Lale’s Camp

Shaded by tamarind canopy along the Omo River's high banks, seven Meru tents make up the whole of Lale's Camp. Each is en suite, with a flush toilet and a traditional bucket shower, set apart from its neighbours within a stretch of riverine forest. Gauze panels stand in for windows, so the camp's sounds, birdsong, insects, the river itself, carry straight through at night. It is a small camp by design. Lale Birwa, an ethnic Kara from the nearby village of Dus, co-founded it more than twenty years ago and still guides from it, speaking several of the region's tribal languages. Access runs by road or charter flight to the Murule airstrip, then by boat upriver, a route remote enough that guests here are typically the only outsiders in the area. From this base, excursions reach Kara, Hamer and Mursi villages, the last requiring a fly camp set up further upstream under dome tents or mosquito-netted stretchers. Closer to camp, guided walks and boating trips on the Omo turn up Pel's fishing owl, the northern carmine bee-eater and De Brazza's monkey along the exposed sandbanks. Dining is communal, and a small library and restaurant sit at the heart of the camp. There is no set circuit here, no crowd to share it with. Laundry is done for guests at no charge, a small comfort in a place built around its distance from almost everything else.