The Usambaras are part of a long chain of mountains that reach from the coast to the Kilimanjaro. The individual massives stand out from a very flat area with a height difference of 1000-1500m.
The next group of mountains to the north is called "Pare Mountains." In the lowlands in front of all these mountains there is a road from Moshi/Arusha to Dar el Salam. This is very important for flying, because you can land there again and again, and then get back easily to Mombo, the place from which you go up to Lushoto.
Miziyangembe Launch???, 1390 meters
Max. Hight difference 960m
Miziyangembe - Directly on the SW outer edge of the Usambara mountains into the lowlands: A 1000 meter demolition, spectacular. Well suited for paragliding and kites! Here, a rich American has fulfilled his dream, a house with a view directly on the edge, high above the Maasai steppe. You almost always have a thermal guarantee there and can usually turn up directly to then fly along the edge.
200 km of long-distance flight potential are in front of one, along the main connecting road to the Kilimanjaro area, as a return option!
An area for track hunters:
Early thermals, high terrain edge and mostly strong wind.
More pictures & information can be found on my website: http://ulrichprinz.de/air/tz
You can combine the trip with a week of safari in the national parks east of the Kilis.
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The Usambara Mountains are a lot easier to climb than Kilimanjaro and there’s a lot to see at the base of the mountains. This makes it a very popular spot for paragliding.
Paragliding map:
Usambara Ridge is probably the best PG site in Usambra mountains located at 991m. The view is even better than from the nearby famous Irente viewpoint. Both for long and beautiful soaring (with S-W winds) or thermalling for long distances. Midday and afternoon should be avoided, morning af later afternoon the best. Soaring better before sunset. (There can be shortly strong winds at the sunset, be aware of that, especially at landing.) Top landing with no strong wind also possible, some 50m from the TO or, a bit further on.
Specially prepared TO area for that. Small, for one wing at a time. But, all southern directions form E to W possible. TO with a light tailwind also fully OK.
Paragliding Earth:-4.83787, 38.2802
Exactly -4.839, 38.2833 The slopes and grass are well cut now in all E-S-W directions. Thanks to big trees behind it, it's also well possible to TO with a slight tailwind.
Favourable winds: E, SE, S, SW, W
Looking to do some cross country? XC adventurist @dominicrohner managed to do a 150km flight from here. So good luck beating that!
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We spent 3 weeks over Tanzania, 1 week of those flying in Lushoto area. It's the best in TZ and, you don't need any very organised tours. But, beware, good takeoff places are really rare. But, flying and landing can be done everywhere. Here is what we considered the best.
Coordinates -4.837949,38.284292 for the paragliding camping site, TO is next to it.
Landing best in Mombo.
Our suggestion: thermalling before noon or in the afternoon, soaring late in the evening. Like that, 2 good flights per day. House thermals are found everywhere...
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Landing sites
On the plateau, there are still areas with primary jungle that are protected today, so they will be there even longer. There it is then absolutely impossible to land over larger sections: The trees are sometimes loosely 40m high and everything is close together.
In the other areas, you have to look where there is a spot of cleared land. The fields of the farmers are quite small everywhere and almost always there are individual tall trees on the sides. If there is some wind, but it is not too strong, you can already land there if you are practiced at point landings. Of course, you should not do this without necessity, because usually the fields are cultivated. But if there is no other way, the farmers there are not angry, but you have the feeling that they are even happy that you have just chosen their field for landing. Predestined, and always proposed by Oli for the non-rune flyers, are of course the football fields, which are located in every place, usually at a school. The only problem there: There can easily be more than 200 children who first run towards you and then stand around the umbrella. This is no longer tragic, because the vast majority of children keep some distance from the umbrella and the leash. Of course, orderly fusing is not possible, but to gather together and stuff into the packing bag, the time is usually enough before the mass becomes so large that the new arrivals push and push the already existing!
Tips . . . Wind indicator, fire:
Fires are 'the' ideal wind direction and strength indicators in the lowlands!
You can often see at the top of the edge how the smoke from fires below in the lowlands with the best thermals drags in a thin line on the ground. What this means is clear: Strong wind up to 50km/h. Oliver clearly warns against such conditions, but usually it is not as bad as you think, and the turbulence on the ground is also limited.
Wind jets between the mountain groups:
The supra-regional compensatory movements mentioned above are most clearly expressed on the ground. Here I felt during a flight that the wind came from SW when reaching the Pare Mountains at over 40Km/h, after the wind in the lowlands had tended to come from NO. Only 2 hours later, a biting NO washed me off the edge again when I reached the next gap. The direction on the ground is therefore difficult to guess from the height. Tip: When you reach a new mountain group, you should always head exactly to the first edge, preferably not too deep. Then you can still decide at the last moment on which side you can soar.
Vehicle
Lushoto can be reached on tar roads, no problem until then. However, the take-off places are only accessible with Jeep. If you only have a normal vehicle, and are reasonably good on foot, the SP can also be achieved in this way, which could otherwise make vehicle recovery necessary anyway. However, the usual rental in TZ is such that you can only get a jeep together with a driver, for approx. 100$/day. (2004)
More info in German by Ulrich Prinz:
http://ulrichprinz.de/air/tz/
