I'm back in #Zimbabwe for work. My laptop had signed out of the VPN and all the O365 apps. I need a 2 factor authentication code to sign back in.
These used to come via text, but have been coming via #WhatsApp recently. It's lucky that they do, because I found yesterday that my network doesn't do roaming here any more, so my phone doesn't work. If I didn't have WhatsApp access via hotel WiFi, I'd be locked out of everything.
It's interesting that #Microsoft rely on a Meta product.
It is the end of the dry season in Harare, #Zimbabwe. The city is famous for the jacaranda trees that flower with a purple blossom. They are beautiful, visible across the city and confetti-covering the ground.
There are a few particular tree-lines avenues that are the most Instagrammable. I've added a photo from a friend, but I suspect the colours are enhanced.
The park where I run, which was green in February, is now a thirsty brown.
A big, flat, stripey spider lives behind the mirror in my hotel room. The first time that I saw it, it was on the ceiling above the toilet seat.
I think it is a _Selenops_. Wikipedia lists a number of _Selenops_ genus that are native to #Zimbabwe. It also says:
> Selenops is the first spider known to be able to steer and glide when falling, in order to land in or on a tree, instead of falling to the ground.
That was the last thing that I wanted to read while sitting beneath it!
We had a day off on Saturday and went to Lion Park Harare, less than an hour out of town. It has a mini safari game drive with antelope, zebra, warthog and baboons as well as a separate space with lions. There is also a mini zoo with enclosed animals.
The park was far more interactive than anything in the UK; we fed a tortoise, handled a chameleon and more.
In the UK, we curse seagulls for stealing our chips. In landlocked #Zimbabwe, it's monkeys.
These Vervet monkeys at the Lion Park Harare stole my friend's KitKat from the table in front of her and scampered to a nearby tree to unwrap and eat it. Then they grabbed the empty chip container from the hands of a primary school aged boy as he walked to the bin.
They mother and baby were cute.
The highlight of Lion Park Harare was the opportunity to play with lion cubs. It cost $15.
The cubs were siblings, about five months old. Visitors could enter the cage in twos or threes. Each was given a stick, which was used to play with a cub - and to keep its mouth full. We were told not to touch their ears or to try to lift them.
The fur was coarse, almost like a horse's mane. Their bodies were solid muscle. Sadly, they didn't purr.
This was an amazing experience.
Here's a bonus lion cub picture, because I couldn't attach it to the post with the video.
They had ostriches, too. I was more scared of the ostriches, particularly their talons, than of the lion cubs.
After the lions, we went to Kuimba Shiri Bird Park. This is also just outside #Harare, on the north shore of Lake Chivero. There is an open air restaurant where ostriches and ponies roam around the tables, as well as an aviary with many bird species.
The falconry display is great. The highlight was a secretary bird that repeatedly stamped on the head of a rubber snake. This is how they hunt. They have long bony legs to minimise harm from bites.
Here are some views of downtown #Harare. There are tall, often glass-clad, buildings and wide roads laid out in a US-style grid. It's not a place to walk between cafes.
The centre is Africa Unity Square, but there are no pictures as we were told you can be arrested for taking photos there. It has been a site of anti-government protest.
The tallest, glassiest building is the Reserve Bank.
The National Art Gallery has many sculptures in the style of the local Shona people.
I'd heard of the Eastgate shopping centre and wanted to see for myself. The design is based on a termite mound, with an internal structure that promotes airflow to provide natural cooling.
I was impressed. A soft breeze gently wafts through and is much more pleasant than the heat outside or the abrasive, drying hit of air conditioning.
It was very quiet when we visited, but that may have been because it was Sunday morning.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastgate_Centre%2C_Harare?wprov=sfla1
We went to the Summer Symposium of the Geological Society of #Zimbabwe. It was an interesting meeting - more applied and less academic than a UK equivalent. Most talks related to mining.
My favorite was about diamonds. The speaker described how they found the kind of rocks that normally host diamonds (kimberlite), with lumps of mantle from the correct depth ("diamond window") and with the right chemical alterations, but, even so, they didn't find diamonds. Mineral exploration is tricky.
Our project in #Zimbabwe involved delivering #QGIS training. QGIS is widely used there, with at least half of the attendees at the Geological Society Symposium having used it and it being installed on the presentation laptop.
Two of my colleagues were primarily ArcGIS users prior to this trip. It was fun to watch them learn more QGIS. They praised the speed and the simple, logical workflows.
We compiled a set of #GIS #opendata for #Zimbabwe and published it to Zenodo.
It contains OpenStreetMap data (from GeoFabrik), SRTM topography and Sentinel2 satellite imagery. Anyone can download and use it. See README for attribution instructions.
> "An advanced city is not one where even the poor use cars, but rather one where even the rich use public transport."
I thought about this quote a lot in Harare. The cars are in charge here and many roads don't even have pavements. 4x4s abound because roads outside town are unpaved.
Public transport are brightly-decorated but bashed up combi-vans (like Kenyan matatus). Work policy was that we shouldn't use them, which meant I felt stranded in our suburban lodge.
Even if you are rich with a big car, you aren't immune to the effects of lack of investment in transport infrastructure.
We saw the aftermath of four small crashes and one nasty one during our fortnight in #Zimbabwe. A colleague was late for training because of an accident. I heard that someone I met in February has been killed in a crash. Intercity driving at night is too dangerous to consider for most.
Pedestrians suffer, too; crossing main roads is like playing human "Frogger".
@volcan01010
There's a ted talk from the founder of SRAM talking about bikes in that part of the world. Similar views!
I think this is it: https://youtu.be/iqCzkjOH_sE
Dr John A Stevenson
Mike Spencer