Kabale & Lake Bunyonyi: Uganda's Highlands

Lake Bunyonyi — the name means “place of many little birds” — is the highland's jewel: a deep, winding lake ringed by terraced hills and dotted with 29 islands, each with its own character and story, from the tiny Punishment Island of local legend to larger islands with community projects and simple lodges. Because the lake carries no bilharzia and no hippos or crocodiles, it is one of the rare places in Uganda where visitors can swim freely, and dugout canoes, island-hopping circuits and quiet shoreline lodges make it the country's favourite spot to slow down. Most travellers arrive tired from the gorillas and find a day or two here the perfect counterweight.

The district's hillsides are among the most intensively terraced landscapes in Africa, hand-cut into green steps that hold the steep slopes against erosion and give the region its “Switzerland of Africa” nickname — a scenery of orderly cultivation, eucalyptus stands and mist that surprises visitors expecting savanna. Kabale town itself, sitting above 1,900 m, is one of the coldest places in the country, a busy market and transport hub rather than a sight in its own right but a useful base for the lake and the wider southwest. The cool climate, a legacy of the altitude, makes the whole district a refreshing change from the lowland heat.

Kabale has long been the road-junction town for Uganda's mountain-gorilla country, the last sizeable centre before the forest trailheads of the far southwest and a common overnight stop on the way in or out. The southern sectors of Bwindi and the Mgahinga volcanoes lie within reach beyond the district, and Lake Bunyonyi's lodges are frequently used as the comfortable base from which travellers set out for their trek and to which they return. It is this pairing — the effort of the gorillas and the calm of the lake — that defines a visit to the district.