10 things about Lake Victoria

I can't really keep pace with all the things happening while I am in Kenya. With my research, adapting to a new place, exploring the city, and going for trips, the time is speeding up incredibly! Harsh life :-)

Anyway, you may have noticed that the last weekend I went to a beautiful place: the majestic Lake Victoria. This is an astonishing location that gives you the vibe of being at the sea. It is so vast that its "contouring" is indefinite. The nature surrounding it is, as most of Kenya, an infinite palette of greens of any sort and nuances. 

Especially, its potential is underestimated by tourists and this confers to the place the fascinating vibe of genuine and authentic realities.

Here some pictures, and especially 10 things you may not know about lake Victoria!

1. it has an incredible extension of almost 60,000 km2 - equivalent to one-fifth of Italian land being covered in water or half of England soil!

2. it's average depth is of 40 m - and it is never deeper than 80 m - very little if you think that Lake of Como, for example, is deeper than 400 m!

3. it is the wellspring of the White Nile - actually, the river Nile is Lake Victoria's only emissary!

4. it is named after Queen Victoria - obviously! but it is locally known as Nyanza, a Bantu word for "lake".

5. it is the biggest African lake; the second largest fresh water (meaning not salty) lake in the world, and the ninth in absolute term in the world.

6. its waters split between 3 different countries - Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. Tanzania has the largest part, while Uganda has 45% and Kenya only 6%.

7. It dried up completely at least 3 times since it formed - but no worries, the last time was 17,000 years ago!

8. it is mainly sourced by rainfalls - at 80%!

9. it hosts more than 3000 islands! I had the pleasure to be to Rusinga, Takawiri and "Birds Island"! Rusinga is connected with the mainland by a newly constructed bridge.

10. its coasts run for more than 4800 km - this is impressive if you think that it's more than half of the Italians coasts, which are around 7600 km!

scary iguana

Obviously, what happened is... that when I came back and looked at the pictures I was so disappointed! They are no way close to display the beauty I experienced last weekend. But this happens most of the time, Nature is just much more powerful than Technology! I just hope I was able to give you a little taste of the beauty of Lake Victoria!