Their work is practical as well as poetic, from funding water tanks and building new classrooms to organising quizzes, storytelling sessions and art competitions. The aim: to teach children why the forest matters, nurturing a generation of conservation champions. And yet Akankwasa\u2019s gorilla, for all its wild imagination, wasn\u2019t conjured from daydreams alone.<\/p>\n
![\"Baby](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/uganda5.jpg\"\/)
<\/p>\n
Female gorillas typically have one baby every four years, making every infant even more precious.<\/p>\n
Photograph by Alamy<\/p>\n
![\"Nyagakenke](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/uganda6.jpg\"\/)
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The Gorilla Organization is building new classrooms at Nyagakenke school.<\/p>\n
Photograph by Matt Midworth<\/p>\n
\u201cTo become passionate about something, you need to see it, to feel it,\u201d Francis says as we wander round Nyagakenke school, set in a fold of Mgahinga\u2019s countryside stitched with cabbage patches and roamed by gangs of overconfident goats. \u201cWe take children into the jungle to meet the gorillas for themselves. Once you\u2019ve seen them in the wild, it\u2019s impossible not to fall in love.\u201d<\/p>\n
Francis heads up the project, an inspiring figure and one of many I\u2019ll meet on my mission to learn about the people powering Uganda\u2019s conservation success story. The children clearly know him well and we\u2019re trailed by dozens of pupils in pristine purple uniforms, their wide eyes full of shy curiosity. With gentle persistence, he coaxes even the quietest into conversation.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve learnt that gorillas love sugarcane and that they can laugh, but sometimes they are sad like people,\u201d one girl says, stealing glimpses of me through her eyelashes and fiddling nervously with a shirt button. \u201cI\u2019m not scared of them,\u201d a\u00a0boy barely taller than my waist chimes in, before adding that he dreams of becoming a tour guide when he grows up \u2014 proof the seeds Francis is sowing are already taking root.<\/p>\n
A force of nature<\/p>\n
The following day I meet Mgahinga\u2019s gorilla family and at once understand what Francis meant about falling in love. The sight of them silences me. The 10-strong group are grazing in a forest glade, surrounded by ferns rising in delicate fans and dew-laden saplings bowing under their own weight. Mark is head of the family, and while he may not tower above the canopy as Akankwasa\u2019s drawing depicts, he commands the jungle with such authority it feels as though the clearing exists solely for him.<\/p>\n
His amber eyes burn with a fierce intelligence and when he moves, sunlight skims across his back, gleaming like silk stretched over steel. Beside him, two more silverbacks shift their weight, each one a living wall of power. Weighing close to 500 pounds and including \u2014 my guide Hosea says nonchalantly \u2014 the biggest gorilla, Uganda, the trio seems less like animals and more like moving fortresses, the forest floor trembling beneath their tread.<\/p>\n
![\"Guides](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/uganda2.jpg\")
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Guides start tracking gorillas at dawn, following clues like nests, footprints and chewed bamboo to locate them before tourists arrive.<\/p>\n
Photograph by Mount Gahinga Lodge<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s almost unheard of to have three males in one group,\u201d Hosea explains. \u201cWhen their backs turn from black to silver it marks maturity and most will leave to start their own family. Mark\u2019s a friendly guy though \u2014 he took in that 27-year-old over there, and the other silverback is his brother; they\u2019re close buddies.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a pleasing revelation, and I wonder if Mark\u2019s placid nature has anything to do with the wild opium leaves he\u2019s munching on. He\u2019s stripped an entire plant since we\u2019ve arrived, stems splintering beneath his huge fingers as he crams fistfuls of foliage into his mouth. \u201cIt does chill them out,\u201d Hosea says with a smile. Mark certainly seems relaxed, and suddenly, as if casting off his mask of masculinity, he sprawls on his back and lets out a long, satisfied fart, legs splayed, eyes closed, his belly lifted towards the sky.<\/p>\n
