The Eclipse

My July 2001 trip to Zambia was more than a simple holiday, though I did have an excellent time. I timed my trip to coincide with the eclipse of the sun that took place on 21st June. This experience I shared with a group of German and Austrian astronomers on the Lower Zambezi. Amazingly my pictures came out and I am happy to share a couple of them with you here.

The occasion was interesting in that many of the visitors had little interest in the game but used eclipses as an excuse to travel to exotic locations all over the world. I think that the most experienced person that I met had been to eight previous eclipses.

The experience of the eclipse was fascinating and quite moving. The locals who joined us on our sand bank in the middle of the Zambezi river found it all very exciting if a little unnerving. One can understand how, in earlier times, these events were seen as portents and omens of great importance.

I, of course, was interested in the reactions of the wildlife but there was little effect except that the long-tailed starlings formed up into large flocks as though for migration. The hippos downstream from us ignored the whole event as it seemed did the rest of the wildlife around.

The effect on the Lower Zambezi National Park (LZNP) as a whole however was quite significant. Jeki airstrip had over twenty aircraft parked there on the day. The strip usually sees one plane a day. Every tourist camp was full to capacity and most had opened up camping sites to cater for the excess demand. Indeed Zambia Wildlife Authority (ZAWA) decided to licence a couple of mobile operations within the camp for a few days around the event. One wonders however how much of the large sums of money brought in to the country over the event will assist in helping Zambia's difficult economy as a whole and the LZNP in particular. At the time of writing (July 2001) the park rangers had not been paid for several months and staff morale was very low.

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