Tour around Africa: Stage 59 - Las Khorey (HCLA) to Hafun (HCBA)
MS Flight Simulator VFR Flight Plan
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In this VFR - GPS Flight Plan we take off from the dirt runway 07 the aerodrome of Las Khorey (HCLA), fly inland over the mountains and finally land in the runway 05 of the Hafun airstrip (HCBA)

This was a transition stage in the tour with no special points of interest. Find below a short extract and screenshots of the main points of the route. In this journey around Africa I have used the Cessna 172S (Skyhawk)

Right after take off from the runway 07 of the aerodrome of Las Khorey (HCLA), turning inland to cross the horn of Africa..

Moving away from the sea we head inland, crossing the so-called "Horn of Africa". The desert landscape will accompany us throughout the flight.

Flying near Habaryaale mountain.

1427 m. high, the Habaryalle mountain is in the only area with a little of vegetation along the journey.

Flying over a mountainous area with many canyons.

Shortly after starting the descent the sea appears on the horizon.

Our destination is located on a peninsula connected to the mainland by a narrow strip..

Final approach to the dirt runway 05 of the Hafun airstrip (HCBA), hard to distinguish from the surrounding dust.

Hafun (Somali: Xaafuun; Arabic: حافون; Ancient Greek: Οπώνη, romanized: Opṓnē, Italian: Dante) is a town in the northeastern Bari province of Somalia. Situated in Ras Hafun on the coast of the Guardafui Channel, it is the centre of the Hafun District, and the easternmost town in continental Africa (this means that it sees the first sunrise on the African continent). It is an ancient town previously known as Opone.

Pottery found in Oponean tombs date back to the Mycenaean Kingdom of Greece that flourished between the 16th and 11th century BC. Its major periods of activity were during the 1st century BC and the 3rd to the 5th centuries AD.[13] Opone was mentioned by an anonymous Greek merchant in the 1st century AD Periplus of the Erythraean Sea. The town is featured in the ancient document's thirteenth entry, which in part states:

And then, after sailing four hundred stadia along a promontory, toward which place the current also draws you, there is another market-town called Opone, into which the same things are imported as those already mentioned, and in it, the greatest quantity of cinnamon is produced, (the arebo and moto), and a great quantity of tortoiseshell, better than that found elsewhere.

Opone served as a port of call for merchants from Phoenicia, Egypt, Greece, Persia, Yemen, Nabataea, Azania, the Roman Empire and elsewhere,[14] as it sat at a strategic location along the coastal route from the Mochan trading center of Azania to the Red Sea. Merchants from as far afield as Indonesia and Malaysia passed through the city, exchanging spices, silks, and other goods, before departing south for Azania or north to Yemen or Egypt on the trade routes that spanned the length of the Indian Ocean's rim. As early as 50 AD, it was well known as a center for the cinnamon trade, along with the barter of cloves and other spices, ivory, exotic animal skins and incense.

During the early modern period, Hafun was part of the Majeerteen Sultanate's realm.

In 1930, an Italian firm invested capital to exploit salt deposits in Hafun and Hurdiyo. The Italians renamed the city Dante and created the biggest salt production plant in the world.[15] By 1933 or 1934, the Hafun salt works were producing more than 200,000 tonnes of salt, most of which was exported to the Far East.

Following independence in 1960, the town was made the official centre of Hafun District.

Ancient Egyptian, Roman and Persian Gulf pottery has been recovered from the site by an archaeological team from the University of Michigan. In the 1970s, Neville Chittick, a British archaeologist, initiated the British-Somali expedition where he and his Somali colleagues encountered remains of ancient drystone walls, houses with courtyards, and the location of the old harbour. (*1)

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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.