We left Victoria Falls and took a bus to Lusaka, Zambia. For two days we stayed at the Intercontinental Hotel, where we watched astronomers set up their gear on the roof. Zambia is a peaceful but poor country -- for years their valuable natural resources were exploited and used to develop what is now Zimbabwe. Lusaka is not well set up for tourists -- there are few attractions, the city is spread out, and taxis are expensive. Yet we found some really good restaurants: a Chinese one across from the Chinese embassy as good as most in SF, a vegetarian Indian place, and a place serving the local cuisine -- we had roast "village chicken", various pastes from beat-up leaves, and the national starch made from white corn, all of which we ate with our fingers.

 

This was a big opportunity for Zambia -- tens of thousands of visitors were arriving for the eclipse, and a few weeks later there was going to be a summit of African nations. Hopefully they could better establish themselves as a tourist destination. The eclipse imagery pervades local art at all these events.

We left the hotel and embarked on our pre-arranged "eclipse safari", sponsored by a local youth hostel. Our Botswana safari had been the pinnacle of professionalism -- by contrast, this one was "going camping with friends".

Our guide was Brian, a Davis, CA native who sells water filtration systems in Lusaka.

The other people who signed up for the safari were a group of eight Norwegian grad students, mostly in astrophysics.

The drive to Kafue National Park was grueling -- we had a fully packed mini-van, hauling an excessively heavy trailer, and we spent the time swatting tsetse flies. I remembered the sounds of airplanes in Botswana just after dark, spraying something to control the flies, and wishing they did that in Zambia. The 400-km drive took ten hours, including a stretch of badly potholed highway followed by a dirt road.

When we got to the camp, things were much better -- they'd reserved a great campsite for us.

This is a marula tree at the camp -- they make Amarula liqueur out of its fruits, which tastes like Bailey's.

We drove around the area of the camp and scoped out eclipse sites, settling on a place next to some hot springs. As the moon started covering up the sun, it started cooling off, going from about 25 degrees C down to 17.5 over the course of the eclipse. The hippos in the river decided to head back towards the hot springs, and at some point the crocodiles sunning themselves on the shore gave up. When the sun was completely covered, the fish decided nightfall had come unexpectedly and instantaneously started nibbling at the surface.

The sky got dark enough to see Jupiter, Sirius, and if you knew where to look, Saturn. There were quite a few red prominences around the edge of the moon. Pictures of eclipses don't resemble the real thing unless you put a great effort, by which I mean money, into taking them. NASA's eclipse site links to many photographers who dispose of their income in that way.

Here's a statue in Lusaka, celebrating Zambia's independence (speaking of the influence that eclipse imagery has upon local artists).

After the eclipse, we spent a day checking out Kafue park. We went on a night game drive, which at one point consisted of four Land Rovers with spotlights chasing around an attention-loving leopard who'd just killed a puku antelope. It reminded me of an episode of COPS. We had another ten-hour drive back to Lusaka, and then the next morning left on a ten-hour bus ride to Harare, Zimbabwe.

We rented a car and drove to Eastern Zimbabwe, staying in a couple of charming lodges in the mountains there. Then we visited the Great Zimbabwe, a fortress from around 1200 housing the Shona kingdom.

The great Zimbabwe has a surprising number of ferns and butterflies to admire in between admiring the mostly fallen stone walls.
Baobab tree.

We took a much nicer bus to Pretoria, South Africa, and took off the next day for London. About ten minutes into our flight, the #4 engine flamed out. We spent about an hour dumping fuel, and returned to Johannesburg; we left successfully the next day. This seemed like a big deal at the time.

Despite the various travel-related inconveniences, it was a great trip. We strongly recommend a Botswana safari to anyone, especially the "participation camping" variety which isn't that expensive.

--Dave and Ray