Qala e Now - 4
Friday, February 23rd 2007 - 6:30 PM
Thursday - day 5 of hanging around with nothing much to do. I was starting to go a bit stir crazy. Yesterday's trip up the hill was good, but i'd had virtually no time alone for 5 days now and that really does my head in after a while. I'm generally a fairly sociable person, but if i don't get time to myself i start to go crazy fairly quickly.
We went to the PRT base at eleven thirty, to talk more to Pablo and to try and catch up with our email a bit. We didn't end up talking about the project though, as Lance showed up and the beers came out and, well, we just talked about other stuff.
We were obviously going to be late back for lunch, so i got Pablo to call one of the house residents on the 2-way radio and tell them not to wait for us. When he'd spoken to them, i had a feeling they would interpret the message as we weren't going back for lunch at all, which wasn't what the plan was. We couldn't eat lunch at the base as the colonel was a wanker and wouldn't allow it. Pablo reckoned it was partly because of my earrings and my pakool (hat).
So, of course, when we got back to the house eventually and Ahmadi asked if we'd had lunch, our reply caused a bit of concern, as they hadn't saved anything for us. The guard went to the shop over the road and got some tinned tuna and heated it up. We had that and some salad and bread. It was fine by me, as i didn't really feel like another big stodgy lunch today.
At about four thirty, Wahid decided a trip up the hills would be a good idea again and we all piled into the car to go to the same place as yesterday. There was a sixth person in the car today, so it was a bit of a squeeze - and not too comfortable over the rough dirt roads. But it was nice to get out and be able to look into the distance.
Afterwards, we went back to the PRT base to do some more email catching up.
About eleven o'clock that evening, after i'd gone to bed, Pablo called to say we would probably be on a PRT flight to Herat tomorrow morning. It wouldn't be confirmed till about nine o'clock that morning, but we should be ready to be at the airport at about ten o'clock.
This was probably good news. We'd found out yesterday we were confirmed on the PRT Air flight from Qala e Now to Kabul on Saturday, although Lance reckoned there was bad weather forecast for Saturday. But tomorrow, being Friday, there may not be any flights from Herat anyway. So it was possible that it would take us longer to get back to Kabul via Herat than it would going direct. Although there seemed to be an equal chance that waiting for the direct flight could mean we were stuck here for another week!
There was no real choice - if we were finally confirmed on the Herat flight, we'd have to take it, and take our chances in Herat. At least, there, we knew there were flights every day and weather didn't normally affect them.
The next morning, Pablo called to say we were confirmed on either the ten thirty flight or the eleven o'clock one, and we'd have to be at the airport at ten, to be ready to go.
We had to meet Pablo at the PRT first, to pick up a letter to the soldier in charge of the operation at the airport, authorising us to fly. Then Wahid drove us out to the airport.
We stood around for a long time, waiting for the plane to land. But eventually a big Hercules taxied up to the terminal buildings where we were waiting. It turned when it came in, so it was facing the right way to take off again, and we were directly behind it's engines and propellers. It threw up a massive dust storm and, once the dust had all been blown away, it was like a gale with exhaust fumes and a bit of dust in it. There were soldiers running around all over the place and eventually a couple of Landrovers were unloaded from the plane.
Not long after the first plane, another one landed, a smaller one, the same as the ones we'd seen landing and taking off the other day. Several pallets of what appeared to be soldiers packs were offloaded from this plane.
Then, after the Hercules had taken off again, a soldier waved us over to the small plane and we got inside - up the ramp at the back. There were a couple of fold down fabric seats towards the front of the plane, which they directed us to. And, before long, we were taking off.
Flying on this plane was quite unlike flying on a commercial passenger plane - it accelerated really fast, climbed really steeply, and eventually descended really steeply. The forces i felt when it was doing those things were phenomenal. It was kinda fun and i could see how people could enjoy doing that sort of flying.
The flight to Herat was really quick though, only about half an hour. And before we knew it we were taxiing along the runway again.
It must have been our lucky day, as there was a Kam Air flight due to leave for Kabul an hour later, and it wasn't full. We got two tickets and, in a couple of hours or so, we were in Kabul.
I was really extremely pleased to get home!
Inside the Spanish army plane on the way from Qala-e-Now to Herat
You can see some of my photos of Afganistan at
WillKemp-Photos.com/afghanistan