Ben Wilhelmi

in a village

 

Chem Chem village near lake Eyasi. But many African villages would look the same.

 

fixing a puncture. The ox was resting and grazing a bit further.

 

spreading and drying the grain in the sun. I would have said that the weather had been so dry that there was no need to dry them any further, but what do I know....

then pounding that same grain to produce flour for the infamous ugali, the East African staple food. Something I never managed to eat really. Looks like plaster, and tastes like it as well if you ask me. I much prefer the kind of tortilla made with the same flour.

 

 

she was on her way to buy kerosene with that container. Oil containers are quite strong and thus well sought after.

 

crap picture I know but they were all so pleased to see somebody with a camera, somebody interested in their village....I didn't feel like refusing them a picture.

 

poverty...this room is the main room in the hut. Newspapers as wallpaper decoration...

health in Tanzania

 

so I volunteered from '99 to 2002. Don't think I'm a saint! Well those who know wouldn't even think of it for one split second but for the others....I'm no Mother Theresa. I really wanted to help for a humanitarian cause but at the condition of flying (with a bit of fun as well). Like quite some volunteers, no matter what they say. Some try to go home with a sainthood aura which they don't really deserve. I wouldn't go and wash lepers feet as we say in French. My dedication had some limitations.

not exciting nor 'artistic 'pictures, more journalistic style for a change.

 

 

a chemist's. The caption says literally 'shop of cold medicines', meaning the medicines are stored in a fridge, or so they say.

 

the lab in Chem Chem hospital. A patient dropping some sample.

 

the technician at work. Notice the new poster overlapping the old one that nobody cared to remove. Campaigns happen for medical purpose. Though too rarely for family planning....

 

many sisters dedicate themselves to treating patients instead of praying or distributing bibles only.

 

colors... this doctor came for another hospital for a visit once in awhile in this little dispensary because there was (and still is) a shortage of fully qualified doctors in Tanzania. By then, there were about 2500 doctors for 33 millions people...I'm sure those figures haven't changed too much. Nurses and medical assistants do a great job for common diseases though. Sometimes a surgeon would even come and train one nurse to perform one special type of surgery, and I mean real surgery. Again, this is not the US with lawsuit orientated mind.

 

trees are not very valued, slashing is very common. Except for some shade. Specially in the middle of the villages for meetings.

 

as said above, not a striking picture but Tanzanian villages in whole are usually dull. No colors, lots of dust...here a Tanzanian flag, which is quite common.

various portraits

 

one free afternoon, off I went in that poor village, called ChemChem, on the edge of lake Eyasi.

 

easy going people, they hardly see white people and cameras in that remote place.

young patient and grandma waiting at Chem Chem dispensary.

 

and here below various locations in Tanzania

 

 

 

Masai toothbrush, a local piece of branch, I forgot which species but it is one in particular, with special flavor and medical properties they say. They show nice teeth I must say....

see this old woman's teeth?

people in the bush

 

 

preparing the field...

 

 

Masai woman attending a mobile clinic

 

colors...

 

 

market day in Loliondo, woman selling gourds made out of sausage tree fruit.

 

 

cops bravely guarding a tree.

 

could be primary colors.

 

Masai checking his kingdom, wondering where to bring his cattle next....

 

portraits II

 

more pictures done in my free time as a volunteer pilot....shot with wonderful Nikon F3 or FM2 on Ilford HP5 or Kodak  TriX

 

beautiful girl around lake Natron.

 

boy waiting at one mobile clinic

 

notice the ears of both of them...

 

Masai man visiting a village. Maybe his wife was doing the shopping while he was waiting outside...sounds familiar?

 

the blurry kid was just jealous and came to in front of my lens before I preferred he shy one... kids are the same all over, looking for attention.

 

Loliondo, in the middle of nowhere, but Mickey Mouse has arrived there, or Coca Cola, or any football players or again Madonna. Sad but ...

these two ladies, if they were to write their memories....

some portraits

 

good old black and white films. Being a volunteer pilot gave lots of free time when we were back at the hospital and nearby village. Or when the doctors and the nurses were busy on the mobile clinic, I'd walk around and click away. Though sometimes I'd help the staff, giving injections to the kids or the the pregnant mothers. We had received a basic training for that and pronto. This is not bloody America with a risk of a lawsuit for every action....

 

 

 

 

 

 

typical amount of jewels in that area, near Loliondo. Between clans they can recognize where they come from just by the type of pattern and colors that were used in the making. I never gave money for these pictures but I always brought some prints later on for the models. And I used these prints to convince new models to pose. We always had a great time when these pictures were show around. That's how I discovered the jewels identification system.

 

 

 

flies included, not a hassle for them.

 

Flying Medical Service

 

 

Flying Medical Service...my first kind of job after US flying schools and in Tanzania. All volunteers. Basically we flew doctors and nurses and medical supplies to the remote areas in northern Tanzania. We'd spend a few days in a bush hospital and fly around for mobile clinics in those remote villages, Masai mostly. And sometimes there was a need to fly some serious patients back to the hospital for a complete treatment.

 

this place with the volcano Lengai in the background is called Ngaresero. The area is located at the bottom of the Rift Valley. Stunningly beautiful. But if one happens to get sick there....not even a track to the next hospital at more than 70 miles away. Including a 2000 foot steep cliff to overcome on top of the fierce winds, heat and bush land.

