In Weeknote 16, I mused that I hoped my first visit to Africa wouldn’t be my last. Little did I know it would take me a mere eight months to prove myself right.

After April’s adventure, I found myself with a travel itch to scratch. So, I did the sensible thing: finished my last work tasks for the year, caught a gig, and darted off to the airport.

The first stop was Kigali, Rwanda—a city that, while not exactly stuffed with sights, compensates admirably with charm. It’s possibly the safest city in Africa, and certainly its cleanest. Imagine Singapore levels of compulsive tidiness, and you’re halfway there. It was the perfect place to shake off the work-year cobwebs and ease into holiday mode. We zipped about on mopeds, visiting the quieter markets and sombre historical sites, including the scene where Belgian peacekeepers tragically lost their lives in the early days of the 1994 genocide.

Speaking of which, we also visited the Rwanda Genocide Memorial. Grim doesn’t quite cover it. A quarter of a million people lie in three mass graves on the site, making it an experience both sobering and difficult to put into words.

From Kigali we moved on to Volcanoes National Park to hit the safari trail. First up: hiking Mount Sabinyayo to find a troop of Golden Monkeys. Quirky little creatures, scuttling through the trees munching on twigs.

Next, the Dian Fossey Centre, a must-visit for anyone remotely interested in gorilla conservation. Think of it as the prelude to the main event: seeing mountain gorillas in the wild.

For this, we crossed into Uganda’s Mgahinga National Park. After a strenuous hike (read: I questioned my life choices more than once), we met up with the trackers. They’d already located the gorilla group and were busy hacking through the undergrowth with machetes. Just as we were expecting another guide to appear, a colossal silverback emerged instead.

There he was, a metre away, calmly munching leaves like an oversized Zen master. And then—because why not—he got up and casually strolled past us, brushing against my leg as if to say, “Yes, you may bask in my magnificence.” In total, we saw three silverbacks, a juvenile male, a female, and a baby. It was beyond anything we’d hoped for.

Here’s the best minute of phone video I’ve ever shot, though it doesn’t quite capture the “pinch me” magic of the moment.

From there, we ventured to Queen Elizabeth National Park. Highlights included lions and leopards napping in trees (as one does), chimpanzees cavorting in Kyambura Gorge, hippos luxuriating in a watering hole, and elephants frolicking on the banks of the Kazinga Channel. It was like living inside a wildlife documentary, only with worse hair and more mosquito bites.

Next, Lake Mburo, where we mixed game drives with a walking safari. There’s something both humbling and slightly absurd about strolling among giraffes and zebras as if you’re just out for a yomp across the Sussex Downs.

Finally, we wrapped up in Entebbe. A jaunt to Kampala included scaling the Gaddafi Mosque’s minaret for a sweeping view of the city’s seven hills and a chilling visit to Idi Amin’s torture chambers.

And this morning we took a boat trip to Ngamba Island. There, we fed rescued chimps and watched a baby chimp gleefully somersault down a hill. Truly, the Olympic gymnastics team has nothing on this little guy.

I’d love to tell you there’s a profound lesson here about digital transformation, but I’m afraid there isn’t. Just a reminder that sometimes, the best thing you can do is step away, embrace the unexpected, and marvel at the sheer wonder of it all.

Happy New Year, folks.