Tour around Africa: Stage 55 - Robe (HAGB) to Dire Dawa (HADR)
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of this Flight Plan (.PLN file)
In this VFR - GPS Flight Plan we take off from
the dirt runway of Robe (HAGB), fly to the Abul Kasim mountain, then to
Awash and Harar and finally land in the runway 33 of the airport of Dire
Dawa (HADR)
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)
Take off from the dirt runway 15 of the aerodrome of Robe (HAGB).
Robe Airport (IATA: GOB, ICAO: HAGB) is an airport in the town of Bale
Robe, Ethiopia. It also serves the nearby town of Goba. (*1)
Leaving Robe towards the Abul Kasim mountain.
Reaching the Abul Kasim mountain.
Abul Kasim is a mountain in southeastern Ethiopia. Located in the Arsi
Zone of the Oromia Region, this mountain has an elevation of 2,573 metres
(8,442 ft) above sea level. It is the highest point in Seru woreda.
Although this mountain has great importance to Oromo cultural and
religious tradition as the home of the Abba Muda, it is also important as
the location of the tomb of a descendant of the Muslim saint Sheikh Hussein,
and is the object of an annual pilgrimage. Trimingham describes the tomb as
"covered with glass beads and ornaments of copper and brass. Similar
ornament are to be seen on some trees in the forest, and no visitors would
dare touch these holy objects." (*1)
Overflying Awash.
Awash Subah is a market town in central Ethiopia. Located in
Administrative Zone 3 of the Afar Region, above a gorge on the Awash River,
after which the town is named, the town lies on the Addis Ababa–Djibouti
Railway, which crosses the gorge by a bridge there. It is the largest
settlement in Awash Fentale woreda.
Awash lies outside the Awash National Park, which is known for its
wildlife, for the Mount Fentale caldera and for the Filwoha Hot Springs. Its
market is held on Mondays, where Afar and Kereyu crafts can be found.
An iron bridge over the Awash had been built at the present location of
Awash by Emperor Menelik II's favorite, Alfred Ilg, around 1890; this bridge
replaced an earlier wooden one. The construction had to face the great
difficulty of transporting the girders from Djibouti, but once the material
had arrived, the structure had been finished in ten days; however Emperor
Menelik had used for other purposes the cement imported from Europe to build
the bridge with. When Count Gleichen encountered the bridge in 1897, during
his mission to Emperor Menelik, he found "the bridge would be too weak to
stand anything but ordinary pack-animal traffic. For nine months in the year
it is blocked at each end by a broad abattis of thorn-bush, - to prevent
people from using it when the river is fordable, - but during the rains it
is left open."
Awash grew up around the railroad station, which was opened not long
after 1917 when the railway had reached this far into Ethiopia. A hotel for
passengers was built in Awash about that time. The fourth post office in
Ethiopia (after Harar, Dire Dawa and Addis Ababa) was established in Awash
on 1 September 1923, but it may not have been much of a point of origin and
arrival but rather a place on the line between the capital and the coast.
During the Italian occupation, Awash still provided a post office, a
telegraph station, the hotel, and restaurant. The town was occupied in April
1941 by the 22nd East African Brigade of the King's African Rifles, who had
advanced for three days from Dire Dawa. Elements of this brigade afterwards
continued their advance across the Awash at this point on 3 April 1941,
although the road and rail bridge had been demolished by the retreating
Italians. By 1953, the bridge had been rebuilt.
One of the five camps to train conscripts of the People's Militia
(reconstituted in the spring of 1977 as the "Red Army") was located at
Awash. (*1)
Beautiful large mountain chain in the way to Harar
Passing by Gara Muleta.
The Gara Muleta or Gārāmulatā is a 3405 m high mountain in the Oromia
administrative region of Ethiopia . It is the highest mountain in the
Chercher Highlands and belongs to the Ahmar Mountains. The mountain is
surrounded by an evergreen cloud forest zone with many epiphytes . Within
the semi-arid to arid landscape, the forest forms a unique ecosystem.
