You will wake early for breakfast and be taken to the park headquarters where you will have a briefing from your gorilla-tracking team at 8 am about the rules of the park, and what to do and what not to do when you meet up with the gorillas. Then head off with your group through the foothills and higher-altitude forest—ensure you have strong shoes, wet-weather gear and a stout walking stick. As the gorilla family sleeps in a different place every night and travels through the day, pausing occasionally to eat and rest, you’ll have several guides and trackers to find their location and tracking takes between 2 and 8 hours. But once your group catches up with the mountain gorilla family, all fatigue is immediately forgotten when you discover that you are sitting only a few metres from the gorillas in the undergrowth. You are allotted one hour to observe them, and will perhaps see the babies scrambling up trees, juveniles playing, females grooming each other or feeding their young, or even a giant silver-back (dominant male) pounding his chest. After the hour is up, the guide will lead you gently away for the long but exhilarated walk back, and later head back to your lodge and rest. In the evening you can choose to relax at the lodge or take an evening interactive walk with the local Batwa people—the original hunter-gatherer community of the forest and you will have the opportunity to learn how they live and also watch them perform traditional singing and dancing.

• Overnight in Bwindi National Park
• Accommodation at your camp or lodge
• Breakfast, lunch and dinner included
• Drinking water is provided. All other drinks are extra

Day 5: Bwindi Impenetrable National Park – Volcanoes National Park (85 km, 2 to 3 hours)