I love flying, especially if I have a widow seat, and on a clear, cloudless day.
I wonder, as we speed across the sky, how many of the people below know that someone, me, is looking down upon them. The people on the trains, in the cars travelling on the ribbons of motorways cutting across and scarring the surface of the earth.
I marvel at how humans have spread across the surface of the land, yes surface. We have only scratched the surface. We only dig or excavate a few inches into the surface to build our houses, factories, schools, shops.
I look at the vast areas of emptiness, yet we are said to be over populating the earth. We humans are social beings, we stay in groups, as you look down, there is the proof, houses, flats, apartments, factories, clustered together. At night it is even more noticeable, as towns pollute the dark night with their street lights.
A last minute decision was made to go to Iceland for a couple of days. It was a place I had always wanted to visit. A place of mystery, of wonders.
With todays cheap travel, a booking was made with Iceland Express a low cost but good carrier. I can see no difference between a scheduled carrier, BA, Turkish Airlines, Virgin etc, and low cost EasyJet. Perhaps the only difference is that you get “free” food on non low cost airlines. At least on low cost carriers you can choose the sandwich you want, unlike other carriers, where you get what you are given, and the cost of the nondescript food bumps up the price of a ticket out of proportion.
As we fly over the UK at 10,000 meters, you look down on a patchwork of fields, vast areas of countryside, how can the UK be full, over polluted?
Either side of the aircraft the coastline can be seen, so the country is not very wide, and I sit here considering the pollution being made by me flying to Iceland. But, wait, what about all the smoke that can be seen from heath fires. On this cloudless day, you can see how far the smoke reaches, as it drifts, polluting as it passes over lands. What about th cars etc?
Looking down, it is possible to make out landmarks, towns and cities I know. Airfields standout like scares on the face of the earth. It is amazing how many old airfields there are, especially in the county of Lincolnshire.
The lakes or lochs of Scotland are like long dark fingers. Mountains, that must be high, yet they look nothing, have little patches of snow, like little pieces of string, as the un-melted snow lies in the gullies. I would have expected to see more snow at this time of year. Maybe global warming? I feel sorry for the skiers and the lack of their main requirement, snow.
We soon leave the UK, flying high above the cotton wool clouds, so bright and white, blinding to the eyes. But what shapes appear as my imagination runs riot, some clouds reaching even further into the blue sky.
Below, in a break in the clouds, I spot a fishing boat ploughing through what looks like an angry sea, as I can see the white of waves breaking in the open ocean. I seem to remember they are called “white horses” from the days I sailed yachts.
Soon it was time to land, and as we descended, the countryside of Iceland looked barren. There was no patch worked fields to be seen, no green, and no trees.
This was going to be an eye opening trip.