CANOTAGE SUR LE LAC

Canoeing is a very popular activity. Boat rentals (canoes, kayaks, etc.) - by the hour or by the day, with or without a guide - as well as cruises are offered by most hotels. You will certainly be able to see an otter as you travel across Lake Bunyonyi from one island to another. During the day, you can, for example, have lunch on islands such as Bushara, Itambira and Njuyera. You may come across schoolchildren returning from school by canoe from Bwama Island, the most important island in the lake, where you can dock to see some of the remains of the old leper colony (founded at the turn of the 1920s and 1930s by Dr Leonard Sharp, a British missionary) and buy some souvenirs from the craft shop. You will be told the story of Akampene Island, known as Punishment Island since, until the middle of the 20th century, the Bakiga used to send there in penance young girls who became pregnant before marriage, until they starved to death or drowned trying to escape (unless they were rescued at night by local peasants who wanted to take a wife without paying a dowry). Or the legend of Bucuranuka, the island that had turned over, victim of the bad fate of a woman who had been refused a sip of homemade beer by the revelers living there... For a guided tour of the islands of the lake, aboard a speedboat, count from 22 to 55 US$/boat (1 to 3 hours).