Lake Chala

Chala fills a caldera on the southeastern flank of Kilimanjaro, sitting across the border so that part of the lake is in Tanzania and part in Kenya. The crater walls drop steeply on all sides and the water reaches around ninety metres deep, fed by groundwater from the mountain rather than by any surface stream. Its colour shifts through blue, green and turquoise with the season and the light. Sediment cores from the bed have given a long climate record for East Africa. The lake formed some 250,000 years ago, about eighty per cent of its water arrives underground from the Kilimanjaro forest belt, and its only native fish, the Lake Chala tilapia, lives nowhere else.

Highlights

• The crater walls - steep sides dropping straight to the water on every side.
• The colour - blue to green and turquoise, shifting with season and light.
• The groundwater feed - a lake fed from Kilimanjaro underground, with no inflowing river.
• The rim path - a walk around part of the crater edge with views into the bowl.

When to go

June to October for the driest access and clearest air; Kilimanjaro is sometimes visible early in the morning. The rains make the descent path slippery. Midday light shows the colour best.

What to expect

The descent to the water is steep and hot. Crocodiles have been present in the past. The access road is rough and there is little at the site.

Nearby

Moshi is west, and Mkomazi is southeast.

Key facts