In the morning I got up at 7am for breakfast. At 7h30 the lovely lady from the Guesthouse took me up the hill to the "reception" for the Gorilla tracking. It was busy with other tourists, mainly the upmarket ones with branded gear 🤭 Whilst I watched the dance performance of the local ladies, she did the check-in for me.

After the dance performance we got a briefing from one of the Rangers as we will be accompanied by 2 rangers with rifles, in case we have an encounter with the rain forest elephant. After that the lady from the hotel brought me to "my" ranger and group. Per group is normally the Ranger, the two security and 8 paying guests (like me). If you want, you can buy a helper for additional min USD24 to carry your belongings, or for min USD300 to be even carried yourself 😳😳 And two people in our group even took the (cheaper) offer 😱.

In our group I got talking to a young Swedish boy, that was doing a working experience in Kampala during the last months. He was joined by his room mate and his mother.

We started hiking, whilst our Ranger was in touch with the trackers of our group. These guys went out at 6h30 to find the Gorillas for us. Oh, and if you want, you can tipp them 😳😳 I really wonder where my money goes to?!? 🤔🤔

After about 60mins snail pace hike we reached the Gorilla family 🤩🤩, suddenly they were there! We all had to put on our face masks to protect the Gorillas from diseases. And then we could approach them, which was not easy on these steep jungle slopes!! The Rangers and Tracker got us pretty close to the family. It was just amazing to see them in reality and so close!! The baby was doing these chest noises and it sounded already very impressive - and loud!! The Gorillas didn't really care about us - not even the Silverback when he checked the situation. We were allowed 60mins with the family - it was amazing 🤩🫶

Then we had to say Good-bye and hiked back to the start. There I received my certificate and got collected by the lady of the Guesthouse.

After eating some of my packed lunch, I packed my things and drove back to the hotel in Kabale - still dreaming of the Gorillas 🤩.

I went back to Kabale to meet Mandy, an South African overlander by motorbike. Unfortunately she stays at a Guesthouse on one of the islands on Lake Bunyoni that we will not meet.

I am so glad, I finally decided to do the Gorillas Tracking as it takes away a big lump out of the travel budget, but it was a once in a lifetime experience 🤩🫶🤩