We spent most of November 1st driving. We stopped at a local craft store for some good coffee, and as per a very loosely kept tradition, I bought a football shirt from a roadside shop, right next to the equator. Our accomodation in Bunyonyi had some fantastic views over Lake Bunyonyi, and the bar there had a version of Guinness I’d never seen before, which is supposedly popular in Africa. A bit tired of camping, I upgraded my accommodation to a cottage, and it’s here that we set off to see the mountain gorillas - a bucket list experience I’d been thinking about doing for years.

The day we set out for the gorilla trek was November 3rd. It was absolutely incredible. It was another early start, and a 2.5 hour drive to the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest National Park. After arriving, we were split up into smaller groups, each one assigned a family of gorillas to track down (the local trackers had set off earlier in the morning to find them, so we had a plan of how to get there). We were warned that, depending on how far away the family was or if they had moved, it could be anywhere from 30 minutes to several hours to locate the family of gorillas. And whilst some walking “paths” were well worn, we’d likely be having to cut our own way through the forest at some point. On top of all that, we’d be fighting bugs, mosquito, and any other surprises that might fall our way.

We set off on our group and, luckily, ended up having the easiest experience out of all of the groups. After about 1.5 hours of trekking e came up close and personal with a family of gorillas, and one of them even came up and was trying to play with us. One ran up to Shaun and hit him (playfully), and then started doing roley-poleys, rolling in to my legs as the guide pulled me away. Whilst this young gorilla was friendly and outgoing, the silverback of the group sat at the back and observed everything happening around us. I was glad he did, because he was absolutely huge, and I don’t think I’d have been able to hold my nerve if he started heading towards us. We hung around this family of gorillas for about an hour, and it was far better than anything I could’ve expected for this experience.

One of many gorillas we got up close and personal with

Our time with the gorillas was up, but the experience wasn’t over yet. As we started to walk away, the young playful gorilla came running over through our group, bowling over a few of our members. The guides said it was just “being playful”, but it certainly was an unnerving experience to be around wild animals, and I kept checking over my shoulder to see what the silverback was doing. Luckily he stayed in his spot and we were able to get away in one piece, starting to the long journey back to our campsite for a well earned beer - while we waited for the rest of the groups to make their way back.