The Gara Muleta extends horizontally for 16 km, with elevation
differences between 2400 and 3400 m. The geology, soils and climate of
the mountain were described in 1968 by Henry Fred Murphy and in 1990
by Siegfried Kurt Uhlig and Käthe Uhlig scientifically described.
In the forest around the mountain, various animals are found such as the
bushbuck , leopard , Ethiopian ibex , Beisa oryx , hyenas , three species of
baboons , bush pigs , genets , African civets , common porcupines ,
francolins , guinea fowls and an abundant selection of birds and reptiles .
Between 1983 and 1994 there were numerous botanical studies on the
mountain, recording more than 391 plant species from 43 families. Many of
the plants are endemic . (*1)
Overflying Harar
Harar[a] (Amharic: ሐረር; Harari: ሀረር; Oromo: Adare Biyyo; Somali: Herer;
Arabic: هرر), known historically by the indigenous as Harar-Gey or simply
Gey (Harari: ጌይ Gēy, lit. 'the city'), is a walled city in eastern Ethiopia.
It is also known in Arabic as the City of Saints (Arabic: مدينة الأولياء,
romanized: Madīna al-ʾAwliyāʾ).
Harar is the capital city of the Harari Region. The ancient city is
located on a hilltop in the eastern part of the country and is about five
hundred kilometers from the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa at an elevation of
1,885 metres (6,184 ft).
For centuries, Harar has been a major commercial center, linked by the
trade routes with the rest of Ethiopia, the entire Horn of Africa, the
Arabian Peninsula, Asia, and through its ports, the outside world. Harar
Jugol, the old walled city, was listed as a World Heritage Site in 2006 by
UNESCO in recognition of its cultural heritage.[8] Because of Harar's long
history of involvement during times of trade in the Arabian Peninsula, the
Government of Ethiopia has made it a criminal offence to demolish or
interfere with any historical sites or fixtures in the city. These include
stone homes, museums and items discarded from war. According to UNESCO, it
is "considered 'the fourth holiest city' of Islam" with 82 mosques, three of
which date from the 10th century, and 102 shrines.
Yahyá Naṣrallāh's Fatḥ Madīnat Harar, an unpublished history of the city
in the 13th century, records that the legendary saint Abadir Umar ar-Rida
and several other religious leaders settled in the Harar plateau c. 1216
(612 AH). Harar was later made the new capital of the Adal Sultanate in 1520
by the Sultan Abu Bakr ibn Muhammad. The city saw a political decline during
the ensuing Emirate of Harar, only regaining some significance in the
Khedivate of Egypt period. During the Ethiopian Empire, the city decayed
while maintaining a certain cultural prestige. (*1)
Final approach to the runway 33 of the international
airport of Dire Dawa.
Dire Dawa (Amharic: ድሬዳዋ, Harari: ድሬዳዋ, lit. "Plain of Medicine"; Oromo:
Dirree Dhawaa, lit. 'Place of Remedy';[6] Somali: Diridhaba, meaning "where
Dir hit his spear into the ground" or "The true Dir", Arabic: ديري داوا[])
is a city in eastern Ethiopia near the Oromia and Somali Region border and
one of two chartered cities in Ethiopia (the other being Addis Ababa, the
capital). Dire Dawa alongside present-day Sitti Zone were a part of the Dire
Dawa autonomous region stipulated in the 1987 Ethiopian Constitution until
1993 when it was split by the federal government into a separately
administered chartered city.
It is divided administratively into two woredas, the city proper and the
non-urban woreda of Gurgura.
Dire Dawa lies in the eastern part of the nation, on the Dechatu River,
at the foot of a ring of cliffs. The western outskirts of the city lie on
the Gorro River, a tributary of the Dechatu River. It is located at the
latitude and longitude of 9°36′N 41°52′E. The city is an industrial centre,
home to several markets and the Dire Dawa Airport.
The projected population for 2015 was 440,000 for the entire chartered
city and 277,000 for the city proper, making the latter the seventh largest
city in Ethiopia. (*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.
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