Lake Bunyonyi is a magical place which surprises for the rare beauty of its landscapes. The extremely ragged coasts feature intensely cultivated hills and a luxuriant tropical vegetation. The surface of the lake is dotted with 29 little islands with the peak of the Virunga volcanoes looming in the horizon. Bunyonyi, in the local language, means “place inhabited by many little birds” and in fact 200 different species live here. It is a young lake probably created by a volcanic eruption that around 8000 years ago blocked a river exit. The lake has a total area of around 50km2, but it is the centre of a wetland of around 180 km2. Lake Bunyonyi rises about 2000 meters above sea level, but some of the hills reach 2500 meters. The altitude assures a moderate climate, often cool after sunset, and a lower incidence of malaria. Free of bilharzias, crocodiles and hippos, it is one of the few African lake where it is safe to swim.
Lake Bunyonyi is situated a short distance away from the border with Rwanda, in the region of Kigezi and district of Kabale. The whole region, that occupies the South-Western corner of Uganda, is probably the most fertile and scenographic of the whole country. However, despite the landscape attractions, to most tourists the area is known almost exclusively for the closeness to the national parks of Bwindi and Mgahinga, where it is possible to see the endangered species of mountain gorillas. Therefore tourism is marginal, with the huge trans- african expeditions that stop here just overnight and a few independent tourists coming for a few hours walk from the nearby town of Kabale, the main centre of the Kigezi region, and last stop before Bwindi. Of all local attractions, the most popular is the guided tour of the Batwa Pygmies, a minority that has always been persecuted and discriminated. Today they have no land rights or legal access to the forest from were, being hunters, they were traditionally getting their sustenance. The Batwa Pygmies today perform for cash to tourists, which remains their only livelihood. Today there are organizations that protect them
from exploitation and discrimination.
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