For Josh Kanuck, Africa was never simply a destination to tick off a travel list. It became a place that challenged assumptions, created unexpected connections and left him with the unmistakable feeling that one visit would never be enough. What began as the long-awaited honeymoon he and his wife Amanda had imagined became something far more lasting: the beginning of a deep affection for a continent they would continue to return to.
Josh’s perspective is particularly interesting because he arrived in Africa carrying some of the same assumptions that many first-time visitors do. Africa can seem almost mythical from a distance, shaped by stories, images and perceptions that often reduce an enormous and extraordinarily diverse continent into a single idea. Yet one of the most striking things about Josh’s experience is how quickly those assumptions began to fall away once he was actually there. Moving through different countries, landscapes and communities, he discovered just how impossible it is to define Africa in any single way.
That realisation became part of what made the journey so memorable. Rather than experiencing Africa from behind the walls of a resort or simply moving from one tourist attraction to another, Josh and Amanda immersed themselves in the places they visited. They travelled through Rwanda and Kenya, met the people who guided them, listened to their stories and allowed the experience to unfold around them. Their guides became an important part of the journey, not simply because they knew where to find wildlife, but because they understood the landscapes and cultures they were travelling through.
And then there were the gorillas.
Few wildlife encounters can compare with seeing mountain gorillas in their natural environment. For Josh, the anticipation carried a certain amount of nervousness, particularly because of the way gorillas are often portrayed by people who have never encountered them. The reality was very different. What he discovered in the mountains was not the frightening image some people might imagine, but an extraordinary glimpse into the lives of intelligent, social animals simply going about their daily existence.
There is something profoundly humbling about being permitted to enter an animal’s world without controlling it. You are not watching through glass or looking at an animal performing for visitors. You are standing quietly in its habitat, aware that you are the visitor and that everything happening around you belongs to the gorillas. For Josh, that encounter became one of those rare travel experiences that is difficult to explain to someone who has not experienced it themselves.
His story also captures something else that makes African travel so compelling: the moments that cannot be planned.
A safari itinerary might tell you where you are staying, when you are leaving for a game drive and where you are expected to arrive next, but it cannot tell you exactly what will be waiting when you get there. Wildlife does not follow a schedule. The most memorable encounters often emerge from simply being present at the right moment, whether that means watching elephants at sunset, witnessing the raw drama of predator and prey, or discovering that your supposedly secure tent has attracted a very curious little visitor.
Those moments become the stories travellers bring home.
Josh and Amanda’s journey also demonstrates that an African adventure does not have to fit into one particular mould. Their honeymoon combined the profound wildlife experience of Rwanda with the landscapes and safari encounters of Kenya, while later travels took them in an entirely different direction through Morocco. From mountains and wildlife reserves to desert landscapes, local food, markets and family experiences, their travels reveal the extraordinary diversity that exists across the continent.
That diversity is one of the reasons Josh’s perspective feels so relevant to anyone considering their own African adventure. Africa is not one experience. It is thousands of experiences, shaped by the country, the landscape, the people, the wildlife and the way you choose to travel through it.
Perhaps most importantly, Josh’s story is about the way travel can change the way we see somewhere. Before visiting Africa, he had expectations. Afterwards, he had memories, friendships, stories and a desire to return. The continent had become more than somewhere he had travelled to; it had become somewhere he wanted to keep discovering.
That longing to return is something many travellers understand. Africa has a way of getting under your skin. You leave with photographs, souvenirs and stories, but you can also leave with an unfinished list of places you still want to see and experiences you have yet to have. For Josh, that list continues to grow.
His journey is a wonderful reminder that sometimes the most meaningful travel experiences happen when we allow ourselves to step beyond what we think we know. Whether it is standing quietly in the presence of mountain gorillas, watching elephants beneath an African sunset, sharing food with people you have only just met, or simply discovering that a place is nothing like the version you imagined from home, Africa has a remarkable ability to surprise you.
Josh Kanuck’s story is one of those journeys that captures the excitement, humour, wonder and unpredictability of discovering Africa for the first time. But there is far more to his experience than can be shared here.
To discover the full story of Josh and Amanda’s African honeymoon, their encounters with gorillas and wildlife, and the adventures that continued to draw them back to the continent, read Josh Kanuck’s chapter in I Heart Africa Project.
