Tour around Africa: Stage 65 - Kilimanjaro (HTKJ) to North Mara (HTSI)
MS Flight Simulator VFR Flight Plan
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In this VFR - GPS Flight Plan we take off from the runway 27 of the Kilimanjaro international airport (HTKJ), fly over Tarangire, Ngorongoro and Serengeti, finally landing in the runway 29 of the North Mara airport (HTSI)

In this journey around Africa I have used the Cessna 172S (Skyhawk)

Take off from the runway 27 of the Kilimanjaro International airport (HTKJ).

Kilimanjaro International Airport (KIA) (IATA: JRO, ICAO: HTKJ) is an international airport located in Hai District, Kilimanjaro Region, Tanzania. The airport serves the cities of Arusha and Moshi. The airport handled 802,731 passengers in 2014 and mainly serves regional flights as well as a few long-haul services due to its importance as a leisure destination. It is the largest airport in northern Tanzania, by size and passenger volume.

The passenger boarding gate area Many international visitors also go to national parks in Tanzania, to the Indian Ocean coast, to islands such as Zanzibar, and to Lake Victoria, reflected in the routes of connecting flights. With a runway almost 12,000 feet long, the airport can handle aircraft as large as Boeing 747s and Antonov 124s. The airport served 665,147 passengers in 2012, a 3.7 percent increase over 2011. The airport served 802,731 passengers in 2014, of whom 45 percent were international, 38 percent domestic, and 17 percent transit.

On 19 February 2014, the governments of Tanzania and the Netherlands signed a grant arrangement to rehabilitate the airport, including its aprons, taxiways, and terminal building. The total cost of the project is expected to be €35.5 million, with €15.0 million funded by the Netherlands and the remainder by Tanzania. The already completed design phase was financed entirely by the Dutch government. In November 2015, renovations began at the airport, aimed at doubling its capacity from the current 600,000 passengers to 1.2 million annually. The renovation work is being done by BAM International, at a cost of US$39.7 million. Renovations were expected to last until May 2017. BAM International is a subsidiary of the Royal BAM Group in the Netherlands.  (*1)

Passing near the Mungu crater.

Mungu Crater is a volcanic crater in Oljoro ward and Mateves ward in Arusha Rural District located in Arusha Region, Tanzania. The crater is 1.22 km (0.76 mi) in diameter at its widest and 1,030 metres (1,130 yd) deep. Inside the crater is surrounded by forest whilst the crater floor is a seasonal swamp. (*1)

Tarangire National Park.

Tarangire National Park is a national park in Tanzania's Manyara Region. The name of the park originates from the Tarangire River that crosses the park. The Tarangire River is the primary source of fresh water for wild animals in the Tarangire Ecosystem during the annual dry season. The Tarangire Ecosystem is defined by the long-distance migration of wildebeest and zebras. During the dry season thousands of animals concentrate in Tarangire National Park from the surrounding wet-season dispersal and calving areas.

It covers an area of approximately 2,850 square kilometers (1,100 square miles.) The landscape is composed of granitic ridges, river valley, and swamps. Vegetation is a mix of Acacia woodland, Combretum woodland, seasonally flooded grassland, and baobab trees.

The park is famous for its high density of elephants and baobab trees. Visitors to the park in the June to November dry season can expect to see large herds of thousands of zebra, wildebeest and cape buffalo. Other common resident animals include waterbuck, giraffe, dik dik, impala, eland, Grant's gazelle, vervet monkey, banded mongoose, and olive baboon. Predators in Tarangire include lion, leopard, cheetah, caracal, honey badger, and African wild dog.

The oldest known elephant to give birth to twins is found in Tarangire. A recent birth of elephant twins in the Tarangire National Park of Tanzania is a great example of how the birth of these two healthy and thriving twins can beat the odds.

Home to more than 550 bird species, the park is a haven for bird enthusiasts. The park is also famous for the termite mounds that dot the landscape. Those that have been abandoned are often home to dwarf mongoose. In 2015, a giraffe that is white due to leucism was spotted in the park. Wildlife research is focused on African bush elephant and Masai giraffe.

