|
|
|
AIDS: Disease, which half of the Zambian population suffer from. All-sky camera: Instrument with entrance angle 180° for observation of the whole sky above horizon. ASUS: Our favorite notebook into which we copied all photos. The amount was so huge that we had to uninstall even the Microsoft Office application. Beitbridge: Place in Africa with coordinates 22° 14' 35'' S, 29° 59' 26'' E. The bridge forms a border between Zimbabwe and Republic of South Africa. There was the barbed wire and ploughed zone of nobody. Big 5: Five kings of the animals (elephant, buffalo, rhinoceros, leopard, lion). Will we see all of them today? Favorite bet of the guides in the Kruger National Park. Big Tree: Big tree nearby the Zambezi River upstream the Victoria Falls. Blyde River Canyon: The third biggest canyon in the world, length 32 km, depth 850 m. Boeing: American company producing wonderful planes, that transported us till our destination. Břeň David: Member of the expedition. Břichnáč Pavel: Member of the expedition. Bulawayo: City in Zimbabwe with historical and archaeological meaning, in which we spent about an hour...). Customs: A place, where many needless people are present. The custom officers lose your time, money and nerves. I'm afraid, if you want come through the frontier, you have to stand several queues there and fill in a number of senseless forms and let to mark them with many rubber-stamps. Department of Physics: Main organizer and financial patron of the expedition. Czech Republic: Peculiar country in the heart of the Europe, from which come all the participants of the expedition. Population: about 10 millions, capital: Prague, currency: Czech crown, language: Czech. CTU: Czech Technical University - organization, in which three members of the expedition are lecturers and one student. Great Zimbabwe Monument: 80 m high rocky royal seat and neighboring medieval little village with remains of the fortification. Well-known part of the Monument is the stone tower that is illustrated on right side of the Zim dollar coins. From the story comes also the characteristic bird which occurs on backside coin and in national emblem. Harare: Capital City of the Zimbabwe. For us it was several hours of rest during our first and longest way through the Africa continent. Heathrow: London district and a well-known international airport. Place, where we had to spend much more time than we originally meant. Chiluba Frederik: Zambia president, who declared for the press, that the eclipse is God's wonder and proclaimed the eclipse day as public holiday. Jackie: An African girl, to which Martin fell in love at first sight. Johannesburg: The biggest town in the Republic of South Africa. We spent here several hours in the bus and railway station and the desperation came as we realized that with one day delay it is almost impossible to be in time in the total eclipse area. Kariba Lake: Wide lake on the Zambezi River, with depth as much as 489 m and huge dam, that we unfortunately did not see. Microbus driven by natives: Very uncomfortable means of transport. Kruger National Park: The biggest national park in the Republic of South Africa, where live various wild African animals. Length of the park is 350 kilometers, width from 60 to 80 km. People willing to examine, photograph or film animals can be here only in driving cars. Maybe they also could survive there without a car but no too long. Kruger Paul: Founder of the national park in the Republic of South Africa. Kulhánek Petr: Head of the expedition. Kwacha (ZAK): Zambian currency, instantaneous rate 3265 ZAK per one USD. Lachrymatory spray: Intended defense against possible nighthawk. We have used it only three times, but unfortunately only against ourselves. Limpopo River: The river that headwaters are located at the east of Pretoria. The river forms a big arc along northwest border of the RSA, makes a part of the border with Botswana, the whole border with Zimbabwe and in Mozambique joins the India Ocean. Length over 1310 km. Livingstone: A town in southeast Zambia. More famous are Victoria Falls, about 8 km south from Livingstone. Towns of the same name are also in Scotland, USA, Mexico and New Zealand. London: Involuntary stop on our way and by the way the capital of the Great Britain. Population is about 7 millions. Airport Heathrow. We had stayed at wonderful hotel Sheraton Heathrow. Lusaka: The capital of the Zambia, it has 1.3 million inhabitants, three high houses, power station and university. The city became famous due to the total solar eclips on June 21, 2001. Masvingo: A small town in the center of Zimbabwe, with two bridges, three gas stations and rectangular street network. Mesina: A town on Zimbabwean side of the border with Zambia, not tofar from Beitbridge. It has a railway station but the trains go only twice a day. Mpumalanga: Mpumalanga is a town in the Republic of South Africa. It is located southerly from our trip and that is why we did not visited this town. MTO: Objective with focal length of 1 m, it is of the Russian origin an it was lendšed by the Rokycany observatory (west-Bohemian observatory). Nelspruit: The town in western part of the Republic of the South Africa, where we had spent three days. The town was a starting point for our ways to the Blyde River Canyon and Kruger National Park. Nikon: Company, which produced wonderful digital camera, with which we made over 1800 photos. Petersburg: Town in the Russia and in the Republic of South Africa. South African Petersburg has nor white nights, nor Russian cold in it. Pretoria: The capital of the Republic of South Africa, 60 km north from Johannesburg. Rand (SAR): Currency in the RSA, rate 7,72 SAR per one USD. RSA: Republic of South Africa. SAR: See Rand. Shona: One of original tribes living in Zimbabwe. Ruins of the Shona king's town founded the history of present-time Zimbabwe. Symbols of this culture can be found on the national flag, coins and notes and entrance Zimbabwean visa. Solar eclipse: Interesting natural phenomenon, the solar disk is shielded by the Moon. South Africa: Southmost and well-developed country in the Dark Continent. Also the first and the last visited country of our expedition. Third class train: This means so called Economy Class train. It is extremely cheap way of transport. We can recommend it to anybody, who has enough time. We estimated average speed during 500 km section as 30 kilometers per hour.
Victoria Falls: Only the one place in Zambia and Zimbabwe, where there are clouds and where it rains all over the year. The reason is the air stream, spreading water fog from 95 m deep canyon. The total length of the Victoria Falls is nearly 2 km. See map. Zambia: Country in southern part of Africa, population of about the same as in the Czech Republic, area ten times larger than Czech Republic, unit of currency, Zambian Kvacha, approximately one hundredths of the Czech crown. Zambezi: African river, forms a part of the Zambia - Zimbabwe border. Well-known are Kariba Lake and Victoria Falls located on this river. ZAK: See Kwacha. Zimbabwe: An African country, south from Zambia. In Zimbabwe we enjoyed the Great Monument (Ruins of the Shona civilization), traveling by train and the customs procedures. Zimbabwean dollar (ZWD): The currency in Zimbabwe, rate 100 ZWD per one USD. ZWD: See Zimbabwean dolar. |
