Kosi Forest Lodge

The 6 Forest Rooms at Kosi Forest Lodge are built from natural materials, such as wood and thatch, and feature a neutral colour scheme to allow them to blend in with their forest surroundings. Each room is generously spaced out from the others to offer the utmost privacy, and is positioned atop raised decking to offer amazing views of the surrounding natural beauty. ]

The bedrooms feature your choice of a double or twin configuration, with comfortable furnishings and mosquito nets to ensure a peaceful night’s sleep. Each room includes an indoor en-suite bathroom with a shower, toilet and basin, as well as an outdoor bathroom with a shower and bathtub lying beneath the canopy of leaves. Enjoy a cup of tea or coffee on your own private deck, hidden amongst the trees.

The 2 Family Rooms are perfectly tailored for small groups or families with up to three children. The rooms both consist of 2 bedrooms, linked via an outdoor passage that stretches 2 metres in length. The master bedroom includes a large and comfortable double bed, with an en-suite outdoor bathroom that features a shower and bathtub guarded by a reed boma and set on a white sand beach; indoors there is a toilet and basin. The second room can fit up to 3 single beds and includes an indoor en-suite bathroom with a shower.

Both rooms lead to a private deck with elevated outdoor seating. Ceiling fans are provided to maintain a pleasant temperature and the large windows create a light and airy atmosphere. Mosquito netting draped over all of the beds, allowing guests to enjoy a peaceful night’s sleep.

Guests staying at Kosi Forest Lodge can look forward to three mouthwatering dishes each day. Start your mornings with a buffet breakfast out on the dining deck, where outstanding landscape views can be enjoyed. Hot breakfast is cooked to order and hot drinks are available to wake you up before your first exciting activity of the day. Light lunches are served at the lodge, or guests can take a picnic with them to make the most of their time exploring.

In the evenings, guests can enjoy a delicious meal under the shelter of a gigantic Zulu Podberry tree, or sit beside the crackling boma fire enjoying a dinner in the forest. Guests can enjoy beverages from the lodge’s well-stocked bar and tea and coffee with biscuits are available throughout the day.

Explore the Kosi Lakes from the tranquillity of the turquoise waters and look out for the incredible local birdlife on a guided canoe trip. Guests can drift along the Siyadla Channel and watch African Fish Eagles as they pluck their catch from the water. Canoe trips usually last for around 2 hours and allow guests to enjoy the peaceful location and its beautiful scenery with the company of a professional guide who will be able to teach you about the landscape and the amazing animals that inhabit it.

Journey along the Kosi Lakes on a boat and learn about this amazing lake system which spans over 18km. Guests will depart after breakfast and are able to travel through the many waterways while the knowledgeable guides teach you about the lakes, the traditions of the Tsonga community and their famous woven fish traps that have successfully been used by those living alongside the lake system for over 700 years. This activity is available at an additional cost.

Wander through the pleasant shade of the dense forests and get a sense of the sheer size of the Raffia Palms, the tallest in the world. The local guides will be able to teach you about the rich and beautiful plant life, as well as the local wildlife. Watch monkeys hide among the branches, and look out for amazing birds such as the rare Palm Nut Vulture and Pel’s Fishing Owl.

Take a day trip to Kosi Bay Mouth and relax on the warm white sands of the pristine and peaceful beaches. Guests can enjoy snorkelling in the shallows and discovering the incredible underwater world that lies in the lake. Watch fish and aquatic life meander through the plants, before sitting back and savouring a delicious picnic lunch under the shade of the palm trees that stand along the lake’s bank. This activity is available at an additional cost.

Travel to the beach in a 4×4 vehicle and meet local community guides who will lead you across the sands in search of turtles. The beaches of Kosi Bay are breeding grounds for both leatherback and loggerhead turtles, who have their nesting and hatching seasons from October to February. During this time, the turtles will lay around 100 eggs, but only 0.3% of their hatchlings will survive until adulthood, before returning to the same beach in 2 decades time. Due to the rough road conditions and long walks, this activity is not suitable for children aged under 8 years. This activity is also only available from November 15th until January 15th and is weather dependent.

The Kosi Bay Nature Reserve is a brilliant spot for fishing, with a variety of methods available including lake fishing, sea fishing, and fly fishing. Fishing is done on a tag and release basis to protect the marine populations, and guests are asked to give a prior warning if they hope to go out fishing during their stay.

Kosi Forest Lodge is part of Isibindi Africa Lodges, founded by Brett and Paige Gehren who have both been working to conserve the wildlife and communities of South Africa’s protected wilderness for over 25 years. By working alongside community members, Isibindi Africa Lodges is working ‘to create a human fence between our wilderness areas and neighbouring communities so that the flow of benefits to these communities motivates them to protect these resources.’

By demonstrating the positive impacts of conservation with tangible results, neighbouring communities are motivated to assist in conservation efforts that will help protect the land, natural resources and wildlife. Guests are automatically helping to support a range of community projects when staying with Kosi Forest Lodge, which go on to empower people and improve their day-to-day lives.

In response to the lockdowns and travel restrictions during the Covid-19 pandemic, the Isibindi Foundation launched a huge feeding programme in the Mpembeni and Hluhluwe communities to support vulnerable homes with elderly family members, young children and low incomes. Food rations including potatoes, maize meal, beans and cooking oil were distributed to these homes to ensure that thousands of people would remain fed while the community funding raised by tourism was not available.

Masks and information sheets were handed out in Zulu, and working in partnership with the Mpembeni Trust the Isibindi Foundation established a mask-making project using lodge sheets for material. These masks were then given out to the community to help protect them from the virus.

Isibindi Africa Lodges is driven to use sustainable policies in the day-to-day running of their lodges. This includes giving guests reusable water bottles to help remove single-use plastics for their lodges, creating micro-economies in neighbouring communities to supply their lodges, investing in solar energy farms to receive power in a clean and renewable way, only serving seafood that has been ethically harvested, and recycling any unused food so that it does not go to waste.

The Isibindi Foundation supports the anti-poaching initiatives within the Hluhluwe iMfolozi Park, and have donated large quantities of camping equipment, tyres for vehicles, tracking equipment, night-vision goggles and GPS equipment in order to help with the crucial work that the anti-poaching teams do.

The Isibindi Foundation is also working to support the Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife HIP K9 Unit. K9 Units need a large amount of funding in order to train both dogs and their handlers to help reduce poaching and locate intruders in the national parks. Funding will help to expand the unit and train the dogs so that they can perform well in their role.