Day One: Head for the Hills

We traverse the rolling hills of the southwestern landscape on our way to Bwindi Forest National Park, where we check into Gorilla Valley Lodge. This simple, elegant lodge sits at the border of the forest and offers spectacular sweeping views over the forest and the Great Albertine Rift Valley.

Day Two: A Timeless Realm

We venture into Bwindi Forest on foot and enter a world suspended outside of time. The undergrowth thrives with diverse plants, mammals, and birds. It’s a grueling task to press on through walls of vines and vegetation as our hearts pump from effort and anticipation.

It may be minutes or hours before we come upon a gorilla family, but when we finally do, the encounter sweeps us into a timeless moment. We watch the juveniles play as the impressive adults groom and keep a sly but watchful eye on their human visitors, and in this moment a feeling of kinship rises to close the gap that grew between us and our primate relatives over millennia. We descend, elated and arrested in a timeless moment to be told and retold for years to come.

Day Three: Return to Entebbe

From the edge of the divine forest, we depart, back to Entebbe. As we cross the equator, back into the northern hemisphere, we feel the distance of the impenetrable forest. But the memory lingers close by, accompanying us as we journey on, homeward bound.