A Goodbye Gift from Liberia
Early Wednesday evening, I expected that I’d get one last, short look at Liberia as my plane took off. It was cloudy, with occasional rains, and I knew that the view wouldn’t be there for long because the flight left half an hour early in order to avoid an major incoming thunderstorm (thank you Delta!). As the wheels lifted, we quickly did a 180 degree bank and I got a really nice last view of a Liberian Sunset.
We flew for about 5 minutes, rising up through the clouds, and then the goodbye gift began. I glanced out my window because on one other trip out of Liberia the clouds were giant fluffy pillars and it was spectacular. It wasn’t the case this time.
At first things looked pretty normal, so I put my camera away. Suddenly this really strange cloud pattern was visible out of the window, so I quickly reached down and pulled out my point-and-shoot camera.
I put my camera away again thinking that the show was over. But it wasn’t. All sorts of different cloud formations started passing by, layers and layers of clouds forming different patterns and textures. So I started snapping.
It was surprising how quickly things changed. Different types and layers of clouds that you could see through; light color changing all the time. I kept snapping away as new worlds passed me by.
Then the pilot announced that we were altering our course a bit to avoid the storm that led us to departing early.
More billowy clouds started appearing. I looked off to my left, across the aisles to see huge storm clouds out that side of the plane. Since we were still ascending I couldn’t get out of my seat and photograph out that side of the plane, so I kept focusing on what was happening on my side.
It really was spectacular.
The light was very eerie, the color changing constantly, just like the cloud shapes.
Everything then took on a pinkish glow, which contrasted nicely with the deep blue sky.
And then, all the colors and light disappeared as the sun set below the horizon. What a sendoff!