Overview of Canoe Trekking on Lake Bunyonyi

UPDATE, April 2019: The trekking pages are being remade. In the meantime please use the Edirisa booking system for the details and reservations.

Lake Bunyonyi is the origin of the Gorilla Highlands Trails, a system of guided trips throughout southwestern Uganda.

In 2005 canoe trekking, a combination of dugout canoeing and hiking, was started by a Bunyonyi-based social enterprise Edirisa. These trips are a small-scale alternative to commercial tourism, for a traveller who wishes to treat the cultures and natural environment with special respect and learn something on the way. Edirisa’s interest is culturally sensitive economic development of remote communities that have few other opportunities.

Canoe treks on Bunyonyi are not as much about adventure tourism as they are about community /cultural travel. Hiking and paddling is a means to get to villages and areas that nobody else visits. Accommodation is tented but in many cases upgrades are possible.

Trips (for more see Treks to Gorilla National Parks):

• 2-hour Touch of Bunyonyi (from USD 15) shows you Edirisa and the green paradise of Bushara Island.

• 5-hour Culture on the Crest (from USD 40) leads you to the peaks of Kyabahinga for superb views, a nursery, an herbalist and a craftmaker.

• 1-day Islands of Miracles (from USD 90) adds visits to three special islands to Culture on the Crest.

• 2-day Mama Bena’s Bonus (from USD 180) includes getting to know all major islands, climbing Karembe Hill, staying with the famous Mama Bena and meeting Batwa “Pygmies”.

• 3-day Mother of All Treks (from USD 230) adds Tom’s Homestay and a morning with a craftmaker.