Weekend at the Lake

The Kabale district of Uganda is home to the second deepest lake in Africa, Lake Bunyoni. This weekend, we found a small hotel with available rooms and stayed there for two nights to explore the lake. Our hotel rooms were two small cottages on an island in the middle of the lake, no one else was staying there so we basically had the entire island to ourselves. The lake is super pretty with 29 different islands many of which are home to different villages.

While we were at the lake, we canoed, hiked, and swam in the lake. There was a somewhat sketchy rope swing on one end of the island that we had a fun time going off of (some more gracefully than others haha). It took a couple of face plants in the water before finally getting the hang of it and entering the water feet first.

After swimming, we took a canoe out in the lake and paddled our way out to a different island. The canoe was definitely not the same thing as canoes that we have in the states, it was literally just a giant hollowed out tree that was nearly impossible to steer. We got a kick out of the fact that rather than the wooden bench seats you would expect in a canoe, there were dining room chairs lined up in a row for us to sit in. Once we sort of figured out how to steer the canoe, we took it out to what is known as “Punishment Island.” The tiny patch of land in the middle of the lake earned its name because its where the locals used to abandon girls who got pregnant before marriage to die, which is super morbid.

Despite the history of leaving young pregnant girls to die alone on an island, Lake Bunyoni is absolutely breathtaking and it was a super fun weekend.