Thursday, March 28, 2024
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Travelers dare to see different

by Margaret E. Davis
| February 27, 2022 12:00 AM

Working at an adventure magazine in Chicago I reported a story by phone about renting sailboats in Tahiti — Bingo! I formed a goal: travel the world.

I started to save, pinching pennies until they practically bled. In time, my friend Teri and I had enough to go, achieving a travel budget of $1,000 per month including airfare. For close to a year, we made our way from Indonesia to Nepal, then India, United Arab Emirates, and finally West Africa, where we made a circular tour from Ghana to four countries.

I consider Ghana one of the most civilized places in the world: irresistible music, vibrant art and textiles, fascinating history, strong embrace of democracy and an influential matriarchal culture. We were invited to meals just walking down the street, made friends in new towns within hours, and found it very hard to leave.

Naturally, the Feb. 8 presentation on East Africa at Flathead Valley Community College caught my eye, as it offered a vicarious view of a side to the continent we had missed.

Presenter Nick Fucci, who came to the Flathead from Alaska about 18 years ago, stalks big game, with a camera lens.

Last year he persevered in taking a long-awaited trip to Tanzania. His mission: to witness the migration of millions of animals in the midst of a six-month 1,900-mile tour of East Africa, specifically the crossing of the Mara River, where white-bearded wildebeests and zebras jump, wade and splash through shoulder-deep muddy water churning with Nile crocodiles.

As a professional wildlife photographer, it’s Fucci’s business to capture images of animals deep in their habitats. But it’s also his greatest pleasure, and for more than 20 years he’s made an adjunct living conducting international photo safaris, which will restart next year with a trip to South Africa’s Kruger National Park and Botswana.

It’s not just the remote surroundings and exotic animals that draw Fucci to Africa.

He’s also interested in the people, such as the Masai, still allowed their historic place in the Serengeti. He danced with them on this recent trip and mused, “I really learned white men can’t jump.”

Attendees of the Montana Sportsman’s Expo at the Flathead County Fairgrounds Trade Center can check out Fucci’s trophy images until 4 today and vicariously soak up some sun and sights of a distant land.

U.K. philosopher Emily Thomas notes that travel “shows us otherness” and in the process forces us “to expand and rethink what we know.” With travel I learn so much about other peoples and other places, and also about myself.

These Covid-tainted years of isolation, remote working and quarantine make me antsy for different. I was wrong about that trip around the world somehow getting the travel bug out of my system. It only fed my curiosity and love of adventure. Travel to nearby places can be eye-opening, too.

After Fucci’s presentation, I checked the expiration date on my passport. Tahiti’s still on my destination list.

Audience development director Margaret E. Davis can be reached at 406-758-4436 or mdavis@dailyinterlake.com