Jane back home from wild life adventure

OLDHAM countryside warden Jane Downall is back in business at Daisy Nook Country Park after an amazing six-week adventure in Africa.

The 49-year-old grandmother was one of nine intrepid explorers picked by the BBC from more than 12,000 hopefuls for the once-in-a-lifetime challenge.

And she experienced sights and sounds she could never have dreamed of as part of a team on the hunt to capture wildlife on film.

Jane said: “I applied to go because I wanted to do something different, and I wanted to show my grandchildren that anything is possible if you really want it.”

Jane impressed BBC judges who were looking for nine would-be wildlife film-makers for a programme called “Wildest Dreams” with presenter Nick Knowles.

The selection process involved tough tests for stamina and fitness, but nothing could have prepared her for the rigours of the challenge ahead.

“One minute I was here at work in Daisy Nook, and the next I was on a jumbo jet heading for Africa. It was incredible,” she said.

“We had no idea of the locations we were going to, and my first glimpse of the place from the air looked like an alien landscape — all I could see were swamps and termite mounds.

“Our first stop was Botswana, and as soon as we arrived we were told to set up camp.

“We were in the Okavango Delta, one of the last great wildernesses, and we had to put up tents and dig a hole for the toilet near a swamp where there were elephants, hippos, monkeys and baboons.

“One of the hippos circled our tents at night, and we had to stay inside because they are quite fierce,” recalled Jane.

Her last task before flying home was to swim and film big fish in the ocean, which involved her getting up close with a gigantic whale shark.

“It was the size of a double decker bus and is one of the most amazing things I have ever seen,” said Jane. “To be in the water with a monster creature coming towards you is very very unnerving, but I had to keep my head and film it.”

The first chilling lesson drummed into the wildlife enthusiasts was “only food runs away,” — handy advice when tracking in the bush.

Jane and her fellow-contestants had to cope with torrential rain, which washed away half the campsite as more than a year’s rain fell in just two days, and a small tornado which ripped the camp to shreds.

They dodged dangerous crocodiles and huge hippos, which kill more people in Africa than any other animal, camped 2,000 metres from a pride of fierce lions and came face-to-face with a leopard.

Dust was a constant irritation, and the team had to keep their eyes peeled around the campsite for puff adders, insects and scorpions.

Abseiled

Screening now, “Wildest Dreams” plunged nine people with “ordinary jobs” into the bush in a quest to find an amateur wildlife enthusiast good enough to join the ranks of top professionals in the BBC’s Natural History Unit.

The nine visited locations including Botswana, Zanzibar, the Kalahari Desert and the Drakensberg Mountains on the trail of the rare and wonderful.

They filmed a huge range of wildlife, including elephants, rhinos, scorpions, exotic frogs, rare birds and killer bees.

They camped in the wild and abseiled down cliffs to get close-up footage: “Not easy when you are scared of heights,” laughed Jane.

She was knocked out after week four, but the Wildest Dreams series is still running on Wednesdays at 7.30pm, with the final on September 2.

“The whole experience helped me overcome so many personal, mental, physical and emotional barriers that I wouldn’t have overcome if I had stayed at home,” she said.

“It was an amazing life-changing experience, but I have to admit I was glad to get home to see my grandsons Mat (9) and Tom (4). It makes you appreciate what you take for granted at home, such as toilets and being able to eat when you want, and the climate was so hot I was grateful to get back to the cool.

“Looking back now it was surreal,” said Jane. “But it was a brilliant opportunity and I wouldn’t have missed it for the world.”