Nor will I forget disembarking from the ship at Lagosa. The Lake was particularly rough at the time, with 1.5m swells tossing the fishing boats around like corks. As the Liemba came to a halt, 15 or 20 men from the fishing boats climbed onboard through the small hole, all trying to vie for business unloading goods and offering transport for passengers wanting to get off in Lagosa. After several minutes we were able to squeeze past and over bags and bodies until we found ourselves at the mouth of the hole. We then passed our bags down to someone on one of the small boats alongside the Liemba, and judged our decent into this boat as best we could with it bobbing up and down. Then we had to get onto the transfer boat that had been sent to collect us and take us south to Mahale Mountains national Park (2 and a half hours south by boat from Lagosa).

The transfer boat was at least 2m higher out of the water than the small boat that we were in and so we had to time the swells carefully so that when our boat was lifted upward by a swell and the transfer boat was carried down by another swell, we could catch hold of someone’s hands and have ourselves pulled up and onto the transfer boat. It was truly terrifying.

We arrived at Greystoke just after lunch and immediately fell in love with our beautiful room. Each of the 6 guest rooms is built on the lakeshore, among the trees of the Mahale Mountains forest. The enormous bed and upstairs private lounge area, look onto the lake and are perfectly positioned to take advantage of the glorious sunsets that are so typical of Lake Tanganyika.

The dining and lounge area at Greystoke as seen from the Lake.