Wadi Halfa
Thanks Planemike and all the other commentators.
It must have been Eastleigh then ( why did I think Nairobi Airport / Wilson ?)
Thanks also for the photo of the Railway / Nile Hotel at Wadi Halfa.
G-AKNO - was a marvellous experience and even though I was only 5 /1/2 years old in August 1949 I can still remember a lot about that flight. As the plane was unpressurised, we could not totally avoid nor certainly try to climb above some pretty severe tropical turbulence ( very topical given the recent Air Asia disaster) and it was very bumpy over Sudan. I believe the Solent's ceiling was 15,000 ft. According to the BOAC timetable ( Flight BO 157)the flight left Southampton at 0800 hrs. ( we had spent the previous night in a hotel in the New Forest) and routed via Augusta, Khartoum, arriving on Lake Naivasha at 1400 hrs the following day. Then the bus journey up the Rift Valley to Nairobi, where we were lodged at the Delamere Hotel, before flying on the next morning to Mombasa where my father was waiting to meet my, mother, brother sister and myself. I remember my first meal in Mombasa - egg and chips ( and tomato sauce ! ) at the Cosy Café Mombasa. We had just left the rationing in the UK behind - to see so many egg was a treat !!
I have full details of G-AKNO from the BA archivist, Mr.R.A.R Wilson, by letter on 22nd September 1987. The flight I was on was the plane's second service flight. In May 1949 G-AKNO had landed on the Thames and taxied under Tower Bridge where she was named ' City of London' by the then Mayor, Sir George Aylwen.