Book your round the World Flights and Travel Insurance here!

Having arrived in Rwanda a week earlier, I at last had managed to secure a place on a tour through the regions forests to get close to the animals themselves. Joining an expedition is the only way for a tourist to get a chance to visit the area, as permits are very limited each day. While there are thought to be around 700 mountain gorillas in Rwanda and Uganda, only a very few families have been habituated - that is to have become significantly used to humans not to flee or attack.

It was dawn when I met up with our small party for what proved to be an exhausting day. Our guide, armed with a gun in case we came across any poachers, led us through dense bamboo rainforest and, in a bid to make us feel more part of the searching process, told us to be on the look out for gorilla dung.

After four hours of trekking, it wasn't dung we found but a large patch of flattened grass that suggested one of the families was nearby. A hundred yards further on we were met with one of the most incredible and scary sights imaginable, a nine-strong silverback gorilla family going about their business in the trees and undergrowth.

Although used to humans, we had been warned that one of the group might pretend to charge us in a bid to show us who was boss. Even with forewarning, the sight of a nearly adult 300lb gorilla pretending to charge you was a terrifying experience but one that was, thankfully, soon over, but only after plenty of chest beating.

The head of the family was up a tree eating figs while mother was looking after a small infant down on the ground. Other family members of various sizes milled around, eating, shouting, getting in to scrapes and generally causing mother much annoyance.

While scientists can tell you how similar our DNA is to gorillas, it is only when you stands five metres away from them that it hits home. It was absolutely spell bounding and the experience of exchanging glances with gorillas is something I will never forget and would recommend to anyone.

Regulations state that each party can only loiter with the gorillas for an hour, which, for me, was over far too quickly.