Lake Bunyonyi
Lake Bunyoni beauty is incredible. It has 29 islands that include Punishment Island and Bushara Island which are all concentrated in the central of of the lake.
It is known for the surrounding terraced hills that are 2,200 to 2,478 metres high and intensely cultivated and it has become a darling weekend break destination for many foreign and domestic tourists as affordable and quality accommodations increased.
There about 200 bird at the lake Bunyonyi also means “the place of many little birds”. The bird species include the White tailed Blue Monard, grey crowned cranes, the African Harrier Hawk, Herons and egrets, the Levillant cuckoo, the Cardinal Woodpecker and the Rufous-breasted wryneck and more Weavers nesting on the Island.
Access
Lake Bunyonyi is in the neighborhoods of Kabale town in South Western Uganda.
On the road, it is 6 hours from Kampala (410 km) to Kabale town and 8 km marrum road from Kabale town to Lake Bunyonyi on your way to Bwindi Forest in Kabale or Mgahinga Gorilla home Kisoro district.
Lake Bunyonyi is tangled between the hills of Kabale. Accessing lake Bunyonyi is even much easier if you coming from Rwanda as it would take you only 2 hours drive from Kigali on a very good road indeed.
Main Islands
Bushara Island: This island is also a place for Lake Bunyonyi Development Company, an organization with strong links to Church of Uganda. Tourism is the main source of funds for various developments around Bunyonyi areas.
This island has many luxury tents, chalets, and also campsites for tourists to stay on. You can also hire canoes and sailboats to sail around the lake and its other islands. The island is forested with mainly eucalyptus trees that grow fast.
Akampene Punishment Island: The Bakiga used to leave unmarried pregnant girls on this small island with a tree to die of hunger or die while trying to swim to the mainland as swimming skills were rare. This was to educate the rest, to show them not to do the same.
Bwama and Njuyeera (Sharp’s Island): Around 1921, an English missionary, Dr. Leonard Sharp visited this place and established a leprosy treatment centre on the then uninhabited Bwama island in 1931.
A church, patient quarters and a medical facility were built, while Sharp settled on Njuyeera Island meaning ‘white cottage’, after the similarity of the doctor’s small white house to Sharp’s father’s house in Shanklin, now The White House Hotel.
The rationale of the leprosy colony was that of ‘voluntary segregation’, where the provision of a happy community to live in would attract leprosy sufferers, so removing them from the communities where they might infect others.
Bucuranuka Island: This island, according to legendary stories killed many people. About twenty were once brewing local sorghum beer there. An old woman was passing by and she said: “Can you give me some local beer?” They wrongly though that she was a beggar they knew.
They refused her: “Get lost, beggar! Get lost! The old woman asked: “So you will not even give me a sip? Can I at least get somebody to take me to the mainland?” They answered: “Yes, because we are fed up with you!”
They chose a young guy to take her over. When they reached the shore and the guy was just beginning to return, the island turned upside down and they all perished but only a chicken flew away and survived.
Activities
Activities at Bunyonyi include canoeing, boat riding, local tour, swimming, hiking the highlands around the lake, pygmy village tour and birding.
Visitors at Lake Bunyonyi generally enjoy and experience a breathtaking nature of Bunyonyi and a bilharzia free swimming.
