Gorilla tracking in the dense forests of Uganda, the Pearl of Africa, is an unforgettable experience. Too often, people say that holidays offer a ‘once in a lifetime’ experience but here, in the primeval rainforests of the Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, you’ll find yourself saying it to yourself. What makes the experience so special?

It could be the adventure of tracking through the forest, a challenging mixture of muddy hills and dense forest, vines and trees reaching out to grab and support you whenever you feel you might fall. It could be the friendly local villagers paid to accompany you as porters, ensuring that even people in their late nineties have made the trip successfully. But it’s not.

It could be the first-class accommodation, with simple international cuisine and spacious glass-fronted banda cottages with charming thatched roofs. The Bwindi Lodge is located on the edge of the forest. At the bottom of a self-guided walk around the extensive grounds is a small stream that marks the forest boundary (one that the forests’ inhabitants don’t pay much heed to). The terrace and all the private bandas with their elegant furnishings face the forest and welcome it. It could be the sights, sounds, and feel of the forest around you that makes the experience special, but it’s not.

It could be the guides and the lodge staff, all local to Uganda and Rwanda and welcomed into the Volcanoes family, investing in our mission to provide authentic African hospitality to our clients. It could be the journey with the guide who knows almost every bird and animal in the regions on sight. Even if you had no idea, there was even an animal there until they’d pointed out a lizard no bigger than your hand six feet from the road in a tree you were driving past and forty miles an hour.

It could be the first moment when, feeling slightly tired, you cross a rise in the forest and hear the unmistakable call and rustle of gorillas in the mists ahead of you; the first flash of thick black fur; the first moment when your eyes meet the gorilla’s, and you’re stuck with the thought that we’re not that different after all and that maybe there’s a host of self-evident truths we’ve lost sight of in our own jungles. It could be the baby gorilla that playfully runs between the people of the group and slaps you on the leg, leaving a red badge of honor that will last until your relaxing massage back at the lodge. But it’s not.

All these things combine in a wonderful holiday, and nothing alone could make it what is truly greater than the sum of its parts: a once in a lifetime, unforgettable wildlife experience.