W hew--our equipment has arrived! After a day of anxious waiting, we finally got a call from the driver of our truck, who rolled in 36 hours late, exhausted from the pounding of the rough roads and the endless waits at border crossings. All the cameras and telescopes have survived the trip. Now if we can just get it into the Lower Zambezi National Park-- plus we have to hope the satellite transmission crew will arrive there too...no shortage of things to worry about.

Meanwhile, Zambia has begun to sink in. The smallest of details make us feel we are on a different continent.

I n the morning we inspect the smooth sand around our cabins and see the record of the events of the previous night. Tracks with a line down the middle show where a lizard has dragged its tail. Beetles leave tracks that look like cursive writing. Most surprising are the paw tracks of a civet and a genet, cat-like nocturnal omnivores, who had come and gone during the night so quietly that we had no idea they were there.Even the most common items of everyday life are different. The local matches with a Lion on the cover seem to burst into flame with the slightest jostling. These are definitely not safety matches.