Issue No 21 THE AVIATION HISTORIAN 83
pumping the petrol from our main tank to the
engines, and, as we had only enough petrol in
our gravity-feed tanks for 90min flying, it was
imperative that we should land at Nimule, an
emergency landing ground on the banks of the
Nile near the southern border of Sudan.
from desert to mountains
The country beneath us was becoming
mountainous and covered with thick bush,
which made a welcome change to our desert-
accustomed eyes, but lessened our chances of
making a successful forced landing. As we had
no wireless aboard I got out the Aldis signalling
lamp and, after much difficulty, managed to
communicate to No 1 that we were in trouble
and must land at Nimule.
The landing ground was very small, but all
the Victorias got down safely at 0725hr, while
the Faireys proceeded to Kisumu [in Kenya].
The mechanics soon dismantled the pumps but
found that nothing was broken, so they were
replaced. After a short test flight everything was
working satisfactorily, so we decided that an air
lock had been the cause of the trouble.
The natives wore nothing but a few strings of
beads and were frightened at first, but curiosity
soon overcame their timidity and they all
collected around like a lot of children. Strangely
enough the women smoked long pipes, and the
men nothing at all.
After an hour’s delay we all set off for Kisumu,
but Victorias Nos 1 and 4 were running short of
petrol, so we landed at Tororo in eastern Uganda
instead. Immediately one crossed the Ugandan
border one noticed the excellent way in which
roads had been organised and maintained; either
they have more need for them than in Sudan or
else some far-seeing energetic person realises
the value of opening up new country, but the
difference was very striking.
We stayed at Tororo for an hour and a half
before setting out for Nairobi at 1255hr. Very
soon we got a glimpse of Lake Victoria and
eventually passed over the extreme north-
eastern corner of it at Kisumu, which is an
important point on the Imperial Airways route.
We now struck westwards up a steep valley
and followed the winding railway to Lake
Nakuru, which is nearly 6,000ft [1,800m] above
sea level. We had some difficulty in reaching this
altitude, and found ourselves skimming over the
tops of beautiful English-looking farmhouses
with both throttles wide open — it was rather
exciting! When we reached the top of the valley
the sky became overcast and we ran into very
severe tropical storms, which tossed the machine
about like a feather, one particular bump was
alarmingly rough and shook our spare engine in
such a manner as to bend the steadying strut.
As we approached Lake Nakuru I was
surprised to see that part of it was covered with
a bright pink mass. On closer inspection I saw
that it was a flock of thousands of flamingoes;
they made a very unexpected and impressive
sight and all took to the air as we passed over.
There are many extinct volcanoes in the district
and it looked very wild and desolate in the
storm. Incidentally this was where we crossed
the Equator. We landed at Nairobi at 1545hr.
On the aerodrome we found two of our own
squadron’s Victorias, piloted by Flt Lts Markham
and Watts. They were returning to Cairo
having toured central and east Africa with SirOriginally built as a Victoria Mk V, K2807 (No 1 on the tour) is seen here overflying the outskirts
of Nairobi on March 2, 1934. The Victoria VI was essentially a Mk V with Bristol Pegasus engines
replacing the original Napier Lions. With further structural strengthening the type was redesignated
as the Valentia Mk I, and many Vs and VIs were ultimately converted to Valentia standard.