An aircraft landing site turned into a UNESCO World Heritage Site? Only in Kenya!

KENYA’S FIRST INTERNATIONAL ‘AIRPORT’ – NOW A UNESCO WORLD HERITAGE SITE

(Posted 10th November 2014)

The headline is bound to raise questions galore no doubt, exactly what is intended to have readers sit up and take some notice. Notice of Kenya’s colonial past but also notice of Kenya’s present day.

The location of Kenya’s first international airport, an airport of sorts anyway, was, and many have in the past failed to answer that question correctly, the surface of Lake Naivasha. The route then took the aircraft on to Mombasa, before proceeding on to Dar es Salaam and further down south to the endpoint of the route being in Durban. Later on in the days of Imperial Airways’ flying boat route was Kisumu added which also served as an alternate for Naivasha, should weather conditions prevent a landing there, even though it meant that passengers destined for Nairobi would have to embark on a longer train journey compared to the relatively shorter trip from Naivasha.

The erstwhile Sparks’ Hotel, named after the first owners, was built some 81 years ago.

The first five rooms, still standing today at the same spot though repeatedly modified, enlarged and modernized were completed by 1933, allowing Ann and Herbert Sparks to take in paying guests but the ‘official’ opening, cutting tape, cake and all, still had to wait until Christmas Day in 1935 when according to records obtained the ‘Sparks’ was fully booked

The hotel soon gained a reputation as a comfortable and conveniently located rest stop for those taking the hard road from Nairobi into the Great African Rift Valley or vice versa, but only when Imperial Airways commenced their long distance flights between London and Durban with the legendary ‘flying boats’ – huge ‘beasts’ in those days – was it that the hotel began its rise to fame and glory which lasted to the present day.

These flying contraptions landing on water came from the River Thames via the Mediterranean Sea to the Nile delta near Alexandria and then flew along the river with further landings in Khartoum before breaking the journey in Naivasha, the lake being Kenya’s first international airport in a manner of speaking.

Crews and passengers initially stayed on land for night stops along the route and the trip taking several days allowed in particular the passengers to take in some real life experiences en route. Lions back then were reportedly still roaming the floor of the Rift Valley and their roars could be heard at night, causing probably fear and hopes amongst the airline guests for the swift onset of daylight, considering the stories passengers had heard about the man eating lions of Tsavo which had taken quite a few fellow Englishmen in their days and more locals in addition to the ‘imported food’ when the railway was constructed some 30 odd years earlier.

Transport from Naivasha to and from Nairobi was by mainly by the railway but also, when available, by cars or trucks or in the worst case by ox drawn wagons, having to make the way up the escarpment and across the Limuru hills before reaching the then capital of the colony. Ancient pictures still remind the guests of what is today called the Lake Naivasha Country Club, giving a glimpse back into times long passed but still remembered by a few as this correspondent can vouch for.

The Lake Naivasha Country Club today is one of the last remaining classic resort hotels at the lake side, of course modernized and repeatedly refurbished over the years but as popular today as it was in the olden days. While more competition has emerged along the lake shores, the style of the club and the architecture of the main building and of the early rooms and cottages is clearly invoking flashbacks into the colonial days of the country, carefully preserved as a piece of Kenya’s history and as the very site where the first flights from the UK landed, way before Embakasi airport in Nairobi was established as East Africa’s main aviation hub.

IMPERIAL AIRWAYS

ENGLAND-FRANCE-ITALY-GREECE-EGYPT-SUDAN-UGANDA-KENYA-TANZANIA

MOZAMBIQUE-SOUTH AFRICA WITH SHORT S23 FLYING BOAT.

Effective from late 1938

DAY 1-SOUTHAMPTON-MARSEILLE-ROME-BRINDISI

Your Captain Speaking: Ladies and Gentlemen.Today we shall be flying at 7,500 ft. Our route

will take us across the Channel to cross Normandy, Central France, the Massif Centrale,

and Provence to land at Etang de Berre near Marseille. Passengers will lunch ashore whilst the

the aircraft is refueled.We shall then proceed across the Mediterranean to land on Lake Bracciano, just North of Rome and finally proceed to Brindisi where we shall spend the night.

Note With adverse headwinds on the first leg, aircraft routed via St.Nazaire (LFRZ) on the Atlantic seaboard.

DAY 2-BRINDISI-ATHENS-ALEXANDRIA

Your Captain speaking: Good Morning,today we will be flying at 1,500ft if the weather is good, else 7,500ft. Our route takes us across the Ionian Sea, down the coast ofGreece to Kefallinia, through the Gulf of Corinth, then east to land at Athens. From Athens we shall cross the Mediterranean Sea at 3,500ft via Crete to land at Alexandriafor a night stop.

Note Adverse headwinds between Athens and Alexandria, aircraft may refuel at Mirabelle,Crete.

