"We didn't realize elephants can swim - at least the little ones! We could see the young elephants swimming around the adults; they would go under the water and then come up."
So started the amazing month of discoveries Jim Jeffress and his wife Paige made in Africa.
Jeffress is familiar to northern Nevada for his career in wildlife management, consulting and consensus-building work on the Pine Forest Humboldt County Lands bill, and most recently, for helping the commissioners in northern Nevada determine what input they wanted to give on a draft bill soon to be introduced by U.S. Senators Harry Reid (D-NV) and Dean Heller (R- NV) to designate additional hundreds of thousands of acres as wilderness in the state.
The month-long Africa trip was a bucket-list dream for Jeffress, who has spent so much time traveling the two-tracks, and hiking the mountains and desert of northern Nevada. He said his wife, Paige was excited - but also very nervous about the trip until they both found, to their amazement, that near-luxury accommodations could be had in the midst of the African bush country.
The tents they stayed in had a structured frame, a sink, commode, and shower and a very comfortable bed. "After a couple of days, you just immerse yourself and forget about everything but the incredible experience you're having," said Jeffress.
Sight-seeing in the wild animal reserves is done from the seat of a Land Rover or Nissan SUV.
"You go out in the morning when it's cool and then come back to camp for a noon siesta, then back out in the late afternoon and early evening. But you do not go out at night," Jeffress said, passing along the absolute rule.
"The animals don't even pay attention to the land rovers, but if any of the tourists make noise, they turn and focus on you," Jeffress said, remembering a family of lions that didn't even take note of the vehicle nearby until someone dropped a pair of binoculars. "When they heard the noise, they turned and looked right at us," said Jeffress.
"We saw a lion that had eaten too much hippo and was laying on his back with his stomach all puffed out, sleeping off the meal," continued Jeffress, narrating some of the 2700 photos he and his wife took of their trip.
African game reserves face a challenge a little like one Jeffress has heard repeatedly in Nevada - overpopulation of protected animals. Wild horses aren't the overpopulation problem in Africa; elephants are. One guide explained that the reserve through which they were traveling had room for up to 10,000 elephants. However, the elephant population in that reserve was 40,000.
"You could see they're eating all the forage; they have some of the same challenges Nevada has with wild horses," commented Jeffress.
Some areas in Africa still have hunting safaris, which could reduce the number of animals, but many reserves allow no hunting, only Eco safaris where tourists shoot using cameras only.
Jeffress had plenty of pictures of zebras.
"They're everywhere," said Jeffress, "They were never domesticated because their backs aren't strong enough to carry anything. There's really not an overpopulation problem because they're prey to a number of other animals."
The stunning variety of wild animals was a continual fascination, said Jeffress, noting that from day one to day 30 people were calling each other's attention to animals they saw. And animals were only a part of the experience.
"You fly over the countryside and see an area partially cleared for farming with trees here and there; they just farm around the tree. They have connections to everything and everything has a use."
One of the things Jeffress found most fascinating was the juxtaposition of yesterday's Africa and the Africa of today.
"Although they have the native tribal languages, most people speak English," said Jeffress. In some areas the grass shacks have solar panels. Tribal communities live in hundreds of thousands of tiny villages dotted all over the country with no access, or just a two-track dirt road.
"Africa exposes you to thousands of years of lifestyles; the 21st century next to the 15th century," said Jeffress. Tribes are still strong in their traditional customs, which sometimes don't agree with political rule, Jeffress said. "But when conflict comes, it's often tribal customs that win out."
The guides know and love their country, said Jeffress. "They have to be licensed; they're qualified and tested on their knowledge of flora and fauna.
"You just can't ask a question they can't answer, and you learn about politics, current problems and challenges."
Not only were the guides friendly and knowledgable, all of the people seemed to enjoy talking to tourists.
"They're wonderful people." Jeffress said, "They are so friendly; they're nice and genuine. They don't have a lot but what they have they really appreciate."
In addition to all the wild beauty that is Africa, there are devastating health and economic problems.
"In the country of Botswana, 80 percent of the people are HIV positive," Jeffress said they were told. "The average life span in Botswana or Zambia is 35 years old."
Political change and unrest have exacerbated economic challenges.
In spite of economic problems and health problems, Jeffress said his impression was that the people enjoy life. "As they answered our questions about their culture, they asked us as many questions. At each camp we talked about where we were from and what we did and they told about their lives too; the talk was comfortable and enjoyable."
"We really enjoyed the beauty of the country and all the amazing wildlife and adventure," said Jeffress, "but the most lingering thing has been the people, how genuine and hospitable they are."
Some of Africa's problems may be solved by the people who leave to get an education and then return to the country. "More and more people are leaving the country to get an education and then returning," said Jeffress.
As far as a bucket-list vacation, Jeffress said he and his wife relaxed to the point it was a real challenge to come back to their day-to-day life and jobs.
"I called my wife to tell her that when I opened my laptop at work I had a hard time remembering my password! That was an indication of how great this vacation really was," Jeffress said.
It's not likely they'll forget the experience; they each kept a daily journal in addition to the 2700 photos they took during the month they spent in Africa. Even so, Jeffress said they joined many of those they'd traveled with in the dream to someday return.[[In-content Ad]]
