Finally last night I got a proper night's sleep in our Bahrain hotel and felt refreshed this morning.  Off to the airport again after breakfast (I made some Flahavan's Instant Porridge in my bedroom, great stuff to sustain you for a long day).    We went to the fuel company office, where I showed my Air BP card.  "You can't use this", the manager said triumphantly, "this card is for avgas!".  That, I replied, is exactly what we need.  Then there was a long delay in the 36 deg heat waiting for the refueller to produce some avgas.

Two barrels eventually appeared, we refuelled, and called the tower ATC for startup clearance.  The Tower insisted for a while on the absurd proposition that our plane would have to be towed in accordance with procedures to a startup area, but this requirement was dropped.  We departed in due course.

 This flight took more than 6 hours today, across the deserts of Saudi Arabia.  Much of the interior of Saudi Arabia seen from the air was very hazy, and gradually it became unpleasantly turbulent. Western Saudi Arabia seemed to have large areas of dark rock, maybe lava fields, and some extraordinary shapes in the terrain.  After what seemed like an eternity we reached the Red Sea coast.  At this stage there was a "target" appearing to be nearby and a little higher, on the aircraft TCAS (collision avoidance system), this aircraft seemed to be shadowing us and seemed to be capable of both low, similar speed and very high speed.  Just a UFO I suppose, we never managed to see it.

Then we flew diagonally across the Red Sea to the Egyptian resort of Hurghada, where I write this in the hotel bar ….