KATUNGA CRATER LAKE

Located in katunga village,kakanju sub-county. It’s about 15km off the main road (Bushenyi-mbarara highway).A tale from the localsThere was once an old lady who was passing through the neighborhood who happened to meet a bunch of women that were cultivating on the land. But as she was moving around, she felt hungry and asked kindly for food from thee women. Some of the women refused to give her food claiming they did not have any. But however, there was one woman that offered to share what she had with the old lady. The old woman felt angry for these other woman that had refused to give her food and so she decided not to tell them of the tragedy that was going to befall on them but rather told the other lady and this is what she told her, flee from this place immediately for it is going to rain heavily and a lake is to be formed on this very area. The lady did as she was told and fled from the area and for the other greedy ladies that refused to share with the old woman vanished into the lake. And that is how katunga Crater Lake came into existence. The hill part of the lake is believed to have given the people of kakanju sub-county a beautiful view and they were able to see “ebikompora”, sabasaba in the local language (runyankole) type of gun that used to release bullets and this gave them a clear view during the 1970 Amin war However in geographical terms, it was formed as a result of volcanicity. This Crater Lake is extinct though can still eject a bad smell that is to say sulphorous gases so there might happen an eruption. About 8000 years ago there are true results of violent volcanic action or volcanic fissure. They are formed when molten rocks called lava with a lot of pressure blows off the surface of an extinct volcano. Instead of forming a volcanic cone, the lava with ashes blows off further away from the vent forming a basin surrounded by a realm of harsh rock debris and lava. These basins are the ones that are seen as the beautiful scenic lakes filled with water.