African Eclipse Safari 2001

My wife Colleen and I went to see the 21 June 2001 total solar eclipse in tropical Africa.
I also saw the 1991 total solar eclipse in Hawaii; each trip was worth every penny!
The first rule of travelling to see eclipses:
since you're counting on there being no clouds for a particular five minute period a year from now, only go when it's somewhere sunny that you want to go to anyway!
(The next great eclipse: 29 March 2006, Africa and Turkey.)

I took literally hundreds of pictures of animals and astronomers, some more of which I'll make available somehow after I edit them down a bit.
I even have a picture of a dangerous animal that I killed in the Okavango swamp.

Various tour operators had booked up everything in tropical Africa, so we went with the Sky and Telescope tour. It was quite a bit posher than I usually travel.

One cool thing: I've travelled enough in the Third World that I was all caught up on my shots: I didn't need to get any! Still needed to take malaria pills though.

Another cool thing: my best safari story.

For some strange reason, the actress Charlize Theron was following us around; we crossed paths with her at Singita, Vic Falls, and on the return flight to the US.
The guides at Singita were talking about how she was going to be there the next day.
Also, there's an article on her trip in the November 2001 issue of InStyle Magazine, showing her lounging around Singita the day after we left. She may have stayed in the same room we did.
This picture was taken while she was waiting for her luggage at JFK.

Our itinerary: