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18/19 June 2001 – Travel Day
Here are excerpts from my journal for the TravelQuest Eclipse
Expedition to Africa in June 2001. Most
of these notes were made ‘real time’ during the trip, although much editing was
done during the transcription processing.
I sometimes had trouble reading my handwriting as many of the entries
were made while bouncing down a dirt road in a four-wheel drive car! I took all the pictures unless noted
otherwise.
The TravelQuest African Eclipse Expeditions were broken
into several groups. Ours was the
Classic Group, which was further divided into Classic 1/2/3, Eclipsing Africa,
and Explorer. The differences were that
C all stayed at the Chisamba Safari Lodge the nights before and after the
eclipse while the A, B & D Groups stayed at the Pamodzi Hotel. The Explorer
group arrived a week earlier. Each group rotated amongst different safari camps
after the eclipse. I was on Classic
Group C.
Getting to southern Africa requires an extraordinarily long
trip. Ours started in Los Angeles and
took us to New York, then Johannesburg.
As usual, the seats were as comfortable as orange crates for the last 14
hours of the flight. We had a brief
layover at the Cape Verde Islands to take on fuel. Our flight crew explained that this was because of an extreme jet
fuel shortage in Johannesburg. Landing
on Sal Island was like being in the Twilight Zone. You couldn’t see more than a couple hundred
yards in any direction and it was totally overcast. Just a 747 sitting illuminated on a runway in front of a
terminal.
Twenty-five hours after leaving
home, we arrive in Johannesburg and transfer to the Michelangelo Hotel. This is on the outskirts of the city in one
of the newer, safer areas. There is a
crime problem in the heart of the city and it is not safe to go there. The Michelangelo Hotel is fabulous and we
enjoy an excellent pre-eclipse banquet with a briefing on the trip. It was a great start to the trip.
20 June 2001
We were warned to expect all sorts of delays getting onto our
flight to Lusaka because of the crush of people moving through the Johannesburg
airport for the eclipse. However, we
were very pleasantly surprised to find that it was very easy getting through
the airport. Everyone was very
cooperative. Even more pleasant was
finding that members on Classic C were assigned seats in First Class at the
front of the plane. I don’t know how or
why, but this is opulent living! While
waiting for connecting passengers to arrive, we read the local newspaper. The paper commented on how much of South
Africa was caught unaware and unprepared for the eclipse and how they were busy
trying to get the proper eclipse glasses and warnings out to the general
public. Even so, the paper had mostly
intelligent things to say about what to do and how to view an eclipse.
Our flight north to Lusaka in Zambia was very pleasant, perhaps
partially because of the personal service and the fact that the seats stretched
all the way out to form beds. A welcome
feature because of the jet lag!
However, we were feeling even better because we passed up from underneath
a bank of clouds to reveal clear skies from horizon to horizon. There is nothing like being in the path of
the eclipse with clear skies! An
interesting side note: this was my first totally automatic landing – the plane
landed on autopilot and it was our smoothest landing of the whole trip.
Our first minor hitch came at the Lusaka Airport, which is not
designed for such a large influx of people.
The Zambian officials did their best, but 
with two 747’s arriving at the same time, it was a mad
house. Meanwhile, Aram and our local
guides from Chilongozi Safaris, were busy trying to herd 160 cats and board
them into vans. From there, groups
A/B/C/D traveled through the capital city of Lusaka and then north to the
Chisamba Safari Lodge. This trip took
about 1-1/2 hours. The city of Lusaka
is a reasonably modern city with downtown high rises and a business district. Outside of the city, people seem to be
living in much more primitive conditions, having to walk miles to work or catch
a bus. Most do not have utilities and
depend upon burning wood for heat.
Johannesburg Chisamba Eclipse
Day Victoria Falls Shindi Kwara Machaba
You can contact
me at:
Bob Stephens
8300 Utica
Avenue, Suite 105
Rancho
Cucamonga, CA 91730