When the encounter is over, we begin our slow descent from the mountain and to distract myself from the ache of leaving the family behind, I quiz Hosea on the situation of gorillas today. Confined to a small area across the volcanic ranges of Uganda, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, the mountain gorilla is the only great ape whose numbers are rising. Fewer than 300 in 1991, their population has climbed to more than 1,000 today.<\/p>\n
The magic I felt watching them only makes this fact more moving \u2014 it\u2019s significance impossible to overstate \u2014 and it\u2019s clear much of the credit belongs to local people who have taken conservation into their own hands. \u201cMy work is everything to me,\u201d Hosea says simply. \u201cBut here, we also know what helps the gorillas, helps us. Tourists come to Uganda to see them. They\u2019re the country\u2019s golden ticket and protecting them is the most important thing.\u201d<\/p>\n
People of the forest<\/p>\n
Hosea\u2019s words ring true. While the guests at Volcanoes\u2019 Mount Gahinga Lodge<\/a> gush about the landscapes (\u201cso green, so lush\u201d) and the people (\u201cthe nicest we\u2019ve ever met\u201d), most are here for one thing: gorillas.<\/p>\n Volcanoes Safaris has four lodges in Uganda, all of which employ locals and support Indigenous communities.<\/p>\n Photograph by Volcanoes Safaris<\/p>\n The number of female guides has risen sharply in the last decade.<\/p>\n Photograph by Volcanoes Safaris<\/p>\n I fall into conversation with an American couple, John and Colleen, in the sitting room as raindrops the size of acorns soak the earth and thunder growls throatily overhead. The wild weather makes the room even more inviting. A fire crackles, the sofas are so soft it\u2019s hard not to sink into a stupor, and tea arrives courtesy of a team who seem to know exactly what you want before you ask. On the walls, the art is a shrine to gorillas: faces stare out from photographs, ranges are traced on framed maps of the country\u2019s national parks and their presence is immortalised in a row of remarkably lifelike wooden masks.<\/p>\n For an hour, we marvel at our encounters; their soulful expressions, how even a casual back scratch feels profound. But when cameras are lowered and conversation turns to economics, the mood shifts. Twenty percent of park entry fees go to surrounding communities, John confirms after a quick Google, but not everyone feels the benefits. Behind the success story of gorilla tourism lies another tale: that of the Batwa, a people who have shouldered the hidden cost of conservation.<\/p>\n One of Africa\u2019s oldest forest-dwelling tribes, the Batwa lived in harmony with mountain gorillas for centuries, sustaining a hunter-gatherer culture deep in the heart of the jungle. When the land was declared a national park in 1991, they were forcibly \u2014 and controversially \u2014 evicted without compensation. Cast out from their ancestral home, the so-called \u2018pygmy people\u2019 have faced bullying and exclusion, struggling to find a place in society.<\/p>\n When the storm subsides and birds resume their tuneful whistling in the lodge\u2019s gardens, I head out to meet the Batwa for myself. The village of 32 families was built and funded entirely by Volcanoes Safaris<\/a>, which also employs many of its residents. My guide, Deus, is one of them, a\u00a0smartly dressed 18-year-old with serious eyes and a\u00a0stoicism that seems to define this community.<\/p>\n The beautiful rooms at Mount Gahinga Lodge are built from locally sourced materials.<\/p>\n Photograph by Volcanoes Safaris<\/p>\n The Batwa used a deep ancestral knowledge of plants and animals to survive without damaging their environment.