At the mention of a mud bath, your mind might subconsciously turn to Pinterest pictures of people slathered in dark brown mud, floating on the Dead Sea in Jordan, seemingly having a time of their lives in the buoyant waves.
Yes, the dark brown layer, a flimsy covering unable to conceal tourists’ nudity, is indeed a type of mud from the Dead Sea, loaded with healing minerals, a treat for the skin that many swear by.
While you might find the idea of a mud bath unappealing, like the sight of it shouts, the battle of whether the gooey bath is worth the benefits won’t require you to book a flight to Israel in the near future, Katwe salt lake will be the venue.
Thanks to the presence of trona mineral deposits within the Lake Katwe basin, tour operators and the management of the salt lake are looking to develop mud baths as a tourism product that tourists who visit Western Uganda and the Queen Elizabeth National Park can enjoy in addition to other existing packages.
This was revealed by Nicholas Kagongo, a guide who made our tour of the Katwe Salt Lake worthwhile as hundreds traversed the western part of the country in a domestic tourism drive dubbed Explore West.
Trona is an evaporite mineral, hydrated sodium bicarbonate, occasionally encountered as a saline lake deposit or evaporation product. Mud baths are usually a combination of spring water and volcanic ashes that have hydrating, beautifying and relieving properties. They are also known to relieve various symptoms of skin and musculoskeletal ailments.
The Explore West campaign is the second in the Explore series- domestic tourism campaigns under the country’s official destination brand ‘Explore Uganda the Pearl of Africa’, aimed at creating awareness on and highlighting tourist attractions in the various regions of the country
The 5-day tour saw registered 480 local tourists explore various parts of Western Uganda including National Parks, crater lakes, cultural sites, religious sites, hot springs among others and of course, the Katwe Salt Lake, which was one of the highlights on the Kasese itinerary.
The campaign was led by the State Minister of Tourism, Wildlife and Antiquities Hon. Martin Mugarra Bahinduka who emphasized the need to encourage local travel and tourism, a component he said is vital in the sustainability of Uganda’s tourism industry.
“When we have a good number of tourists travelling within their country, we reduce the dependance on foreign tourists. This comes in handy especially during times of unforeseen disruptions such as disease outbreaks like the recent Ebola situation. These domestic tourism drives are meant to highlight tourist attractions in the country as well as marketing different destinations within Uganda,” Mugarra said
Katwe Salt Lake – a gift that keeps giving
According to Kagongo, salt mining on Lake Katwe dates far back to the mid1400s, although there are counts of the Lake having been discovered in the 16th century by a hunter named Mulogo.
The lake water is salty to approximately 13.5 % and the salt extract contains a whopping 84 mineral ingredients. Lake Katwe is one of the oldest salt deposits in Africa
Located within an explosion crater in the formerly active volcanic area north-east of Lake Edward and south-east of Lake George, Katwe Salt Lake has been producing high quality salt for centuries and has earned recognition within the region and beyond the continent.
The shores of Lake Katwe are lined with salt water ponds or pans where salt is mined. These ponds are owned by landlords who either buy or inherit them since there are, presently, no more ponds being created.
For the local community in the Katwe Kabatooro and surrounding areas, salt mining is a rewarding economic activity they know and are sustained by.
The lake bed is 0.8 meters thick and contains approximately over 12 million tonnes of salt, varying in composition and depth and has salt stocks, which are estimated to sustain an industrial extraction plant with a production rate of 7 tonnes of salt per hour for 34 years.
Being a shallow lake, it faces a risk of intense evaporation in the dry seasons when crystalization of the salt is at its peak, however, thanks to a constant inflow of water from Lake Edward which is on a higher altitude than Katwe, the waters can’t evaporate entirely.
“So, as long as Lake Edward exists, the cycle of salt formation at the Katwe Salt Lake will continue and generations of salt miners will live with a certain level of assurance as regards their minimal wealth and sustainability of the activity,” Kagongo said.
Despite a failed attempt to run a mechanized salt plant in the 1970s by then President Idi Amin Dada, the locals have stuck to their traditional means of extraction, which aren’t necessarily ideal but keep hundreds of families fed and thousands of school going children catered for.
A generational economic activity
Owning a salt pond on Lake Katwe is as prestigious as owning a cattle ranch in Ankole or having shares in an established telecom company in Kampala. It comes with great responsibility, pride and social respect, not forgetting a certain level of financial security irrespective of the measure of financial success.
Just like fathers pass on land and other riches to their children in the African setting, the landlords of salt ponds at Katwe pass on the business from generation to generation as a form of inheritance.
This means that acquisition of a pond is either by buying (that is if there is a willing seller) or inheriting from the family.
“I have about 7 ponds, I acquired them from my father and I will pass them on to my children,” a proud Kagongo said, adding “you can however, buy from a willing seller. We are not creating any other ponds so there is a limitation to acquisition.”
It should be noted that 60% of the labour force in the salt panning sector at Katwe is provided by women and 40% by men. This has created a level of resilience and financial independence for the women some of whom have acquired salt ponds and run a lucrative business. The women usually operate within the salt ponds section while the men go deep in the lake to extract the rock salt and ship it to the surface.
Tour packages
Lake Katwe itself might not be a holistic and conventional tour site; let’s paint the picture of 25,000 water/salt ponds surrounding a lake, separated by uneven pathways demarcated by visibly weak pieces of wood, a musty rock salt smell tearing through your nostrils, soggy ground on some areas of the shoreline, men at work- hands bearing different shades of the dark mud both fresh and dry, tugging on a sack loaded with rock salt making their way through and many other raw sights of an unmechanized salt mining establishment.
Study tours
Despite the above, Lake Katwe remains a key attraction because of its resourcefulness in geography and the fact that it is located within an area of rich, touristy interest. The very raw, unpleasing sight of the site makes it a perfect spot for players in the geology department as well as a learning spot for students.
According to Kagongo, the site receives about 4000-8000 students on a daily basis in the peak seasons of the salt mining. Ugandan students are charged Shs 3000 for entry while old persons pay Shs 10,000. Foreigners are charged 10 dollars as entry fees.
Tourists from Czech Republic, Germany, USA, and Canada also frequent the site.
Mining is done in the drier seasons of the year that is; January to March and June to August.
Birding on Lake Munyanyange
Lake Munyanyange, a seasonal shallow crater lake located in the North East of Katwe Salt Lake area in Western Uganda, derives its name from the indigenous egret birds that are a common sighting at the lake.
Designated as an Important Bird Area, Lake Munyanyange is one of just 2 bird sanctuaries that are home to the extremely rare flamingo birds in Africa.
Tourists can enjoy bird watching on Lake Munyanyange and also take a tour of the Munyanyange Caves.
Crater Lakes Drive
Tourists visiting the Queen Elizabeth National Park can embark on a crater lakes drive where they can visit Lake Nyamunuka, a large inland body of standing water, Lake Munyanyange and the Katwe Salt Lake.
Being in the peripherals of the Queen Elizabeth National Park, the crater lakes drive also avails opportunity for tourists to watch a range of wild life in their habitat as well as vast species of birds.
Fishing and Boat Cruise on Lake Edward
Visitors can enjoy fishing on the fresh waters of Lake Edward as well as a boat cruise while visiting the Katwe Salt Lake, Queen Elizabeth National Park and the Western Region as a whole.