Lake Victoria covers about 68,800 square kilometres. If you stand on the Ugandan shore and look out, you cannot see the other side - it stretches over the horizon like an ocean. On windy days the waves can be a metre tall, and fishermen treat it with the same respect they would give the sea.
Around 200 different kinds of fish live in the lake. The most famous is a small silver fish called the Nile perch, which can grow as long as a person is tall. Fishermen catch it in nets, and it is sold in markets all around the lake. Smoked fish from Lake Victoria is sent on lorries to towns far inland.
Hundreds of small islands dot the lake. The biggest group is called the Ssese Islands - 84 green islands on the Ugandan side, covered in palm trees and quiet villages. The only way to reach them is by ferry from the mainland. Many of the islands have no roads at all - you walk everywhere or travel by boat.
The lake is also a kind of clock for the weather. Each afternoon, warm air rising off the water meets the cooler air above, and giant thunderstorms can build over the middle of the lake. Pilots flying over East Africa say the storms over Lake Victoria are some of the most spectacular sky shows on the continent.