<\/p>\n Photograph by Neil G Paterson; Alamy<\/p>\n \u201cMy parents were born in the jungle,\u201d he says. \u201cWe didn\u2019t need to be taught about conservation, my people lived and breathed it. We respected the forest and the forest respected us. We\u2019re used to our lives now but my mum still misses the wild honey; she\u2019s determined nothing else tastes the same.\u201d<\/p>\n We stroll between mud-brick homes, pausing first to greet Jane, the village chairwoman, before stopping beside a lady peeling potatoes beneath the shade of a thatched roof. Cloaked in a colourful shawl, she works with steady rhythm while two piglets snuffle at her feet, grunting with pleasure as they gobble the scraps she tosses aside.<\/p>\n \u201cThe gorillas were our neighbours,\u201d she reminisces. \u201cWhen I used to pick passionfruit for my family, I\u2019d often stand beneath the trees and the gorillas would drop them down to me. One for them, one for me. We just knew that when they made their beds in the evening, that was the time to keep our distance. After all, everyone wants a good night\u2019s sleep.\u201d<\/p>\n Gorillas share more than 98% of their DNA with humans, making them our second-closest living relatives after chimpanzees. They laugh when tickled, sulk when upset and show affection by holding hands \u2014 a reflection of just how thin the line is between their world and ours<\/p>\n It\u2019s a story that lingers \u2014 proof of the bonds possible with great apes and a reminder of just how human they are. This familiarity follows me when I next venture into the forest, this time in Bwindi, a bone-rattling four-hour drive north.<\/p>\n Unlikely protectors<\/p>\n Led by a rifle-wielding guard and followed by sure-footed porters carrying our rucksacks, we\u2019ve been walking through Bwindi Impenetrable Forest for over an hour. The name is apt. The jungle here feels indomitable, a living being that tests every step and swallows our voices whole. Above, the canopy arches like a vast ribcage, while roots coil beneath my boots in knotted veins, and sinewy vines spill from trees covered in thick, mossy pelts.<\/p>\n It\u2019s all-four-limbs work, our hands groping for branches as we scramble up mudbanks left slick by a morning downpour. Our guide Sylvia, however, is as formidable as the forest, marching ahead with her machete and hacking down anything bold enough to bar her path. \u201cWatch that ant trail,\u201d she calls over her shoulder. \u201cStep on it and you\u2019ll be dancing without music. And look up \u2014 there\u2019s L\u2019Hoest\u2019s monkeys in the mahogany.\u201d<\/p>\n Torn between Earth and sky, I risk the driver ants\u2019 wrath and watch as the troop swaggers loose-limbed along a branch, their black-and-white fur frizzy with mist. \u201cWe\u2019re close to the gorillas now,\u201d she calls, taking a great swipe at the spiked stem of a giant lobelia. \u201cThe trackers are up ahead. We call them the heroes; they\u2019ve been out since dawn to find this family.\u201d<\/p>\n The mountain gorilla, one of the two subspecies of the eastern gorilla, is the world’s largest living primate.<\/p>\n Photograph by Matt Midworth<\/p>\n This time, there\u2019s no open clearing to lounge in. The gorillas are buried in undergrowth so thick that when two babies come barrelling out from behind a tree and crash straight into my legs, I\u2019m as startled as they are. Delighted by their discovery, they wobble back over, tiny hands reaching to cling onto me again.<\/p>\n \u201cCareful, they\u2019ll have your phone in a minute,\u201d a\u00a0tracker named Godfrey says with a laugh as I back\u00a0away. \u201cThat teenager over there stole mine once; it took me hours to find him and when I did, he\u2019d somehow got onto Spotify and was listening to\u00a0reggae.\u201d<\/p>\n Godfrey, I quickly learn, is the joker of the group. \u201cWho was that, come on own up,\u201d he teases as a fart ripples through the undergrowth. Behind the laughter, though, lies pride: he\u2019s Batwa, intent on turning his ancestral knowledge into purpose. \u201cI used to come to the jungle so often with my father that this job just made sense. Plus, I love the gorillas. Now I spend every day with them, knowing my work helps secure their future.