Lake Bunyonyi

I spent last weekend at Lake Bunyonyi in the southwest of Uganda. It is easy to get to, just outside Kabale, which is Uganda’s highest town. The lake is the third deepest in the world, second deepest in Africa, and the absolute deepest in Uganda. It was indescribably beautiful, but I’ll try to describe it anyway!

The lake is surrounded by terraced hills, a dotted with more than 20 islands. The play of shadow and the depth of the greens on these hills is amazing; I was frustrated by my inability to capture it with my camera. No number of mega pixels can record what the eyes see and the soul feels in this setting.

I arrived late Saturday afternoon, got set up in a tent, then spent the evening relaxing by the lake, though it was too cool by that point to go swimming. At night they had a campfire, and with the high altitude, it was the first campfire I been to in Uganda where people actually wanted to sit close and feel the heat!

Here is a picture of the view from my campsite




The next morning I had a leisurely breakfast followed by a trip around the islands in a dugout canoe. We passed by the site below where an NGO teaches practical skills to local children, such as swimming (most of the locals do not know how to swim).



These dugout canoes are the main form of transportation among communities around the lake (even though most of the people in the can't swim!)


Here I am in the canoe, Bushara Island behind me.



We stopped on an island that used to be a leper colony, but is now used as a school and took a walk around.

Church on the Lepers Island


Crested crane in the fields


Walking back down to the boat the views were gorgeous


Then we sailed past Punishment Island, a very small island where women who were pregnant and unmarried were left to die. (Most perished while trying to swim for shore). This practice ended about 50 years ago.

Punishment Island


Me, sailing towards Punishment Island.


Then I arrived back at the campsite and spent a wonderful afternoon swimming and relaxing by the lake.





That evening we had a campfire again, and I played drinking games with a truck tour. The next morning I hung around waiting for it to get warm enough for a swim (it didn’t before I had to leave) then walked back to Kabale and got a bus.

View on the road to Kabale


I could easily have spent much more time in Lake Bunyonyi, just chilling out and not doing much except lying on a lounger and taking the occasional swim.