Since 2005, the protected area is considered a Lion Conservation Unit. (*1)

Lake Manyara.

Lake Manyara also known as Lake Moya among the Iraqw people is a lake located in Monduli District of Arusha Region, Tanzania and is the seventh-largest lake of Tanzania by surface area, at 470-square-kilometre (180 sq mi). It is a shallow, alkaline lake in the Natron-Manyara-Balangida branch of the East African Rift. The northwest quadrant of the lake (about 200 sq, km.)  is included within Lake Manyara National Park and it is part of the Lake Manyara Biosphere Reserve, established in 1981 by UNESCO as part of its Man and the Biosphere Programme.

There are differing explanations for how Lake Manyara got its name. The name Manyara may come from the Maasai word "emanyara", which is the spiky, protective enclosure around a family homestead (boma). Possibly the 600 m high rift escarpment hems in the lake, like the enclosure around a Maasai boma. Another theory is that the Mbugwe tribe, who live in the Lake Manyara area, may have given the lake its name based on the Mbugwe word manyero, meaning a trough or place where animals drink water. (*1)

Entering the wide Ngorongoro crater.

The main feature of the Ngorongoro Conservation Authority is the Ngorongoro Crater, the world's largest inactive, intact and unfilled volcanic caldera. The crater, which formed when a large volcano erupted and collapsed on itself two to three million years ago, is 610 metres (2,000 feet) deep and its floor covers 260 square kilometres (100 square miles). Estimates of the height of the original volcano range from 4,500 to 5,800 metres (14,800 to 19,000 feet) high. The crater floor is 1,800 metres (5,900 feet) above sea level. The crater was voted by Seven Natural Wonders as one of the Seven Natural Wonders of Africa in Arusha, Tanzania, in February 2013. The Ngorongoro volcano was active from about 2.45 to 2 million years ago. Volcanic eruptions like that of Ngorongoro, which resulted in the formation of Ngorongoro Crater in Tanzania, were very common. Similar collapses occurred in the case of Olmoti and Empakaai, but they were much smaller in magnitude and impact. (*1)

Lake in the Ngorongoro crater.

Ngorongoro Conservation Area is a protected area and a UNESCO World Heritage Site located in Ngorongoro District, 180 km (110 mi) west of Arusha City in Arusha Region, within the Crater Highlands geological area of northeastern Tanzania. The area is named after Ngorongoro Crater, a large volcanic caldera within the area. The Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority administers the conservation area, an arm of the Tanzanian government, and its boundaries follow the boundary of the Ngorongoro District in Arusha Region. The western portion of the park abuts the Serengeti National Park, and the area comprising the two parks and Kenya's Maasai Mara game reserve is home to Great Migration, a massive annual migration of millions of wildebeest, zebras, gazelles, and other animals. The conservation area also contains Olduvai Gorge, one of the most important paleoanthropological sites in the world.

The 2009 Ngorongoro Wildlife Conservation Act placed new restrictions on human settlement and subsistence farming in the Crater, displacing Maasai pastoralists, most of whom had been relocated to Ngorongoro from their ancestral lands to the north when the British colonial government established Serengeti National Park in 1959. (*1)

Arid terrain when flying towards the Serengeti park.

Serengeti National Park.

The Serengeti National Park is a large national park in northern Tanzania that stretches over 14,763 km2 (5,700 sq mi). It is located in eastern Mara Region and northeastern Simiyu Region and contains over 1.5 million ha (3.7 million acres) of virgin savanna. The park was established in 1940.

The Serengeti is well known for the largest annual animal migration in the world of over 1.5 million blue wildebeest and 250,000 zebra along with smaller herds of Thomson's gazelle and eland. The national park is also home to the largest lion population in Africa. It is under threat from deforestation, population growth, poaching, and ranching.

Etymology The name "Serengeti" is an approximation of the word siringet used by the Maasai people for the area, which means "the place where the land runs on forever". (*1)

Final approach to the runway 29 of the North Mara airport.

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(*1) Credits: The descriptive texts are mainly an excerpt of those provided by Wikipedia. Visit Wikipedia to read the full descriptions.