Singita Kwitonda Lodge

Kwitonda was a silverback who led one of the largest gorilla groups in the Virungas, and in Kinyarwanda the name means the humble one. Singita Kwitonda Lodge, which opened in August 2019 on the edge of Volcanoes National Park in Rwanda, took his name. It stands on about 178 acres of former farmland that Singita is replanting as forest, so that the gorillas' habitat can one day reach the lodge itself.

History

Singita came to Rwanda after more than two decades of running lodges in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Tanzania, and Kwitonda was its first house in the country. The park around it is the oldest in Africa, created in 1925 as Albert National Park.

The mountain gorilla was once close to disappearing. Across the Virungas and Uganda's Bwindi forest the population fell to a few hundred animals in the 1980s. Patrols, veterinary care and tourism revenue reversed the decline, and in 2018, with numbers above 1,000, the IUCN moved the subspecies from critically endangered to endangered. Rwanda returns ten per cent of park revenue to the communities around its national parks, which pays for schools, water and health centres near the boundary. The land around the lodge is part of the same effort. A nursery on site raises indigenous seedlings, and the planting is designed to widen the strip of forest between the farms and the park boundary.

Architecture and design

The buildings are low and built of dark volcanic stone and handmade brick, with large windows facing the volcanoes. The design takes its cues from Rwandan craft without copying it: woven panels, local ceramics and timber screens, with the stone left rough. The lodge follows the slope, so that each suite looks over the treetops towards the peaks.

Rooms and suites

There are eight suites, each with a fireplace, a bathroom with a view of the mountains and a heated plunge pool on the terrace, which is welcome at this altitude. Kataza House, a separate four-bedroom villa with its own pool and a dedicated team, is let on an exclusive basis to families or friends travelling together.

Dining

Meals are served in the main lodge, by the fire or on the terraces, and the cellar follows the Singita habit of a long South African list. Breakfast on trekking days is early, since groups gather at the park headquarters soon after dawn.

Wellness

After a trek, guests have a gym, treatment rooms for massage and their own heated plunge pools. The first climb catches many visitors out: Kinigi lies at well over 2,000 metres, and the trails to the gorilla families can be steep and muddy.

Location

The Virunga massif has eight main volcanoes along the borders of Rwanda, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, five of them on the Rwandan side. Karisimbi, at 4,507 metres, is the highest. Sabyinyo, whose jagged summit marks the point where the three countries meet, rises over the lodge. Gorilla treks begin at the park headquarters at Kinigi, a few minutes' drive away, where rangers brief each group before it sets off. Golden monkey treks, the climb to the crater lake on Bisoke and the long walk to Dian Fossey's grave at Karisoke leave from the same place, so a stay of three or four nights fills easily. Kigali International Airport is about two and a half hours by road. With eight suites and one villa, this luxury lodge in Volcanoes National Park keeps to a small scale on purpose.