DAY 3-ALEXANDRIA-CAIRO-LUXOR-WADI HALFA-KAREIMA-KHARTOUM

Your Captain Speaking: We shall be flying at 3,500ft.,across the Nile delta to Cairo.and roughly

follow the course of the Nile, passing the Pyramids to Port, followed by the Barrage at Assiut,to land at Luxor, famous for its temples. After Luxor we overfly Thebes with its Tombs of the Kings.also the site of the Tutankhamen excavations and on to Wadi Halfa where we enter Sudan, a refuel stop at Kareima and finally, overnight atKhartoum.

DAY 4-KHARTOUM-KOSTI-MALAKAL-JUBA-PORT BELL

Your Captain Speaking: Today we shall be flying at 4,500ft as far as Juba. Shortly, the desert will end and the bush will begin. Approaching Malakal, there are vast swamps in which herds of elephants may be seen.The 12,000 sq mile ‘Sudd’ swamps on our right end at Juba. Now as the ground begins to rise, we climb to 6,500f and we may be lucky and see some of the vast herds of game. We shall overfly Entebbe to alight at Port Bell on Lake Victoria. In the event of bad weather, we may divert to Kisumu (HKKI).

DAY 5-PORT BELL-KISUMU-MOMBASA-DAR ES SALAAM-LINDI

Your Captain Speaking: Ladies and Gentlemen, today we proceed to Naivasha climbing to 12,500ft.

From there, we fly at 7,500ft passing over Nairobi and to the right of Mt Kilimanjaro, to alight at Mombasa, where we take lunch.We then fly down the coast at 1,500ft.toDar es Salaam and on to Lindi to overnight.

Note Depending on weather, Naivasha may be missed out and return to Kisumu HKKI NDB is KKS 360.0. Passengers for Nairobi will then travel by Train or Road to their destination

DAY 6-LINDI-MOZAMBIQUE-QUELIMANE-BEIRA

Your Captain Speaking Today we will be flying at 1,500ft and we shall cruise down the coast to Lumbo,

Quelimane,then crossing the mouth of the Zambesi River, we alight at Beira to spend the Night

DAY 7-BEIRA-INHAMBANE-LOURENCO MARQUES-DURBAN

Your Captain Speaking: Today we continue down the Coast at 1,500ft to Inhambane and then

to Lourenco Marques for lunch. Then to our final destination, Durban.

The routing above was taken from the website www.bluegrassairlines.com

Two years ago did UNESCO designate the Kenyan Rift Valley lakes from Naivasha over Elementaita to Nakuru and on to Bogoria and Baringo as World Heritage Sites, turning the spotlight on to one of East Africa’s greatest natural features, the Rift Valley itself and its lakes, some of them regularly displaying massive numbers of flamingos. Only two of these lakes, Naivasha and Baringo, are actually fresh water lakes while the other three are alkaline, providing the right conditions to sustain the flamingo populations. Plenty of other birds too are of course found on the shores and in the immediate vicinity of those lakes and Terry Stevenson’s book ‘The Birds of Lake Baringo’ counts some 445 species, an amazing number considering the relatively confined area where the count was taken.

Several protected areas are found in the Rift Valley, like the Hell’s Gate National Park around Mt. Longonot, the Soysambu Conservancy at Lake Elementaita – also a Ramsar site – the area’s probably best known Lake Nakuru National Park and Lake Bogoria National Park. They all offer plenty of wildlife and nature experience, starting just 80 kilometres outside the capital Nairobi and extend some 280 kilometres to Baringo, all within easy reach on good tarmac roads.

Naivasha though remains the arguably most popular among these places, with enough accommodation along the lake shores, catering for all budgets from simple campsites to the luxury of the Enashipai or the Lake Naivasha Country Club, and not to forget Elsamere, the former lakeside holiday home of the Adamsons of ‘Born Free’ fame, which has been turned into a living museum and retreat.

And talking of museums, the Enashipai has a dedicated Maasai Museum in its grounds as recently explained here and it might make sense for the successors of Imperial Airways, today called British Airways, to have a word with the owners of the Lake Naivasha Country Club to establish something similar and recall and remember the days when the flying boats roared over the lake, landed and drifted to the shore for passengers and crews to disembark and stroll across the lawns under the same thorn trees which are still found today.

Many Nairobians escape the annual ‘winter’ between July and September whenever they can to leave the often freezing cold nighttime temperatures behind and get some sun on their faces on weekends, before returning to the grind of the city which is just an hour’s drive away, at least until the traffic jams up when entering the city proper. Whether they seek outdoor adventure in the canyons of the lower slopes of Mt. Longonot, go fishing or sailing on Lake Naivasha or boost their bird count in Nakuru or Baringo, there is something found for almost every type of traveler including wellness weekends or just lazing around a pool and everything in between. And the upside of visiting these lakes and the resorts, there are no anti-travel advisories in place and THERE IS NO EBOLA IN KENYA … no better time to visit surely than now.

For added information about Kenya’s tourism attractions visit www.magicalkenya.com or www.kws.go.ke