Buhoma to Lake Bunyonyi through the Mountains

Two days ago we left Buhoma situated in the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest and drove south with Lake Bunyonyi as our intended destination.  From Buhoma we travelled north for a short distance to Kanyantorogo and then turned in a southern direction to Kanugu.  That's were  the real adventure began as we
bumbled up steep hillsides and wound our way through the mountains reaching a maximum height of 7250 feet (2009 metres).  The scenery was breathtaking.  The one side of the the track dropped hundreds of feet down to small villages, terraced farms and people going about their daily lives in the fields and around their homes. We crossed over streams and drove through the Mafuga Forest Reserve, a plantain forest of pine trees.  The road was at times a little tricky to negotiate but with patience, expertise and a Land Rover it was possible.

During one portion of the journey we passed many people on the road all travelling in the same direction.  A few kilometres on we found out where they were headed.  A remote village was having a market day, the vendors had their goods spread out on either side of the road and eager shoppers were spilling out onto the narrow road.  We had to pass through the buzzing crowd, many of whom had travelled great distances on foot to get there extremely slowly not to hit anyone or anything.  Even in the remote hills of Uganda, Christmas was in the air!

Naturally we started to descend and wound our way down to the main highway.  We didn't stay on that for long before turning onto a lakeside road at the northern tip of Lake Bunyonyi.  The road was extremely narrow and we wondered what we would do if we met another car somewhere along the 21km journey, thankfully we never did.

Lake Bunyonyi

Lake Buyonyi is Uganda's deepest lake at 2950+ feet (900+ metres) deep and the landscape around the lake is indicative of it's depth with steep slopes protruding from the water. We reached the Lake Bunyonyi Overland Resort and set up our camp right on the waters edge.  It is a peaceful location to relax and watch the world go by and is abundant with bird life and local fisherman paddling around in their dugout canoes.  The lake is home to freshwater crayfish, so last night we feasted on the local fare...delicious!  Lake Bunyonyi is a stunning place indeed.  It is our last night here and we both wish we could stay longer but tomorrow a new adventure begins as we cross the border into Rwanda.