Zambia: Eclipse camp near Chisamba

Getting to the camp

The eclipse tour started on 20 June, the day before the eclipse, here at Victoria Falls Safari Lodge, where I had spent the previous night.

In retrospect, the mess of people and bags at the hotel was a portent of bad things to come. It took an hour to load four minibuses (possibly a world record!), but we finally got away from Vic Falls in Zimbabwe and headed for Chisamba, about 60k north of Lusaka, the capital of Zambia.

The four minibuses travelled in a convoy with a support vehicle. After about 2 hours we stopped for lunch at a roadside café where the tour provided packed lunches, distributed from the ute (known in these parts as a bakkie) on the right.

After about 2 more hours we stopped again, for a breakdown.

Subsequent stops included refuelling stops, toilet stops, roadwork stops, wait for the other buses to catch up stops, and no particular reason at all stops.

The trip that was supposed to take 4 or 5 hours took 11½ hours. That meant we arrived in the camp hours after sunset, so we didn't really find out what it looked like until the following morning.

Life at the camp

For decades I had observed that, if God had meant us to go camping, she wouldn't have invented Sheraton Hotels.

Now I know that I was right.

The camp was about 60km north of Lusaka, right on the centre line for the eclipse. From the start, I wanted to observe the eclipse from roughly this area. Further east, totality would be longer. But further east was Angola. Further west, in Zimbabwe or Mozambique, totality was shorter. Zambia was it.

The San Diego 3: Ginger Lu (who is actually from Sacramento), Lucille Richard and Kelly Prescher.

Lucille and Kelly had met in Bucharest at the last Eclipse. This time they brought Ginger, who works with Lucille.

Ann and Christine from the UK

Bill Kramer attending his 9th total solar eclipse. Bill travelled on my bus from Victoria Falls to the eclipse camp and presented some information to eclipse watchers about what to expect and how to photograph the event.

Bill runs the eclipse chasers website, which includes photos of the camp and the eclipse.

The audience at Bill's eclipse information session. This English couple were on my bus from Victoria Falls to the camp.

The UK Reading club. This group were constant readers, except when they observed the eclipse from the white plastic chairs placed on the top of several bales of hay.

Rosemary and ...

... Mike, from the UK. This was their third(?) eclipse.

Lucille Richard

Kelly Prescher

Geoffrey Carew, master of transport logistics and group communication, possibly trying to tell some confused tourists what wasn't happening

Assorted people trying, in vain, to organize the camp

One of the more bizarre sights of the camp was the vast amount of expensive electronic equipment transported enormous distances to be used in a paddock on a cattle farm!

There were three catering tents at the eclipse camp: from right to left, the bar area, dining area and kitchen.

Given the difficulties of distance and circumstance, and the strain that thousands of tourists must have put on the Zambian infrastructure, the caterers did a fine job.

Lunch before the eclipse.