09/22/2026
Africa Part 4: GORILLA TREKKING 🦍
Did you know we share more than 98% of our DNA with gorillas?
One of the absolute highlights of our Africa trip was trekking into Volcanoes National Park in Rwanda to spend time with the mountain gorillas. We did two separate treks and were lucky enough to spend one hour with both the Sabinyo and Kwisanga gorilla families.
We hired porters (many of whom come from families that were historically involved in poaching) to help carry our gear, and then made our way through dense bamboo forests in search of the gorillas.
The gorilla families are constantly moving, so each morning the trackers head out to locate them. They follow clues like footprints, broken vegetation and, yes… 💩 to figure out where the families have been. They then relay that information to the guides, who determine the best route for us to reach them.
I will never forget the moment I first walked through the vegetation and saw this HUGE silverback just a few feet away from me. 🥹 He was completely relaxed, happily eating bamboo, and seemed totally unbothered by our presence.
There was something incredibly humbling about sitting quietly in the forest and watching these animals just be themselves. No cages. No barriers. Just us sharing the forest with them for a very short amount of time.
The work of Dian Fossey and the conservation efforts that followed played an important role in bringing mountain gorillas back from the brink of extinction and helping protect their habitat. Seeing these incredible animals in the wild made me so grateful for the people who have dedicated their lives to protecting them.
An experience I will never, ever forget. ❤️🦍
