23-Jan-2005 -- This was a relatively easy DC visit, involving a long drive of about 180 km on the Great East Road from Lusaka on the way to the Luangwa River, and eventually to Chipata. We knew from the map that the road passed very close to 15S 30E.
We stopped off on the way to 15S 30E to look at the access roads to 15S 29E on the way there. We were familiar with the area from our visits to clinics nearby as part of our work on the Pediatric Helminth Study, and we knew it was best to press on to 15S 30E, as the main road only came within 29 km of 15S 29E. We may give it a try at a future date.
We were somewhat disappointed when we finally got to the road's closest point to 15S 30E, as it was situated in an area of forested rolling hills, and for most of our trip out we had seen relatively flat open land, which would have made our DC visit very easy. No such luck!
Instead, after we parked the car and followed the GPS up and down the hills and valleys for over 2.3 km until we got to the point. It was hot and humid and we were exhausted by the time we got there. The DC itself is located on the side of a hill near the valley bottom. This terrain in this area is unusual in that there is almost no soil and most of the land is rocky granite/quartz and probably not very fertile. The land had been burned off during the last dry season (as we had seen at 15S 27E the day before) and lots of new growth was apparent as we are in the middle of the rainy season. But in spite of the relatively lush growth, we didn't see any animals aside from the footprints of some antelope and baboons near the streams we crossed.
We took photos of the DC site and the South, East, North, and West views from the site itself. We also got some nice views from the hilltops as we returned from the DC that give a good idea of the terrain in this area. We returned to the car exhausted and did the long ride back to Lusaka. We also took a photo of the Tse-Tse fly control gate we had to pass on the way back, a reminder of the dangerous vector of sleeping sickness they have in central Africa.