then we turned over the equatorial forest – flying for an hour over dense forest which looked very like broccoli florets. From time to time there were rivers snaking back and forth, some of them red with the deposits from the mining. I could see how the FDLR and other groups and can retreat back into the forests and not be found.

Definitely looking forward to more flights!!!