Africa (along the sea and atop a volcanic mountain)...

[P_7878 6,668]

There have been some nice posts, here, in MSFS, about Africa. And I'd myself explored a bit of the northern Africa (specifically Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco). This 2nd largest continent surely has bit of a complex, curious, irregular and fascinating geographical shape...🙂...Basically, it has a thick tropical core in the middle sandwiched between an arid top section and a temperate bottom section. Of course, it has that unmistakable bulge on its north that tapers down southward. Today, I wished to travel part of the bottom cusp of that big bulge, west to east, along the Gulf of Guinea, from Ivory Coast (also known as Côte d'Ivoireto due to strong French influence) to Cameroon where the thick bulge of Africa starts tapering all the way down to South Africa (and Cape Town).

I've picked (DIAP) Abidjan (the largest city but not the capital) of Ivory coast as ORIG, and (FKKD) Douala (also the largest city but not the capital) of Cameroon as my DEST. The distance (as the crow flies) is 950 miles.  I wished to stay on the coastline for the first 500 miles (so, LNAV on the B737 is disabled, and its HDG SEL mode enabled), you may spot the South Atlantic Ocean on my starboard side, the vast blue of which extends south uninterrupted by any land all the way towards Antarctica. While examining the en-route terrain for this flight, I noticed the formidable (self-standing and singular) Volcanic summit of Mount Cameroon, blocking my way on approach to Doula. The skyscraping mountain, very near the sea, is just 30 miles northwest of Doula. So, it has to be most respectfully reckoned with, primarily because it's regarded as one of the most "active" and "effusive" volcanoes in Africa. The Oxford Dictionary defines two meanings of "Effusive" (1) expressing feelings of gratitude, pleasure or approval in a heartfelt manner (no, clearly that cannot be it) (2) of igneous rock, poured out when molten and later solidified (yes, that's it). 

In our SIM, recently, I've visited many Volcanic Mountains (e.g., Mount Kilimanjaro and Mount Fuji still fresh in my mind), but they all have been dormant for hundreds or thousands of years. For example, regarding Mt. Fuji, I'd read, "Children can also climb (and they do) to the summit of Mt. Fuji. Generally, a minimum age of 10 is a good place to start..."...Oh well...However, this one is decidedly different and no child's playground.

For the first time in this SIM, I could see (bright-hot) red and orange colors of the spewed lava on the summit. And this is not a one-time occurrence, it's an on-going activity... (frankly it's rather fearsome to look at even virtually...please see specifically my sequence of pictures (shot #s 8-13) to visualize the appearance of the volcanic summit of this mountain). I have tracked myself to it, by simply entering a LAT/LONG user-waypoint of (N0413.0E00910.2, into the FMC, appearing as "WPT01" on the ND). It's amazing how, from 500 miles out, with LNAV (Direct To) enabled, the a/c took me exactly to the top of this mountain (see my VFR Map inset and ND screens as I've gone right over and past the summit).

I've then let LNAV turn my a/c just atop the mountain towards Douala Airport. Since, I had planned to land on ILS Rwy 30 (the mountain has precluded any straight-in ILS 12 approach, there is an RNAV 12) and I'm heading south from atop the summit, the plane eventually (trustfully) made a U-turn, south of the airport, to align itself with Rwy 30 heading. You can see the shadowy and mysterious looking (broad) outline of Mount Cameroon straight ahead, as I have touched down into Douala's north-oriented Runway...

Hope you enjoy this collection of images from one of my most exciting trips in this SIM, safely completed...🙂...featuring a livery, I liked for this 736...🙂....and memories of a mountain that would linger (uneasily) in my mind for quite some time...

Thanks for viewing...!

Edited April 7 by P_7878

[John F 2,437]

Very exciting flight. You're finding things to see that I never knew existed. 🙂

[pmplayer 9,530]

Nice set, and i realy like to fly the - 600 !

cheers 😉

[Alaska738 8,441]

Great shots! 😉 

[P_7878 6,668]

On 4/7/2024 at 11:07 AM, John F said:

Very exciting flight. You're finding things to see that I never knew existed. 🙂

Yes, it was, John, at least for the final part in unfamiliar land...🙂...over and past that Mount Cameroon...about which I didn't know before either. Moreover, I didn't know it would be directly on the approach path of my flight...

 

On 4/7/2024 at 11:33 AM, pmplayer said:

Nice set, and i realy like to fly the - 600 !

cheers 😉

Thanks, pmplayer. Yes, I know it's one of your favorites...🙂...but you've many planes in your repertoire ...🙂...

 

On 4/7/2024 at 12:53 PM, Alaska738 said:

Great shots! 😉 

Appreciated the comment, Will. Cheers...!

[andiflyit 460]

Some nice shots there P_7878!