For the last 15 minutes, the silverback in front of me has been fiddling with his belly button. If I were to break down every penny spent on my US$700 (£560) permit, this intimate viewing has set me back $175 (£140) so far.
Costing up to US$1,500 (£1,200) for an hour’s viewing in some countries, gorilla trekking is undoubtedly one of the world’s more costly wildlife experiences. Yet anyone who’s scaled the slippery slopes of volcanoes or squeezed and scraped through bamboo thickets to spend time with some of our closest cousins will tell you it’s money well spent.
Besides, my one-hour Ugandan encounter is half the price of what it would cost in neighbouring Rwanda. And nearly 50% of the world’s population of mountain gorillas live in Uganda’s Bwindi Impenetrable Forest. That
