Beautiful Lake Tanganyika

                            

Lake Tanganyika is the longest lake in the world (273 miles) lying a half a mile above sea level but extends over three quarters of a mile deep (.87 miles) and holds 1/6th of the fresh water stock of the planet (source: Hotel Lake Tanganyika brochure)  



We love visitors!!! So if any of you are into world travel, here in Bujumbura is the "hotel club du lac tanganyika"!
It is a four star world class hotel!  We were blown out of the water when we found the best kept secret in Burundi!!! Their website is right on the sign!! People come from all over the world to stay here and enjoy Lake Tanganyika!!

They have 80 rooms that are luxurious and each has an open view of the Lake, the mountains of the Congo and the hills of Burundi! You walk directly out to the beautiful beach area!

Or you can do as this man has (and actually many others) and just move in and build your own place!

On our preparations day, we went out on a boat cruise.  There are many fisherman who make their living catching Sangala and El Capitane by boat!  We have eated both and they are very delicious!!

There are also many fisherman who catch their fish by net.

This was an interesting phenomenon.  Do you see the two different colors of water!! It was so distinctive.  The blue is the actual  Lake Tanganyika water and the definite brown was flowing into the lake from the river that flows from Ruwanda.  In that particular area where they meet, the water becomes very shallow.  In fact, our little boat got stuck and the drivers had to jump out and push us out of the sandbar.

Some people just earn their every meal by going out personally into the lake at catching it!

There are many different sizes and kinds of birds.  Sometimes huge flocks! This was just the start of the ascent!! As they flew over the sight and sounds were breath-taking!!

Yes, there are hippopotami and crocodiles in this lake, too!  A few years ago, a large crocodile, which the natives named Gustavo, became the challenge to catch because they estimated that he had destroyed 300 people. Scary!! He was finally caught. They say that this particular croc was over 30 feet long!!! I wonder if his posterity is still around??

Hippos are very aggressive and our guide told us that he takes no chances around them.  Hippos sometimes break from their pods to start new ones.  Craig was driving down a road near the Lake about 3 weeks ago and he saw two large hippos knee deep standing where normally hippos don't come.  I guess no one told them where they belong in the Lake!  They are too large to argue with anyway!

As we started our boat cruise the waters were very still. It was really beautiful.  If you look in the background, you are looking at the city of Bujumbura.  Here in this photo, the waters were starting to get rough!  We got back and a storm rolled in and we were very grateful to not be on the Lake during the whitewater times!



This is a great view of Lake Tanganyika  from the hills of Bujumbura. It is hard to see because of an incoming storm in this photo but straight across are large mountains of the Congo. If you drive around the northern end of the lake,you cross the border from Burundi into the D. R. Congo and come to the city of Uvira!



As you walk barefooted through the beach, you cannot help but see the entire beach sparkling.  We discovered that there are trillions of little shiny pieces of silica that come off of the lake.  I gathered some up and took them home.  They are really beautiful.  It makes the beach look like there are diamonds strewn everywhere!!

Elder Jameson and Elder Frogley were even considering the possibility of performing baptisms here in the Lake.

Lake Tanganyika was the perfect backdrop for the Dedication of Burundi when Elder Holland was here last month!

Lake Tanganyika plays a vital part in the making of Burundi!  It effects the ecology, the food chain, the water, the weather, the economy AND.........................

the FUN!!!!