The six unique thatched and wood bandas are made from sustainable materials reclaimed from wrecked dhows, old fisherman’s canoes, and thatch from palm trees and tucked into the tree line. Each banda room is open-fronted with great canvas drapes which can be closed in the event of a storm. The twin or double beds nestle beneath a canopied net and there is a dressing area that leads on to an en-suite bathroom with running water than can be heated from a boiler, an open-air shower, and a flush toilet. The best feature of the bandas are the private verandahs and an upstairs chill-out lounge with views across the white sandy beaches to the turquoise waters of Lake Tanganyika.

The camp is ideally located next to the 1,000-square mile Mahale Mountains, a place so remote there are no just forest paths. The camp is accessed via boat. The forest is home to a variety of animals with eighty-two species of mammals including bushbucks, bushpigs, colobus monkeys, mongoose, grysbok, porcupine, duiker, and numerous butterflies and birds. But it is the famous wild chimpanzees that are the biggest draw here. Researchers from Kyoto University, Japan, have been studying wild chimpanzees in Mahale since 1965. Lake Tanganyika is one of the oldest lakes in the world and has around 250 species of fish. While the nearby savannahs are home to lions, giraffes, warthogs, and Grant’s zebras.