Katie’s Last-Minute Gorillas in Mgahinga National Park
Katie Savitz travels differently; some might call it bold. A solo female traveller in East Africa, she avoids big tour companies, preferring to improvise along the way. It’s not about budget — she’s the co-founder of a fintech company — but about the simple, grounded lifestyle she values.
She also does her homework, researching thoroughly before making a move. That’s how she stumbled upon our stories about Catherina Unger. “Somehow I found the blog about Catherina, and the more I read, the more excited I got,” Katie says. She called us from Nairobi last Friday, and just like that, she’s now with us in Rwanda.
In just a few days she has explored the secrets on Musanze on foot, hiked around Lake Burera, socialised with golden monkeys in Volcanoes National Park, and checked on the Ellen Campus. Next she’ll tackle the northern segment of the Congo Nile Trail on an e-bike and search for chimpanzees in Nyungwe. But yesterday was all about Uganda: Mgahinga Gorilla National Park and a coffee experience overlooking Lake Mutanda.
She tracked gorillas alongside an Austrian couple who had recently visited Bwindi. They told her how lucky she was to be on the slopes of the Virunga Volcanoes instead. While they had loved their rainforest experience, Mgahinga felt far more intimate (they were the only people tracking that day) with much better conditions for photography.
Katie was especially thrilled when gorilla kids leapt from a tree, two of them nearly brushing against her. She watched them settle in just a step away, grooming each other without a care. “It was also just incredible seeing how giant the males were,” she says.
What a way to kick off her two-year, round-the-world journey! She already knows much of it will unfold in Africa — her time in Kenya, Rwanda, and Uganda has been simply too good.
