JOURNEY TO BUGALA ISLAND

One of the things that seems to surprise people most about where our project is based is the fact that there are islands in Uganda - it's a landlocked country!

Well, part of Uganda's borders with Kenya and Tanzania are in the middle of Lake Victoria and the lake (in common with many other lakes) has islands. In fact Lake Victoria has well over 100 islands and is the world's largest tropical lake and the world's second largest freshwater lake (second to Lake Superior between the USA and Canada).

The Ssese Islands are about 60km south of Entebbe on Uganda's mainland coast and are accessible via several boat services. The ships to the main island, Bugala, go from two landing sites on the mainland. The shortest is between Bukakata (40km east of Masaka on the mainland) and Luku (30km west of Kalangala on the island).

This is free and takes the larger lorries but it's about 150km from the country's capital of Kampala thus making the journey expensive and time consuming.

The shorter crossing is from Nakiwogo Fishing Site near Entebbe to Lutoboka Landing Site about 3km from Kalangala. The vessel on this trip is normally the MV Kalangala...

...which carries passengers and smaller vehicles. There is a charge. For instance seating is first class (padded seats) and second class (wooden benches) and the single first class fare is 14,000 Ugandan Shillings (about £3.50). The crossing is about three and a half hours and the ship leaves on time (about the only thing in Uganda that does) - 8 a.m. from the island and 2 p.m. from the mainland every day.

However there are times when the ship needs to be serviced and the vessel of choice (or should I say necessity) changes to this....

Yes, on the way back to the mainland at the end of January this year we spent three-and-a-half hours on this wooden boat. No loo! But experienced amazing views of some of the other islands the larger vessel can't get near.

This is a view of MV Kalangala taken from the bridge as it approaches Lutoboka Landing Site on the island....

Lutoboka is a very poor fishing village on the shore of Lake Victoria. In my next blog I'll start a journey around the east of the island with you and we'll discover Lutoboka, the capital town of Kalangala and their neighbouring villages.