Fort Portal is a destination for tourists and upper class Ugandans alike. Known for Crater Lakes and views of the Rhezori Mountains, it is also a place for great food (I tried crocodile and ate amazing Italian pizza 3 nights in a row) as well as a safe place to go out at night. The expat scene is so large there is a weekly frisbee team, facebook groups, numerous well stocked large supermarkets and a bar that was 50/50 Ugandans vs white people. Most of them know each other, either greeting openly or nodding a sign of recognition. Small enough to walk everywhere and big enough to have many good hotels and restaurants.
The famous crater lakes there are one of the most dense spots in the world, some of the lakes over 400m deep. Created thousands of years ago by now extinct volcanoes, the depth gives them a very deep blue color and makes them very chilly, but didnt stop me from taking a dip after a long hike! Most of them are a short 15 kilometers away from the center of town and easy to get to. I spent the day walking around with a guide, visiting over 8 of them. We started going to the ‘top of the world’ where a wealthy Ugandan bought the top of a hill with a great aerial view of 3 lakes. You pay to get to the top which is now built up with a large hideous bar and the view blocked by small ‘hut like’ rooms for the soon to open hotel.
While it is extremely beautiful, I was disappointed.People whose family has lived there for generations are certainly profiting from the tourists but like any area rich with natural resources, it comes at a cost.The lakes have become a real estate destination. Every piece of land being bought by a wealthy foreigner or Ugandan to build a larger hotel or house. The most expensive luxury hotel is called Ndali Lodge and costs about 500 dollars a night.
The locals no longer see a reason to live on the lakes when they can sell their land for plenty. It is not a great place to farm as the slopes into the lake are steep and there is much erosion. Soon, the views of the lake will be blocked even more by mansions and hotels.
I preferred my visit to the close by Amabere caves and waterfalls as well as 3 separate lakes (featured in the photo above). The caves were a pricy view not an overly thrilling scene, but the story was fascinating. Legends of the previous king who cut off is daughter’s breasts and threw them in the water by mouth of the caves. Now, the caves have ‘breast like’ stalagmites that emit a white fluid as well as many other features of the story. The nearby lake is in the shape of her foot after that was also cut off after she had a son out of wedlock.
As I missed the chance to take a safari, I was able to see many birds and beautiful monkeys. Can you find them?
Another beautiful feature of the Fort Portal area is the tea plantations, all over the landscape they are surreal green, perfectly lined, hedged and stretching on for acres. It is impressive the amount of tea produced in this area, but also sad to know that the workers are getting less than enough to survive (mainly are immigrants for surrounding countries as the locals dont want these horrible paying jobs) while the primarily Indian and Ugandan owners make a massive profit. Similar to plantations in the South, the ‘masters’ live in a huge house on the hill while the workers slave away in the hot sun.
WhatsAfrica: Diversity within and across the continent 