Round the Mediterranean Sea, leg 1

September 8, 20187 yr

Carenado Cessna S550 II Citation, Aerosoft Gibraltar, freeware photoscenery of Northern Africa and Southern Europe, EnvTex, EnvShade, P3D v4

After having arrived with the Curtiss in Gibraltar, I thought, it would be interesting to explore this area a bit more, but on a grander scale. So why not do a tour around the entire Mediterranean Sea. I have never done that.

We take off in our trusted Citation S550 from Gibraltar. She is small enough for shorter airstrips and fast enough for longer journeys. Our first leg will lead us via Algier to Malta, where we will stop overnight.

For the second leg, we will fly from Malta to Alexandria in Egypt.

The third leg will first go south to Cairo and the Giza pyramid complex. From there we will head further south to Hurghada, a well-known Egyptian Red Sea holiday destination, for lunch, across the Red Sea to the Sinai Peninsula and then north to Jordan, where we’ll explore the Wadi Rum desert and try to locate the ancient city of Petra. From there we’ll fly further north-west into Cyprus and then east to Crete, where we’ll finish our third leg.

On the fourth leg we’ll fly first to Athens and then along the Corinth Canal west to Sicily and Sardinia, where we’ll stay overnight at the military air base Decimomannu.

The fifth leg will see us heading further north via Corsica to Monaco and then on to Marseille. Via Barcelona we will reach our next and final stop-over Mallorca, which is one of the Spanish Balearic Islands.

Our sixth and last leg will bring us back via Alicante to Gibraltar. Should be fun.

Let’s start our first leg. Total distance between Gibraltar and Malta are some 1,800 km or 970 nm. As we plan to fly away from the coast south into Morocco’s Atlas Mountains to see some of the wonderful mountain formations, we plan a stopover in Algier to refuel and have some authentic Algerian lunch.

Off we go, bye bye Gibraltar. See you again in a couple of days

We have reached again after a short hop the Northern coast of Morocco. Luckily the weather around here is usually fine

The Atlas Mountain range. The colors are awesome

Further into our flight we are back on the coast and have just crossed into Algerian airspace

Approaching Algier’s Houari Boumediene Airport (ICAO:DAAG)

Passing by the modern terminal buildings

We are directed to the old part of the airport. I hope fuel and the food is good here

Thanks to our local agent (without one you will be completely lost), we had no issues with refueling the plane and lunch was just fantastic. Next stop will be Malta

Flying over Tunis, capital of Tunesia. On its Eastern side lies what was in ancient times one of the biggest enemies of the Roman Empire: Carthage and its Carthaginian general Hannibal. He is considered one of the greatest military commanders in history. One of his most famous achievements was at the outbreak of the “Second Punic War” (218 to 201 BC), when he marched an army, which included war elephants, from Iberia over the Pyrenees and the Alps into Italy

Carthage was the capital of the Carthaginian civilization, on the eastern side of what is now known as the Lake of Tunis. Carthage was finally destroyed by the Romans in the “Third Punic War” in 146 BC, then re-developed as Roman Carthage, which became the major city of the Roman Empire in the province of Africa.

Finally we have reached the Republic of Malta, this here is its smaller, westerly portion, an island called “Gozo”