Nyinambuga Crater Lake

   On Saturday, Max (a Princeton in Africa fellow who works at the organization), myself, my friend Alison (a nurse at Fort Portal Hospital) met up with two volunteers from Kasese, Alex and Chiara. Alex is volunteering at a local hospital and in the schools in Kasese and Chiara is a Global Health Core Volunteer. We also met up with a woman, Ena from South Korea who was doing South Korea’s equivalent of the Peace Corps in Fort Portal. 

    After spending a delightful lunch at Duchess getting to know each other and chatting about life. We traveled up to see some of the Crater Lakes. There are about 30 different craters South of where I live and along the Kibale Forest all varying in size and location. We visited Nyinambuga Crater Lake which is one of the biggest ones just a 20 minute drive South East from where I live in Kasiisi Village. The crater is also on the back of the 20,000 shilling Ugandan note. 

Nyinambuga Crater Lake

20,000 Shilling Ugandan Note

View From The Dock

   After about two weeks of crappy weather, rain, wind, fog, typical rainy season weather the clouds finally broke and it ended up being a very beautiful day with lots of sun and a light breeze, it felt like a Minnesota fall day right after the summer has ended and the fall is just starting – still warm but also a cool hint to it. To be honest everyday here in Fort Portal feels like a Minnesota fall day but without any change of the trees and having to wear a massive parka. Anyways, we traveled by small car up the winding road through countryside’s and villages to the Nyinambuga Crater Lake, we passed three smaller craters on the way. In this small part of western Uganda, they dot the landscape like villages.  Nyinambuga Crater Lake is I am guessing a mile across and around .5 to a mile wide – Don’t quote me on that as I am just guessing but here in Uganda how far away we think something is we are usually dead wrong and it ends up being three or four times as far. But I do know it is 135 meters deep or about 443 feet deep, thanks to one of the managers at the lodge. Sound like something out of a horror movie? – yea I didn’t go swimming. We hiked down from the edge which was a massive workout both ways. The two volunteers from Kasese swam but the other two and I stayed on the dock with one of the dogs that had followed us down. It was beautiful sitting on the dock just chilling listening to the sounds of the lake and the nature around us.

View From The Dock At The Lush Trees

    We did see a King Fisher Bird, which come down and get a small bug off the water. We also saw something we guessed was either gas or oil bubbles that did not come to the surface of the lake but would burst right before the surface. It was really interesting and the lodge managers did not know what it was.  Along the edge of the Nyinambuga is a lodge called Ndali Lodge that overlooks the lake and also looks out over the countryside on the opposite side. We hung around chatting with a couple of the managers and some of the people who worked there. One of the managers shared her experience jumping out of a helicopter and into the Nyinambuga. The helicopter belonged to some world champion kit boarding champion or something like that – the clientele at the lodge is a mix of people from the Netherlands, UK, India, USA, Germany, France, and so on, some of which have helicopters to bring them up to the lodge. They have a landing pad which is a local field up to the road. Oh the life…

View From The Lodge

Another Amazing View Of The Lake

   That day at the lodge was a slow day so there was only one room taken for the night and we ended up having drinks and sitting eating crisps while watching the sun set behind the wall of clouds that had been overhead earlier in the day. It was the first real sunset since arriving three months ago. It hit me again that I was in Africa, watching the sun go down and the moon almost at full, rising right behind it. Being at the equator you see some pretty amazing things regarding nature and the environment that you don’t see in America. Again a wonderful “wow” moment at how lucky I am in to be Uganda and also in the Western part. I shared with the group that I could do this every night for the rest of my life, we all laughed and agreed but we also all agreed we would have to be very rich and famous to do this every night. It was an amazing end to what had been a wonderful day of shopping, eating, traveling, talking, friendship, adventure, but most of all, Ugandan Beauty.  

Sunset