Hostels in Lake Bunyonyi, Uganda

Beautiful Lake Bunyonyi, Uganda, in the country's southwest corner, is a highlight of anyone's trip in East Africa. This gorgeous lake -- fringed by steep, terraced hills and dotted with tiny islands -- lends itself to lazing away day after day. Don't expect a quick exit or to keep too tight a schedule here, you'll just stay and stay!

Kabale is the nearest city from where motorbike taxis and the occasional shared taxi do the ten-kilometer trip to the lakeshore. The lake is also just thirty kilometers from the Rwanda border at Katuna and seventy kilometers from Bwindi Impenetrable Forest and their mountain gorillas.

Weeks can be spent just relaxing by the lakeshore or pottering on the lake itself in a boat or canoe. Bunyonyi translates as "Place of Many Little Birds," and has twenty-nine islands. Akampene ("Punishment Island") is where, up until the mid-twentieth century, unmarried pregnant women were left to either starve or drown unless saved by poor men or slaves who couldn't afford a bride price. Bwama was an anti-Colonial rebel base in the early twentieth century, before a leprosy hospital was established there in the twenties by Dr. Leonard Sharp, who lived on Njuyeera ("Sharp's Island"), turning into a botanical garden, although there is little to see there now.

Kyahugye is now a wildlife reserve where you can see zebra, kob, impala, and waterbuck. It is run by the Lake Bunyonyi Eco Resort. Itambira is a lovely island on which to overnight. It has a few Lake Bunyonyi, Uganda hostels and is reachable by dugout canoe from the mainland. There are no vehicles on the island and it is a wonderful place to ramble with myriad bird life.

As Bunyonyi is a weekend and holiday destination for Uganda's city dwellers, it has many accommodation options. Lake Bunyonyi, Uganda hostels are available in Kabale, on the lakeshore and on Itambira Island, all offering dorm beds for the budget conscious. All of the hostels in Lake Bunyonyi, Uganda, can organize boat or canoe treks on the lake, and there is a three-day circuit that includes a walk up Karembe Hill, the highest point in the area at two thousand five hundred meters, and two homestays.

Lake Bunyonyi really is a jewel in Uganda's crown; with Bwindi and the Mgahinga Gorilla National Park, this is a corner of the country that is absolutely unmissable.