What is a hot spring?
What is a hot spring? A hot spring is a spring produced by the emergence of Geothermally heated ground water that rises from the Earth’s crust. Some hot springs contain safe water for that are with normal temperature for bathing but others are so hot that immersion ca result into injury or even Death. So caution must be taken while touring the hot springs as your on a Uganda Safari tour.
The Sempaya Hot springs are the Semliki National Park’s number one most attractions, the hot spring has two parts, the male spring called the BITEETE spring measuring 12metres in diameter and the female part called NYASIMBI meaning the female ancestors. its boiling up 103degrees Celsius where the bubbling boiling water is seen in more than 2kilometres with a stream of cloud. The water bubbles 2-3 meters high. The local people in this community the PYGMIES cook their foods in this boiling springs.
The origin of the name “Sempaya” hot spring
According to the local people, Sempaya originated from a Kiswahili phrase “Sehemu Mbaya” meaning the “the difficult side” owing to the steep challenging terrain and rocks during the construction of the Fort Portal Bundibugyo road along the ridges of the Rwenzori Mountains.
History from the indigenous Bamaga people;
The Bamaga clan have lived in this place since time memorial and now they are neighboring Semliki National Park and this is their story about the naming of a male hot spring and the female one as Nyasimbi.
One day, according to Mzee Balinsanga Adonia the head of this clan” Bamaga clan”, it’s said that the Bamaga women had gone to collect firewood from the forest when they sighted a hairy man dressed in backcloth wielding a spear and with a dog moving in a zigzag way around that location of the male spring. In fear, the women run back to inform their husbands who came and picked him and took him to their homes and got him a wife in the same village called Nyasimbi.
The man was later identified as Biteete, who continued hunting but one time he never came back home. After a three-day search, the men only found a spear and no traces of a man and his dog around the present day male hot spring. It was assumed that he disappeared from the same spot, on return they told his wife Nyasimbi all what had happened who also run to the same forest and never to return but only her clothes were found at the present day female hot springs.
This is how the two springs got their names Male and female Hot springs and to date the Bamaga believe that their male ancestors live at the male spring and their female ancestor in the female hot spring. This is why the Bamaga perform annual rituals at the springs to appease their ancestors and the Semliki National Park Authorities allows them accessibility.
Sempaya hot spring being an attraction in itself, it has brought other attractions to make the Uganda safari more exciting and beautiful. There is a spot of wood land where grey cheeked mangabeys, red-tailed plus black and white colobus monkeys are regularly seen. On the way to the Sempaya hot springs there is a tree house that offers a clear view to nature. The 30minute walk via the palm forest to the female hot springs makes you want to taste the eggs, green banana called Matooke cooked instantly by this bubbling waters.
