Lake Natron Tented Camp

The laid-back restaurant and bar area has a chilled, backpacker feel about it. Intricate branches have been used to build the bar, tables and chairs. Enjoy meals under thatch with the cool paved floor underfoot and in the evenings take your sundowner outside and enjoy the distant lake view from your director’s chair with the flames of an early evening fire licking at the warm air ahead of you. Just behind the restaurant is a natural-water swimming pool.

The nine ensuite tents and four Maasai bandas are varied, but each come with a double bed, mossie net, muted lighting and an ensuite bathroom with flush toilets and a cold-water outdoor shower (some even have a bath!). Each tent also has a paved patio with chairs and a table. Don’t expect the wooden front door to close flush, they’re pretty but not practical. Campers, pitch a tent under a tree on the lawn. Facilities are basic but clean.

Take your binoculars and camera with for the water birds and the flush of flamingos at the lake. The camp can arrange hikes to the crater of Ol Doinyo Lengai volcano, a stunning walk along the charcoal flanks of the carbonatite fissure. Don’t miss the refreshing waterfall excursion or the Engaresero hominid footprints. Over 400 footprints, which are between 5 000 and 19 000 years old have been found imprinted in the mudflats about about 14km from the volcano.