Kendwa Rocks started off in 1996 as campsite and bandas, palm leaf huts. Most people came with their own tents on a boat from Nungwi village.. There was no road, no electricity, no running water. Lanterns for light, car battery for music, ice brought from Nungwi to fill the cool boxes with cold drinks… Water was brought from Nungwi in containers and carried across our vast sandy beach to fill the drums in the kitchen and bath. The central space of the hotel was used as a football ground by the villagers every evening.
By 2000 KR had 10 bandas and 6 small bungalows that were named after the Southern African countries: Angola, Namibia, Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Mozambique. We had lights and fans running on generator and water running from the tank, filled either from the unreliable pipeline on the main road, or by water trucks.
At times we were hosting up to 60 persons with these facilities.Kendwa Rocks was steadily growing and the Kendwa Nungwi area around it. Kendwa Rocks being the first hotel on the Kendwa Beach then became the only organically grown hotel on a long stretch of beach now mostly occupied by big company owned hotels.