Lake Bunyonyi

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Nature. Culture.

Together. | Gorilla Highlands presents Uganda’s pretty Lake Bunyonyi where we offer affordable stays and volunteering at Edirisa

website: gorillahighlands.com/lake-bunyonyi Camping USh 15,000 ($4) • Dorm USh 25,000 ($7) • Twin Room USh 60,000 ($17) • Double Cottage USh 70,000 ($20) • Double Room USh 80,000 ($23) • Family House USh 120,000 ($34)

All Edirisa accommodation is non-self-contained

11/04/2026

Remember Sammy, our resident rat-chaser? She’s been having quite the adventure lately.

It all started with the former official cat of Edirisa on Lake Bunyonyi. He’d swapped his cushy lakeside life for the bush, but curiosity got the better of him when he clocked lovely Sammy. So back he came, and before long the two were enjoying regular evening “playdates.” Very friendly, those two!

By early January, whispers were going round. Sammy’s belly was looking suspiciously rounder by the day. Not everyone was buying it, mind you — some staff insisted she’d simply gone a month without proper food and was making up for lost time. Sure, that must be it.

By the end of January, there was no denying it: Sammy was expecting. One Wednesday morning, three tiny kittens appeared beside her. And then a fourth showed up the next day, sporting a bold black head stripe that made her the instant celebrity of the litter.

She spent a fair bit of time auditioning locations for her new family before settling down. Then came the vet visit. Sammy had a wound on her belly, likely a souvenir from one of her wilder dates. The treatment was meant to help. It did not. The injection left a nasty open wound, and for a while even reaching her kittens felt like summiting Everest.

So she made her move, carrying each kitten, one by one, to the canteen. With a nudge from the staff, the whole family got sorted into a snug cardboard box. Sammy looked absolutely shattered as her offspring crawled over her like she was uncharted territory.

Fuelled by mum’s milk, the kittens soon decided the nest was overrated. She puffed and meowed (we’re fairly sure that’s cat for “finally”) as her brood took on the kitchen. They tumbled over each other, swatted at anything that moved, and famously picked a fight with some Irish potatoes. Staff morale soared.

When the time came to find them proper homes, it felt emotional but fitting. The black kitten caught the eye of the neighbouring Black Cat Hostel (obviously), while the others headed off to Kabale Town. Letting them go wasn’t easy. Knowing they’d bring a little chaos and joy to their new places made it just about bearable.

13/03/2026

Bringing new skills to Edirisa on Lake Bunyonyi!

20/02/2026

The frame from our Treasures exhibition looks back a quarter of a century, to the moment when Edirisa — the mother of the Gorilla Highlands idea — was unveiled to an equatorial community on 20 February 2001.

That’s why we travelled to Lake Bunyonyi this morning — Diana and Sasha from Rwanda, Elie from Congo, Steven and ML Rwebandira, proudly Ugandan — and that’s why dozens of other good people are trickling in. But being a very global group, the most important part will happen online, and we hope you join!

Just look at our gang in Photo #3! If you’ve been engaged with us in any way through the decades, you must have met some of these folks. In the centre: Bena, the Edirisa Nursery School teacher, who connected us with her mother Veronica, and Mama Bena’s Bonus was born!

Even our historian Ian is here, the one who co-authored the name “Gorilla Highlands” 15 years ago. He must be tidying himself for the gala dinner tonight?

Our kitchen team is amazing, so everyone who is here this evening will absolutely have their taste buds spoiled!

Imagine, we are still fighting the Printing Wars of ! We have to sort through the last 360 booklets we have received so far, to see if we can add to the 15 locations where they are already available (you can get a copy online too).

As it is our tradition, we will mix pleasure with business. Tomorrow morning is an All Hands meeting of the Gorilla Highlands Experts tours and media teams, and in the tree house Shyaka is preparing to talk about finances and accountability.

But if you are reading this in another country or on another continent, just remember the Zoom get-together almost exactly 24 hours from now.

The time:
Saturday
• Uganda: 6:30pm
• ⁠Rwanda/Eastern DR Congo: 5:30pm
• ⁠most of Europe: 4:30pm
• ⁠UK: 3:30pm
• US East Coast: 10:30am
• ⁠US West Coast: 7:30am

The program:
You’ll first enjoy a live guided tour of Edirisa on Lake Bunyonyi, then revisit some photo moments from our 25 years, and finally be part of the cake-cutting moment.

