Lake Mikuyu

Looking out over the lake. 

When we passed back through Singida we decided to try to check out one of the nearby alkaline lakes. Lake Mikuyu shows up in the map about 15km north of Singida along a dirt road, with no clear path to the lake. We are familiar with these ephemeral seasonal alkaline lakes and knew that access could be iffy.

We drove until we thought we had reached the side of the lake and then took a few roads to try to cut down to the shore. We frequently find more cattle tracks than passable road and this trip was no different. After a few attempts we finally found a track down to the shore and parked the car for a short walk. We were lucky that the clouds were out and the sun wasn't yet too hot.

The lake had dried up a bit and black cotton soil appeared dry, though under the cracked first layer remained a wet clay that was guaranteed to ensnare your vehicle if one so dared to drive on it. It's even quite difficult to walk on so we continued up on the grassy area walking along about half the distance of the western shore.

The area was sparsely populated by people who appeared to have planted a diverse set of crops and also plenty of cows and goats. We met several people taking their cows down for water and chatted with them about the rainy season and how the lake changes throughout the year.

It was overall a very positive adventure as many of our "lake finding" trips end up with us not finding access to the lake or with the lake being complete dry. There wasn't anything specifically spectacular about the area but the landscape was beautiful and the fact that there weren't many people added to the calm and peaceful feel of the area.

Checking out the island

No one was fishing today