Wildlife watching in Bwindi Forest

There are only around a thousand mountain gorillas left on earth, all of them in this one stretch of forest and its neighbours across the Ugandan, Rwandan and Congolese borders. A permit buys you a single, strictly rationed hour at close range with a habituated family group — and it is, by common consent, one of the most affecting wildlife encounters there is.

Getting to them is the work. The trek in can take anywhere from one to six hours through steep, tangled, genuinely impenetrable forest, following trackers to wherever the group has moved. Then the hour begins, a few metres from a silverback and his family going about their day as if you weren't there. Nothing about a screen prepares you for the size and the calm of them.

Permits are capped daily, expensive, and sold months in advance; prices and the minimum age have both changed in recent years. Book early, re-check the current rules, and come fit enough for the climb in.

Permits are capped daily, expensive, and sold months in advance; prices and minimum ages have both changed in recent years — book early and re-check.