Khartoum And The Blue Nile

The Nile is 4,132 miles long and has two major tributaries, the White Nile and Blue Nile. The Blue Nile is the major contributor by water volume and the White Nile has the most distant source. The White Nile emanates from Lake Victoria in Uganda and flows north through southern Sudan. The Blue Nile starts at the south end of Lake Tana in Ethiopia, passing into Sudan from the southeast. The two tributaries meet near the Sudanese capital Khartoum then flowing north through Egypt, the Nile ends in a large delta that empties into the Mediterranean Sea near Alexandria.

With such a great distance to cover it's sensible to fly the Nile in sections and this flight starts at Luxor and terminates at Khartoum, the confluence of the two tributaries.

Since the default FS2004 scenery in this area is rather bland, I strongly recommend the installation of three freeware files - Egypt scenery, Khartoum Airport and Egypt mesh. I also used FScene Europe, and an FS2002 river width enhancement NEWRIVER.ZIP.

Luxor International Airport (HELX) sits close to the Nile in a fertile area surrounded by desert. Leaving south, the river is wide and easy to follow. Although mostly flat all the way to the area of the Aswan Dam, there are hills either side of the river plain which rises gently. Although there are small villages and islands dotted along the river, the landscape is generally rather boring until the Aswan Dam so you may wish to set the autopilot and enhance the sim rate to speed your progress. There is a small and rather desolate airport at Daraw (HEON) with the next one at Aswan (HESN), just beyond the upper Aswan Dam. Aswan has a single 3,400m runway with an ILS but is also surrounded by drab desert.

With the additional Egypt scenery installed, you will see both lower and upper dams as you approach Aswan, as well as the benefits of more attractive land class and autogen (including yachts) just before the lower dam. Beyond the upper dam there is a vast elongated lake about 80 miles long and 17 miles across. As you reach the far end of the lake there are straits that lead into Lake Nasser and the nearby airport of Abu Simbel (HEBL). With the additional scenery installed you will see the two rock temples of Abu Simbel on the approach to runway 33.

Leaving Abu Simbel much of the terrain remains featureless and barren with only the occasional road or river tributary, so once again you may choose to set the autopilot and enhance the sim rate. The next landing place is Dongola (HSDN) in Sudan and as you approach this area your will see the occasional patch of green with autogen villages. The airport itself is rendered in FS2004 as tarmac strip surrounded by houses and a few trees, but with no airport buildings or services. Fortunately, there are no trees hindering your approach or take off. It is still about 250 miles to Khartoum and shortly after Dongola the Nile veers to the east and begins a long "S" shaped south and west before reaching Khartoum.

There are three airports en-route - the only real features to see other than the occasional green patch at the river's edge. The first is at Ed Debba (HSDB), just at the point where the river turns north east. It's a 1400m gravel strip so don't try landing anything too big! The second, Merowe (HSMR), is another 1400m gravel strip appearing just before the river turns south again. In this area the size and frequency of green areas start to increase as you progress towards Khartoum. The third airport is Atbara (HSAT) which is to the west of the quite a large city of the same name.

The confluence of the two Nile sources is well defined in FS2004 and the city of Khartoum stands out starkly in comparison to the barren terrain encountered so far. Khartoum airport (HSSS) is to the left as you approach the city and the freeware upgrade improves the default, the additional buildings combining with the city's autogen to give a very positive feeling of arriving back in civilization.

We now follow the Blue Nile departing Khartoum to the east and which will take us to the source at Lake Tana in Ethiopia. The Blue Nile remains quite broad all the way to the lake by Tamazine airport (HSDZ) but at the south end of this lake, FS2004 depicts the river as a thin ribbon and remains like this all the way to Lake Tana. As you progress, the shallow valley that the river sits in soon deepens and narrows at it meanders though the mountainous terrain.

Following the river to the source becomes rather difficult from here on since there are many tributaries feeding in along the way and it's easy to follow one of these by mistake. The river curves slowly towards the north and the best way to follow its path is to keep the GPS map window open with the zoom set to a 150 mile radius, as this defines the valley leading to Lake Tana quite clearly. The terrain in now very green with a land class combination of cultivated and bush areas and the previously high mountains become more rounded and undulating as you travel north.

Lake Tana comes into view a little way before you reach it and is a very large expanse of water. Bahar Dar airport (HABD) is near the outflow of the lake, but is a rather small and uninspiring place to land after such a long journey.

So there you have it, air navigation of a large part of the River Nile. There are two further Nile cruises in this series; one tracing the White Nile from Khartoum to its source in Uganda and the other completing the Nile's journey from Luxor to Alexandria.

Happy Flying.

Derek Swanson
derek.swanson10@virgin.net
Read about other River Cruises