01-24-2013, 03:45 AM
First Leg Tunis to Es Senia
As we climbed, the hissing sand exfoliated wings once white;
Saharan dust plumed rouge astern and mingled with our oil-smoked wake;
But mixture set, the carb shed ice, and soon we flew in gin-clear light.
Ahead, up loomed the Atlas peaks; below, the fog on Tunis Lake.
As warned by Saint-Exupéry, wind buffeted our jaunty kite;
each sensed, as he, the lift from land, warming ‘neath sun’s bloodshot eye.
We yawed left in the on-shore blast, that turned us from our route-planned height,
but came the green of Kasserine, in denser air we shot to sky.
A silence fell. No words could tell how glorious the ice-crazed crests;
or loose a sigh of indrawn breath on sight of sparkling azure sea.
What lay beneath us rolled like gold, arcs of gilded dunes; whilst west
dark wadis ran from hasting day, and haboobs sucked the mountain's lee.
This is the joy the gods would keep, as they look down on precious land;
This is the beauty height bestows upon Saharan barren plains.
This is the wonder and dismay, that blood has spilled to name just sand;
but we who heard the stinging air, we are like gods. We fly again.
tectak
2013
A small craft flight ( Cherokee 6) from Tunis to Dakhla. First leg, Es Senia airstrip. 691 miles, 5hrs 12mins, cruising at 5500ft.
1968
As we climbed, the hissing sand exfoliated wings once white;
Saharan dust plumed rouge astern and mingled with our oil-smoked wake;
But mixture set, the carb shed ice, and soon we flew in gin-clear light.
Ahead, up loomed the Atlas peaks; below, the fog on Tunis Lake.
As warned by Saint-Exupéry, wind buffeted our jaunty kite;
each sensed, as he, the lift from land, warming ‘neath sun’s bloodshot eye.
We yawed left in the on-shore blast, that turned us from our route-planned height,
but came the green of Kasserine, in denser air we shot to sky.
A silence fell. No words could tell how glorious the ice-crazed crests;
or loose a sigh of indrawn breath on sight of sparkling azure sea.
What lay beneath us rolled like gold, arcs of gilded dunes; whilst west
dark wadis ran from hasting day, and haboobs sucked the mountain's lee.
This is the joy the gods would keep, as they look down on precious land;
This is the beauty height bestows upon Saharan barren plains.
This is the wonder and dismay, that blood has spilled to name just sand;
but we who heard the stinging air, we are like gods. We fly again.
tectak
2013
A small craft flight ( Cherokee 6) from Tunis to Dakhla. First leg, Es Senia airstrip. 691 miles, 5hrs 12mins, cruising at 5500ft.
1968