\u201d<\/p>\n We spend an hour with the family, a living tableau unfolding beneath the trees. Babies wriggle in their mothers\u2019 arms, the phone-thieving teenager earns a cuff from his father after snatching at some eucalyptus, and low rumbles pass between them, a constant chorus of domestic chatter rolling through the jungle. \u201cThey\u2019re very talkative today,\u201d Sylvia grins. \u201cThe\u00a0silverback is making sure they\u2019re all content and close.\u201d It\u2019s\u00a0family life at its purest \u2014\u00a0tender, chaotic and\u00a0profoundly human.<\/p>\n My final meeting proves just as inspiring, introducing me to perhaps the most unlikely gorilla guardians of all. At the park gate Francis greets me with his broad, familiar smile, Brenda beside him. Both belong to the Gorilla Organization and together we drive to the outskirts of Rubuguri village, where a huddle of men in their Sunday best waits to greet us. Ten years ago, they were poachers, dodging forest patrols, slipping past herds of territorial elephants and hunting bushmeat to sell on the black market.<\/p>\n With its volcanic soils, abundant rainfall and year-round sunshine, Uganda can grow almost any crops.<\/p>\n Photograph by Getty Images<\/p>\n Kanezio turned away from poaching and is proud of the farmer he\u2019s become.<\/p>\n Photograph by Charlotte Wigram-Evans<\/p>\n \u201cWe spent a long time teaching them why conservation matters,\u201d Brenda explains. \u201cBut we also bought land for them and trained them in organic farming. Why would you stop poaching if you\u2019re desperate, if there\u2019s no other way to feed your family?\u201d<\/p>\n The men stand beaming, gesturing proudly to neat rows of Irish potatoes, lines of baby aubergines and sprawling beds of onions. \u201cWe were wild, living like the animals we hunted,\u201d Kanezio says, adjusting his bowler hat and straightening his bomber jacket. \u201cLook at us today though. We sell what we grow, we can send our children to school, and we teach other men that\u2019s there\u2019s a way out.\u201d<\/p>\n What was once a tide of poaching has ebbed to a trickle, just 2% of its former scale and a change shaped largely by men like these. \u201cWe know our communities, we can get through to them,\u201d Kanezio continues. \u201cWe also alert rangers when something\u2019s amiss or when we hear rumours poachers are trying to enter the park.\u201d<\/p>\n Now, the group stands not as predators but as protectors \u2014 a living reminder of how lives and outlooks can be transformed. When I ask Kanezio how he sees gorillas, he smiles. \u201cToday, we are friends,\u201d he says softly. \u201cToday, we are one.\u201d<\/p>\n How to do itA stay at Volcanoes Safaris\u2019 Mount Gahinga Lodge<\/a> costs from around \u00a3570 a night, including full board and lodge activities.<\/p>\n Gorilla-trekking permits are around \u00a3600 per person and include park entry. The easiest way to reach Bwindi and Mgahinga is via Entebbe International Airport. Uganda Airlines<\/a> flies direct from Gatwick, while internal connections to Kisoro and Kihihi airstrips \u2014 the closest to the gorilla parks \u2014\u00a0are offered by Aerolink Uganda<\/a>, reducing the journey from a 10-hour drive to under an hour.<\/p>\n To support the work of the Gorilla Organization and help secure the future of mountain gorillas, visit gorillas.org<\/a><\/p>\n This story was created with the support of the Uganda Tourism Board<\/a> and The Gorilla Organization<\/a>.<\/p>\n Published in the Experiences Collection 2025 of\u00a0National Geographic Traveller\u00a0(UK).<\/p>\n![\"Volcanoes](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/uganda3.jpg\"\/)
<\/p>\n![\"Female](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/uganda4.jpg\"\/)
<\/p>\n![\"Mount](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/uganda7p.jpg\"\/)
<\/p>\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/uganda8p.jpg\"\/)
<\/p>\n![\"Gorilla\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/DSC00587.JPG\")
<\/p>\n![\"Uganda](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/ugandaportrait.jpg\"\/)
<\/p>\n![\"Kanezio\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/uganda12.jpg\"\/)
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