We had a great send off by the fire crew from Arar, although not as early as we hoped, due to delays in flight plans being approved and finding suitable fuel for the aircraft.

At last it is warmer, and for the first time I reduced the 8 layers of clothing under my flying suit to only six, and was only wearing three pairs of long woollen socks!

We had more lumpy, bumpy weather as we continued to fly up Saudi Arabia, following the oil pipeline and national highway through the desert. Lots of small desert houses, with the occupants eking out a living by growing crops, irrigated by a circular irrigation system about a few acres in area, with booms on wheels driven by water to turn the drive wheels, whilst the linking water pipes sprayed the crops with priceless water from boreholes literally hundreds of feet deep.

I laughed so much today, talking to Richard on our intercom, and trying to describe how difficult it is  trying to fly the microlight in a straight line along the track (the imaginary line on a map drawn between two points, that we try to fly the aircraft along). You may remember my earlier description of trying to listen to my angle of bank and my compass heading, keeping a reasonable track over the ground through listening to the information and seeking to interpret it, whilst flying in somewhat challenging conditions, being thrown about the sky a bit. I asked Richard if he would like to try closing his eyes, and I would relay to him my information coming into my headphones from my computer and flight instruments.

After a few goes, meandering about the sky a bit, he asked me to only give him the compass heading, and he thought he could fly fine with just that.
He actually did very well for a while, just veering about 20 degrees either side of our track, that was very good, due to the thermals from the desert throwing us about quite a bit.

Then I began to struggle to keep my voice normal, transmitting the compass headings to him, as he began to turn more and more to the left- over 90 degrees after only about 20 seconds or so, that is something I sometimes battle with, as, when you put pressure on the bar from the wing to correct the turn, sometimes, whilst you think the aircraft is starting to respond to the bank, it is gaily keeping on it's original bank in the opposite direction, with you thinking you have stopped it by opposite pressure on the bar, that, due to turbulence n the air at the same time, has had absolutely no effect to reduce or reverse the bank.

By the time you realise it with the compass lagging behind, along with the angle of bank, you are, as Richard retold me several times yesterday, "heading into Iraq without a visiting card!"

I found it hugely, hugely gratifying that Richard, one of the worlds most acclaimed and recognised microlight pilots and World Microlighting Champion in the past, also had difficulty with his eyes shut.

The good news is that we have still some 10,000 miles to go, and Richard is dedicated to help me learn how a blind person can navigate more effectively in rough conditions- early days yet, and I am deeply grateful that I have had two such experienced pilots to accompany me on my trip.

The second good laugh of the day was when we realised that we did not have sufficient fuel to fly direct to Doha in Qatar as first desired, so we had to divert to Bahrain, an island situated some 30 miles off the coast in the Arabian Gulf to refuel.

The international airport usually only deals with big commercial jets and executive jets, so they diverted us on a typical approach path for a Jumbo Jet, way out to sea!

By the time we finally landed, we felt a bit pressured to clear the runway, so Richard decided we should "taxi" to the nearest exit allocated to us.  We ended up actually "taxiing" along the runway at about 65 MPH, which, for those of you in the know, means we are actually far above our take-off speed of about 45 MPH.  The result is that we "Taxied" at several feet above the runway, trying to look as casual as possible, at the pace of an intercontinental jet, somewhat aware that the pattern contained minor other aircraft behind us, and were very thankful to end up parking next to a Leer business jet departing, and closely followed by a C130 Hercules behind us.

Once again we felt like very small fry in a very big, noisy pond, surrounded by aviation giants, but with me slapping Richard on the bank and telling him he must be the first aircraft to inconspicuously  actually fly clear of the ground whilst taxiing at an international airport!

I was a bit concerned that they may charge us for two landings instead of just one!

Unfortunately we were unable to get refuelled and submit new flight plans in time to fly on to Doha in Qatar, so had to content ourselves with refuelling and preparing for an early start tomorrow to Dubai, if all goes to plan.

Our huge apologies to the Standard Chartered Bank staff and media press conference that had to be postponed in Doha due to our non-arrival.

I am learning so much about the complexities of international flight, mixed in with flying one of the worlds most primitive forms of flight- the beautiful microlight- totally open to the elements, so when you are flying, you KNOW you are flying!