Visiting Uganda's Hot Springs

Semiliki Game Park is not only known for it's 400 bird species and around 53 mammals in the Bambwa forest, this place is also known for it's magical hot springs which boil at temperatures up to 100°C. Visitors to these hot springs are advised not to get closer because the water is too hot.

The Park is found in the south western corner of Uganda in Bundibugyo district. One can access it by road or by air to Semliki Game Reserve airstrip from Entebbe. While here you will encounter two types of hot springs which are male and female; the male hot spring is called Bitende and is approximately 12 meters in width. While the female hot spring is called Nyasimbi and it gushes out water approximately 2 meters in the air.

The people in this area have a tale which goes that the local tribe known as the Bamaga women had gone to the forest to collect firewood, while there they saw a hairy man, dressed in bark cloth, and holding a spear, with a hunting dog in tow. Later on, this man, after joining the village, is said to have disappeared in the forest on one of his hunting trips, and only his spear was left behind. When his wife heard of this, she ran into the forest in search of her husband, subsequently also getting lost in the forest. To date, the Bamaga believe the female and male hot springs symbolise the hunter and his wife, and the tribe has been known to perform rituals at the hot springs.

While here you can experience boiling matooke (bananas) and eggs in by the hot spring. on your way to and from the iconic springs you will encounter various animals like the grey-cheeked mangabeys, the red tailed monkeys, the white and black colobus monkeys.

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