The air is scented with jasmine, the forest rich, the water of the lake gin-clear and lightly chilled. And if I dare to put an imprint on this paradise I had better get it right,” Irish adventurer and former auctioneer Roland Purcell pronounced in 1988, when he came upon an expanse of soft sand on the shores of Lake Tanganyika in Tanzania. 

He proceeded to establish a resort consisting of a group of tents on the beach and named it Greystoke Mahale—Greystoke after the titled name Edgar Rice Burroughs bestowed on his fictional character Tarzan, and Mahale after the nearby mountain range, whose forested slopes tower above the lake.

Several years ago Purcell engaged two young expats from the United Kingdom—Ben Jackson and Emma Campbell, both of whom had worked at Mahale and are currently based in Nairobi—to help him redesign the resort. The tents were taken down and replaced by six bandas, the traditional thatched huts of Central Africa. Each one has asleeping area, a dressing area, a bath and a veranda on the main level. "Mahale epitomizes barefoot bohemian luxury", Campbell says.