Africa = Danger
747-200 freighter from an arab country, we tech-stopped at Khartoum because kerosene is cheap there and somebody's cousin has the concession. Leaving there, headed for Accra (approx due W), the flight plan has us going due S for hundreds of miles apparently to avoid overflying Sudan, some political bullsnot or other, I supposed. We had tried hard, but were unsuccessful in getting the route changed before departure.
So, now, we are headed south toward the equatorial convergence zone FILLED with massive build-ups and planned to fly 500 + miles out of our way through the aforementioned area. So, what was my "executive" decision ?
Immediately after exiting the departure area, I turned right and headed direct Accra, straight across Sudan saving over an hour of flying time and flying just N of all the fireworks. Made a few position reports as if we were on our route, then stopped, and picked up again, hours later, only a couple hundred miles from Accra. Nobody even questioned us. We landed with lots of extra gas saved and after a very restful flight, away from all storms and without fighting the HF comm traffic.
And that is just one reason Africa is dangerous, I know that we were not the only "rogue whale" plying the African skies that day or every other day.... but, hey, to quote John Wayne, "A man's gotta do what a man's gotta do"