Luckily my trusty porter is on hand to demonstrate a technique characterised by a series of sliding, falling, and trusting that your heel will become entangled in the undergrowth thus stopping your perilous descent. I am duly informed that this is what they call ‘African skiing’. 

With helping hands the entire party of 8 tourists, 7 porters, 3 trackers and the ever-beaming Expedito make it to the other side of the gulley unscathed. As we escape the thicket and enter into the cooler climes of canopied forest Expedito ushers us to him and tells us we’re very close. We don our masks (for the Gorilla’s safety) and quietly venture into a sparsely wooded clearing. My eyes dart around the forest floor, trying desperately to be the first to spot a shock of thick black fur. In my mind’s eye I’d imagined a big family, sitting serenely, just like a scene from ‘Gorillas in the Mist’, so when I sensed, rather than saw movement from above I hadn’t been expecting the sight that awaited as I raised my eyes to the canopy. 

There, mere metres away, impossibly balanced in the tree tops, sat three fully grown gorillas. 

I scramble to remember what Expedito had said about being faced with a territorial silverback - don’t run, something about not meeting his eyes - and definitely don’t try to make yourself look bigger - this isn’t a small Canadian bear for goodness sake. As my panicked brain settles on an a feigned air of nonchalance as my best possible chance of survival, the hulking gorilla reaches the ground and with all the indifference that I’d failed to muster, saunters away, barely casting me a curious look. 

As my heart rate starts to slow I’m left with a feeling of absolute awe. I was that close to a real, wild, silverback. I replay the moment when a rustling froom above alerts me to the juvenile gorilla playfully hurling himself across the canopy. Another flings himself down a trunk with an unceremonial thud-and-roll whilst the two grown females seemingly attempt to ignore them. We spend a surreal hour wandering, crawling and sliding through the forest. Our gorilla family are on the move to find the best breakfast spot and seem totally unperturbed by our being there. At times we have to back away from the youngsters for fear that they’ll bowl straight into us.

That evening we shared our encounters with the rest of our tour group. Having been split up to do tracking hikes for different abilities everyone had a different experience. From leisurely strolls through the forest to challenging treks, lasting anywhere between 20 minutes and 4 hours. One thing remained the same for every member of the group though - it had been, without a doubt, one of the best wildlife experiences of our lives. Coming so close to gorillas in the wild was truly a once-in-a-lifetime experience that I'd recommend to anyone.