An Accidental Circumnavigation

Our trip from Dubai to Los Angeles took us west to east over the North Pole, if you'll remember. We thought our return trip would take the same route. Au contraire. Instead, we flew west to east again, from LA over the US and Canada and Greenland and Iceland and eastern Europe. Nearly 16 hours of airtime and we were back in Dubai. We had done a circumnavigation … arguably we barely made it since we went over the Pole, but a circumnavigation, nonetheless. It was accidental on our part since it didn't dawn on us until we arrived in Dubai. It was definitely planned as far as Emirates Air was concerned (as least, we hope so!). A circumnavigation completed at last … just not on Nine of Cups... on an A380-800 instead. Obviously, a much faster trip: 15+ hours versus 15+ years.

Be patient … we'll get to Cape Town in Nine of Cups yet!

Over the Top of the World

We booked on Emirates Air for our flight from Durban to Los Angeles via Dubai. The flight plan called for 24.5 hours of actual flying time plus a three hour layover in Dubai. We would be traveling a total of  14,700 air miles… half way around the world. From Durban to Dubai, we'd fly on a Boeing 777-300ER, a big plane. On the non-stop leg from Dubai to LAX, however, we'd be flying on an Airbus 380, the world's largest passenger jet at close to the speed of sound (.8 of Mach 1).

The flight to Dubai was uneventful… the best kind. I'd stopped in Dubai on my way to and from Boston in December, but David had never been. Like me, he was impressed with the opulence and class of the airport. We particularly like the back-projected “tourist guide” in flowing white desert garb offering information to airport visitors. He was a bit unnerving as his eyes seemed to follow our every move as we passed.

After a coffee and croissant at Starbucks which put us back about $16 US and a stroll around the airport shops to stretch our legs, we headed to our departure gate. I got a kick when we got our seat assignments to Los Angeles. We were in seats 84H and 84K. Who knew any plane had that many rows? Talk about being in the back of the bus!

We left on time and had a chance to view Dubai from our 84K window seat. It looks to be a lovely city and we're hoping to have a little extra time on our return leg to explore, though a 14 hour layover from 8PM to 10AM doesn't afford the best touring times of the city.

We wondered what our flight path would be … east to west or west to east. Well, it was neither. It was over the top, flying the Great Circle Route. Take a piece of string and a globe, and place one end on Dubai and the other end at Los Angeles. The quickest, most direct route is over the North Pole and that's just what we did.

We watched several of the 400 movies offered aboard. We played games on our iPads. We dozed fitfully. We read. We noshed. Every meal and snack served was gobbled up. After what seemed like an eternity, I checked the time to destination … only 11 hours left. Time was flying … literally. When we neared the North Pole, we kept an eye on the flight map. We tried to get our iPad GPS to locate us, but to no avail. We had to rely on the flight map. By the way, there was no sign of Santa at the North Pole. We're thinking he might have been vacationing in the Carib somewhere.

We arrived in Los Angeles right on time. Waiting to debark the plane from our hinterland seats took awhile. All our luggage arrived with us and Immigration and Customs were a breeze. We still had a 4 hour drive to Las Vegas ahead of us. We knew we'd be tired and had booked a room in Barstow, California, about half way to Vegas. We picked up the rental car and headed out into the cool, brown haze of an LA afternoon.

Packing lightly? It's not an option

We weren't planning to stay in the States for more than a couple of weeks, so we thought we'd pack lightly. It was a good thought, but it didn't work out.

We started with just one suitcase, but I soon had that filled to capacity and I hadn't packed my shoes yet. We checked the weather in Las Vegas … warm days and cool evenings, so we needed jackets, too. With much reluctance, David hauled out one of the big duffels on wheels. We always bring stuff back with us, so we'd have plenty of extra room. Once I tucked away my shoes, jacket and a sweatshirt and David added his clothes, the available room seemed to dwindle significantly. We remember traveling in Peru for six weeks with just daypacks and the clothes on our backs. What happened to traveling light?

Now it was time to load the electronics. We obviously have too many gadgets. We had to bring two phones … one for the US and one for South Africa … both of which needed chargers. Then we each took a laptop … with power supplies. Then came our iPads. We managed with just one charging cable, but thought a DC adapter would be good in case we wanted to charge in the car and we needed an AC adapter, too.  I had my camera, of course, with extra batteries and a charger. We would overnight in Dubai on the way back, so we needed an adapter to fit UAE outlets. David needed his electric razor and its charger. We were bringing our electric toothbrush which also requires a charger. Then, we thought it would be reasonable to take a hard drive back with us for downloads. I thought I'd take my photo back-up hard drive, too, so I'd have photos available for writing blogs and articles. They each needed a different cable.

As we trudged up the dock lugging all out gear, it wasn't pretty. Too much stuff all crammed into a suitcase and a duffel and a backpack and a carry bag and a purse … you get the picture. Traveling light for us? Not an option.