Greystoke Mahale is stunningly siituated on the eastern shores of Lake Tanganyika, below a huge story-book tropical forest with the forested slopes of the Mahale Mountains rising behind the camp. Your home at Greystoke is in wildly exotic wooden bandas looking out across the soft sand beach, with interiors fashioned from dhow timber. The bandas are open fronted, with dressing rooms, adjoining bathrooms accessible via a short boardwalk with flush toilets and powerful showers. Each banda has an upstairs chill-out deck; designed with flair, generosity and passion for the most demanding castaway. Sadly, there’s only room for twelve people, in six double bandas. Environmental impact is kept to an absolute minimum, and this is a priority, which means there is only solar-powered lighting and refrigeration (generators are run to top up batteries but only when guests are out of camp).The safari kitchen produces food that is bold, and rich with African flavours, using fresh organic ingredients. Camp life could be described as somewhat opulent, yet very relaxed. It’s a magical place, and the staff do everything they can to make Mahale the ultimate exotic adventure: think of Arabian Nights meets Peter Pan in the British Museum. This is absolutely the best place in the world for tourists to view wild chimpanzees, and staggeringly beautiful besides. The forest itself is special, with eight other species of primate besides the Chimpanzee, shyer forest mammals, birds, butterflies, giant vines and waterfalls. And if a days "chimping" wasn't enough, you can snorkel or swim in the clear waters, fish or kayak along the lake shore. You can have private barefoot dinners on the beach, or get friendly in the wildly thatched mess, complete with library and upstairs viewing decks. For some evening pizazz, there;s the bar of all bars on the rocks of the headland, with fresh sashimi and iced vodka, and a view out west across the mighty waters of Lake Tanganyika.
