Fort Portal Crater Lakes - Simple Days at the Lake

With my Uganda days numbered, deciding what to do when much of the country still lays before me, was needlessly tedious. Maybe that is when travel becomes the most difficult; when time is running out.  But I guess it is always running out relative to what remains to be seen.  Woe is me.  So, I ultimately decided to continue following the Rift Valley and visit some crater lakes around the town of Fort Portal.  The lakes, somewhere around 60 in total, are the result of volcanic activity.  What type of volcanic activity?  Beats me, but it sure was the type of volcanic activity that turned out some beautiful lakes (and deep).  And what more is there to say about them?  I walked around, visited the weekly market, ate bananas and chapatis, got rained on, and watched monkeys swinging in the trees.  As I am writing this I feel that there is nothing to tell; I had nothing more than a couple simple days at the lake.  That is not to say there wasn't anything interesting. On the contrary; that's never the case in Africa.  Quite frankly, I am not in the mood to try to articulate the details into something that is enjoyable to read.  Sometimes blogging is fun; other times it is a pain in the butt. So, I will let the pictures do the explaining this time, and if luck is on my side, maybe it will still be enjoyable.

With hills and valleys extending all the way to the Rwenzoris, along with misty air, the ridgetops around the crater lakes had surreal vistas.

The black and white colobus monkey; there were quite a lot of these beautiful monkeys swinging in the trees along with a couple other species.

In Uganda, bananas are king.  To the outside observer, there seems to be an over abundance of bananas.  However, bananas are an important staple and eaten daily.

Sometimes the best way to get pictures of yourself and locals is to hand the camera over.  A young girl was walking with me down the trail so I gave her a quick camera lesson and cut her loose.  She did pretty well I must say.

Two of the crater lakes seen from one of the highest points around.

I really liked the way some of the simple homes were decoratively painted.

The crater lakes area is also tea country with some of the hillsides beautifully carpeting the hillsides.

On the shores of a crater lake with the mighty Rwenzoris on the horizon.