When Lake Naivasha was an international airport.

Naivasha was one of the first to be settled by white people and one of the hunting grounds of the hedonistic Happy Valley set but that’s a story of another day.  

Before establishment of LAKE NAIVASHA INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT BY IMPERIAL AIRWAY, Ann and Herbert Sparks had built a hotel along the shore of the lake, but it could barely host any guest. The history say they stayed for 3years without accommodating any human. The first five rooms of their hotel, still standing today at the same spot though repeatedly modified, enlarged, and modernized, were completed by 1933, allowing Ann and His fiancée 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.  Well, Imperial Airways of Britain landed their flying boat planes on Lake Naivasha when it opened a route to Cape Town via Naivasha in 1932. Back then, the preferred mode of air transport was flying boats.

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 – did 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 among 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. http://safariprideadventures.com/