Lake Victoria

Lake Victoria is the largest lake on the African continent and the second largest in the expanse of freshwater in the world. Measuring about 250km long from north to south and with an average width of roughly 200km.

Lake Victoria fills a relatively shallow basin on the elevated plateau. This separates the eastern and western forks of the Great Rift Valley. It is divided into three countries, Uganda, Kenya, and Tanzania.

The Ugandan portion is, without a doubt, the most attractive. Its lush vegetation and forest shores contrast with the more arid, stony landscapes of the northern part.

The first European to see Lake Victoria was John Hanning Speke. Together with Sir Richard Burton, Speke travelled to Lake Tanganyika in 1858. Then later in the same year, after living with Burton at Tabora. He reached the southern shore of Lake Victoria near the site of what is now Mwanza in Tanzania.

On returning to Lake Victoria in 1862, Speke followed its western shore from Mwanza to the Buganda capital near Kampala hill. He then travelled east to his own falls, near modern-day Jinja, which he asserted were the source of the Nile.

As it turned out, Speke was correct in his belief that the Nile flows out of Lake Victoria. The Own falls, now submerged beneath a hydroelectric dam. Here is where you find the source of the Nile. Which travels a distance of almost 6,500km between leaving Lake Victoria. And flowing into the Mediterranean Sea.

The most important towns on Lake Victoria are Kisumu in Kenya, Mwanza, Musoma and Bukoba in Tanzania; Jinja, Entebbe, and Port Bell in Uganda.

The Nile Perch

Lake Victoria is the primary food source for the many Ugandans who live around its shores. However, the lake’s long-term fishing prospects have been affected. Since the Nile perch was introduced by British colonials in 1956.

It was a solution to a boom for local fishermen, but the voracious appetite of this large predatorily fish. Instead has resulted in the extinction of many smaller endemic species.

As for the lake-shore towns, Entebbe is little more than a satellite town to Kampala. Its main interest to tourists is as the site of Uganda’s only international airport.

Entebbe

That said, Entebbe is an attractive place, with good access to the lake, and the superb Entebbe Botanical Garden should not be overlooked by bird-watchers. Jinja has rather less inherent appeal, but it has adequate tourist facilities in the form of several hotels and restaurants. And few visitors to Uganda would want to miss out on the nearby Source of the Nile.

There remains a surprising amount of latitude of genuinely off-the-beaten-track exploration of Lake Victoria’s more remote corners and Lugala and Bugadi between Jinja and the Kenyan border.

With a roughly 400,000-year age, Lake Victoria is a relatively young geological formation. It developed as a result of an upthrown crustal block damming rivers that were moving west. What is presently the lake’s catchment area was an uplifted region that served as a continental divide during the Miocene era. With streams on the western side flowing into the Congo River basin and streams on the eastern side flowing to the Indian Ocean. The Albertine Rift (or Western Rifteastern )’s wall rose as the East African Rift System developed. Gradually turning the drainage away from what is now Lake Victoria. The area between the Albertine Rift and the main East African Rift was down-warped when the rift walls rose, resulting in the Victoria Basin.

Lake Victoria has undergone a variety of changes over its geological history. From its current shallow depression to what may have been a series of much smaller lakes. Lake Victoria has totally dried up at least three times since it was formed. according to geological cores retrieved from its bottom.  Previous ice ages, during which global precipitation decreased, are likely connected to these drying cycles. When Lake Victoria last dried up, it was 14,700 years ago, at the start of the African humid era.

Mammals

The area around Lake Victoria is home to a wide variety of animal species. Some of which are intimately related to the lake and the neighbouring wetlands. Hippopotami, African clawless otter, spotted-necked otter, marsh mongoose, sitatunga, boho reedbuck, defassa waterbuck, cane rats, and gigantic otter shrew are a few of these.

Reptiles

Nile crocodiles, African helmeted turtles, variable mud turtles, and Williams’ mud turtles are all abundant in Lake Victoria’s wetlands.
Only Lake Victoria and adjacent lakes, rivers, and marshes in the upper Nile basin are home to the Williams’ mud turtle.

Various fish

African tetras (Brycinus), cyprinids (Enteromius, Garra, Labeo, Labeobarbus, Rastrineobola, and Xenobarbus). Airbreathing catfish (Clariallabes, Clarias, and Xenoclarias), bagrid catfish (Bagrus), loach catfish (Amphilius and Zaireichthys), silver butter catfish (Protopterus aethiopicus).

The majority of species are, on a genus level, found throughout Africa. But the extremely uncommon Xenobarbus and Xenoclarias are exclusive to the lake, while the common Rastrineobola is almost endemic.