Singita Lebombo Lodge

The N'wanetsi River cuts a gorge through the Lebombo Mountains on the eastern edge of the Kruger National Park, a few kilometres from the Mozambique border, and the lodge sits on the cliff above it like a row of lanterns. Singita Lebombo Lodge, in the Kruger National Park, opened in 2003 and looked like nothing the South African bush had seen: steel, glass and pale timber in place of thatch and stone.

History

In 2001 South African National Parks put a handful of private concessions inside the Kruger out to tender for the first time. Singita, the company Luke Bailes had founded in the Sabi Sand in 1993, won the concession along the N'wanetsi, a tract of some 33,000 acres that had been closed to visitors for decades. Two lodges followed on the site, Lebombo in 2003 and the smaller Sweni Lodge beside the river below it. The concession was renewed in the 2020s and Singita has run it continuously since 2003. A full rebuild of Lebombo's suites and public spaces was completed in 2017.

Architecture and design

The original lodge was designed by the Johannesburg practice GAPP Architects with interiors by Cécile & Boyd, who had worked on every Singita lodge since Ebony. The suites are glass boxes with sliding walls on three sides, set along the cliff so that each looks out over the gorge and the plains beyond. The 2017 redesign, again with Cécile & Boyd, lightened the interiors to bleached timber, white linen and woven baskets, and added private plunge pools to the suites. The main lodge is a series of open decks under flat roofs, with a long pool, a wine studio and a boutique. Nothing is enclosed that does not need to be.

Rooms and suites

Lebombo has 15 suites, including one two-bedroom family suite, each with a private deck and plunge pool facing the river. The glass walls slide away entirely so that the bedroom becomes a platform in the air. Sweni Lodge, a short drive away on the riverbank, has seven suites and is often taken over by a single family or group. Guests at either lodge share the concession's guides, trackers and vehicles.

Dining

Meals are served on the main deck, in the boma around a fire or out in the bush. The kitchen follows the Singita habit of cooking from a short daily menu rather than a buffet, with bread baked on site and vegetables from the lodge's own garden. The wine studio keeps a cellar drawn from South African estates and the sommelier runs tastings in the afternoon between drives. Breakfast is taken after the morning drive, often on a riverside deck.

Wellness

There is a spa with treatment rooms open to the bush, a gym and the long lap pool at the main lodge. Guided walks with an armed ranger are part of the programme, as are visits to the Singita Community Culinary School in the staff village, which trains young cooks from the neighbouring communities.

Weddings and events

Singita Lebombo hosts small weddings and private celebrations, usually with a buyout of the lodge or of Sweni, with the ceremony on a deck above the gorge or in the bush and dinner in the boma. The lodge has no conference room; corporate groups use the main deck and the wine studio for meetings and take the whole lodge for the dates. The concession is large enough that a group of this size never sees another vehicle on a drive.

Location

The lodge lies in the south-east of the Kruger National Park, close to the Mozambique border, on the Lebombo Mountains above the N'wanetsi. Most guests fly from Johannesburg into the Satara airstrip on scheduled charter flights, then transfer by vehicle for around 45 minutes. The concession has the plains game, lions and elephants of the central Kruger with none of its traffic, since no public road enters it. For a safari lodge in the Kruger it is the one that gives the park's scale without the park's crowds.