OPINION -> SUPERB
Recommended Stay -> 3 or 4 nights
Greystoke Mahale sits on a pristine, white sandy beach overlooking the turquoise water of Lake Tanganyika, with the forested slopes of the 8000 ft Mahale Mountains rising behind.
It's all about Chimpanzees at Greystoke Mahale. They are the primary reason to visit this isolated and beautiful location - a home that Tarzan would have been proud of. Mahale has ne of the largest populations of wild chimps anywhere, a place where they are in their element.
The rooms are tucked back into the forest line, so that your only view is of beach, and the lake beyond. The rooms are built almost entirely from sustainable materials sourced on Lake Tanganyika. All the wood was reclaimed from wrecked or retired dhows bought from villages along the lakeshore. Old fisherman’s canoes are used as ladders and thatch from palm trees gathered outside the national park make up the roofs. The main mess is the only structure on the beach and it's the focal point of camp. Here is where you can look out over the lake to the mountains of the Congo in the haze beyond.
Your days can start there, eating breakfast whilst waiting to hear news of the chimps and deciding what to do with your day. Evenings end with sundowners on the rocks of the headland, where drinks are served around the lamp-lit bar whilst the mountains, rising behind camp, disappear into the darkness.
Greystoke affects us in a way that no other place does; we think it's because of its remoteness, and because of the mountains rising from the beach at our backs, the wide lake with its many different moods and the feeling that we are the only ones here.
Anyone who doesn't believe in evolution needs to visit Mahale! It is both funny and wonderful to see how human the chimps are, down to the adult disagreements and the young ones somersaulting in the leaves - Trip Advisor - October 2010