Oh yes: 30 minutes full of action. You’d better not miss it! And if you have more time at your disposal, you’re very welcome to stay online longer, for the meeting itself.

Be there, be with us — 25 years is something worth marking!

The Zoom link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81403483711?pwd=rfgrBSnJH6BL4PObAjdXmwbQbKz8qg.1

14/02/2026

The silver anniversary of the window idea (“Edirisa” in the language of Bunyonyi) is less than a week away. And since today happens to be Valentine’s Day, it feels like the moment to dive into all the love Edirisa on Lake Bunyonyi has witnessed over 25 years.

Here’s the thing. It was first built as a base for volunteers, and well over 1,000 young souls have stayed here since. You can guess what happened next.

Some people found partners or a path abroad. Others walked away with nothing more than a wild story or a memory that still makes them grin. One of our favourite tales involves a canoe boy who could neither read nor write, yet somehow delivered a love letter to a volunteer. That’s what friends are for, right?!

We’ve picked one story among many, one that begins in 2009. The man who kindly shared it prefers to stay anonymous and, just to be clear, he has nothing to do with the photos you see here.

Back then he was translating at Bufuka and Kyabahinga Primary Schools and helping with swimming lessons, mostly for British volunteers. None caught his eye until one young woman showed real care for his mother’s illness. Meals followed on the Canteen verandah, stories were swapped, conversations grew.

“She was beautiful, like a Mukiga,” he smiles, sketching generous curves in the air with his hands. Just before her placement ended, he made his move. Not long after, she returned to Uganda, this time as a cofounder of his budding organisation and a future bride. Even her parents came along. 2 years later, a son was conceived in Kabale and born in England in 2012.

Bureaucrats, however, had other plans. He was never granted a UK visa, despite trying 3 times. “They thought I wouldn’t return, but I was always happy in Kabale,” he says. His wife preferred Europe and visited only now and then.

By 2015, distance did what distance often does. He now speaks with his son about once a month. “It’s tough. I couldn’t go, she wouldn’t stay, and this is where we landed,” he shrugs.

But watch this, Edirisa stepped in again. He reconnected with a girl who once worked at the nursery, and today they share 4 kids.

Is there a better window onto another culture than love?

06/02/2026

When Provia’s son approached us with a request to upgrade some of their homestay facilities, he had no idea how far our proposal would go. After all, why stop at repairing toilets if we could in fact improve the houses themselves? Wouldn’t it be wonderful if guests arriving on Lake Bunyonyi’s Habukomi Island could opt for a proper room?

During a planning and budgeting session earlier this week, we discussed completing the nearly finished new home and renovating the old one (instead of tearing it down, as the family had intended). This would give visitors three distinct options: camping in our tents, sleeping in a traditional mud-wall house, or staying in a more contemporary building.

Some guests find it a little unsettling to share the campsite with Tom’s tomb (in rural Uganda, family members are buried next to their homes), so we also explored all options for a fence to separate the grave from the tents.

Finally, we addressed smaller but essential upgrades, including kitchen utensils and repairs to infrastructure we built many years ago. We’ll keep you posted as things progress — but Provia’s Homestay 2.0 could be less than a month away!

📸:

16/01/2026

How we stepped into 2026 …

04/01/2026

Guilty as charged! We’re sharing these wishes a little late, our team of course meaning “this year” when they say “next year” 😜 — but straight from The Heart, the historical name of Edirisa on Lake Bunyonyi. Created by our volunteer from Congo, , who has plenty more brewing. Can’t wait to show you!

22/12/2025

For more info about the project see: experts.gorillahighlands.com/pocket-treasure

02/12/2025

Welcome, Milan!

09/11/2025

That’s Provia’s Homestay Now!

21/10/2025

9 minutes that will move you, with an invitation to then go dive into our Tom libraries (gorillahighlands.com/tom) …

16/10/2025

Rest in peace, our man!

Address

Bufuka Village
Masaka

Telephone

+256761365593

Website

https://experts.gorillahighlands.com/edirisa/

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