 

 

here at Oleparkashi. Just a few miles further but 2000 feet higher on top of the cliff. So the flight from this place to Ngaresero down the cliff was about 5 min! Just take off, no climb but  turn steep right, chop off the power and dive in a wonderful narrow gorge with vertical walls, land. Apparently I was not the most popular pilot amongst the local medical staff....

 

every 2 weeks, the same spot at the same time, so there was no need to specify appointments. Here Masai women coming from nowhere apparently. There must be a hamlet some miles away.

 

 

kids are in charge of and carry younger kids at an early age

 

the doctor at work. If one needs privacy...

 

with the aeroplane on the airstrip, a wonderful workhorse Cessna 206, equivalent of a good old Land Rover with wings.

 

  

 

 

the largest waiting room for a consultation....curiosity is a worldwide feat. This girl here peeks thru the wall to see what's going on in the 'private' hut. Nevertheless this place was quite hot, the hut was needed for gynecological treatments for instance or when guys had something awful to treat...imagine, no telly! So no wonder everybody wanted to have fun and see for gossiping later on. Remember in the western world once upon a time, dentists used to pull out teeth publicly...

Lengai and others

 

 

lake Natron, looking like a normal lake for a change.

 

Sunrise on Mount Meru

 

the one and only volcano Lengai, early morning.

 

there is still a whiff of rotten eggs on a regular basis, even without any visible smoke.

 

one lucky climber on the very edge of the crater rim.

 

and his friends a bit further. If one slips...

cattle and Masai enclosure

early morning flights, cattle, donkeys and goats are still locked in the enclosures, made of thorny branches from acacia trees. Good predator repellent. The following pictures are quite similar but they show different villages and structures.

 

here different fences were added according to new needs.

 

about the same here. Notice the few huts.

 

enclosures inside a bigger one. Apparently the man has no hut on his own. The wives have theirs on the other hand. So the guy chooses a wife, and a hut every night. If he travels and visits another hamlet, and this is valid for the warriors who are not married while having this status or any other guest, he will be provided a hut and occupant, expected to 'know' in the biblical sense the host's wife. Quite rude to decline the offer. A bit like not eating when invited in our culture. If the man gets old and 'visits' too much for his liking, he'll choose a quiet place under a tree in the bush.

 

this reminds me that I once got stuck around lake Natron in a remote Masai village, Pininyi. Bloody aeroplane wouldn't start. So the leader invited me in his hut. Big Chief was educated so he had a hut...I was given a room with a bed made of sticks and goat skins. Then I braced myself for "invited guest part II"!

Luckily, Big Chief knew a bit more than his own culture so he had spread the word that white men can't jump and can't have fun either! So I might refuse his wives. Nevertheless a few other girls tried their luck with me all evening! But they took no offence when the request was declined. A squeezed hand is a clear sign for instance. My hand was tightly squeezed all evening around the camp fire. I assume the girls, being quite sexually free, wanted to check what it was like with a white dude....they were giggling, checking my hairy legs, holding my hands more than need be. No competition and no aggressiveness between them!!

Guess what was the first question from my by-then girlfriend when I came back....

 

long shadows, early morning still. Northern Serengeti.

 

 

room with a view

 

that was a few days ago in Lobo, northern Serengeti.

it rained, funny enough in this dry season, the light was really crap. Sometimes clouds would open up and let some sunrays come in, to enhance the scenery

 

here really dull light with the zebras.

 

 

and a few minutes later! Quite a change....

 

 

this thing is called a hyrax (daman en français). They say it is related to the elephant!! And I'm not joking! They hang around many lodges, reasonably tame. Quite funny to watch.

 

wide vista from the room. Not bad he?

Rangoon

 

sorry just being late today, so I'm sending quickly some old pictures, already sorted out in my files. So back in Rangoon, the Schwedagon pagoda.

 

 

too bad I'm not in Belgium 'cos that where my guide book is. So for what I remember, there is one inside niche in the main Schwedagon pagoda where there is another Buddha but for some weird reasons, woman cannot get in and watch....it seems their presence is the forbidding factor 'coz now thanks to television, they can sit in another location and watch! Funny world...

 

 

 

 

one of the few golden Buddha.

 

looks like a Walt Disney castle, no?

 

 

the longest lying Buddha in the world, somewhere in Rangoon. And the biggest pink nails as well I'd say.

 

it looks like cheap white plastic to me. Weird that the roof has been made with as little material as possible. In turn that roof has a funny shape staying close to the Buddha. The place looks quite crammed and poor Buddha has only some part of trussing to look at...notice the feet which show the 80 or so different surnames of Buddha I think.

 

Maasai herders

 

back to my early pictures in Tanzania, my first months here. This thing here is a Cape eland, the biggest antilope.

we were doing a flying medical clinic in northern Tanzania, near Serengeti. One can see the medical supplies on this picture. Now this being a wild animal, what it he doing near people?

 

the villagers found it alone when still very young. Having sometimes some sense of humor, that I can pick at least, they decided to adopt the little beast! And with more sense of humor, they adorned it with a cowbell! So now the cows have learnt to live with an weird immigrant.

 

lonely landscape in the Rift Valley.

 

Northern Serengeti, common scenery

 

Ok, just giraffes, not an exciting pictures but they were my first wild animals near an airstrip, Endulen just outside Ngorongoro crater. The rim is visible in the background. Quite a feeling to chase the things off the runway with a flyby. And they were still hanging around after landing.

 

volcano Oldoinyo Lengai, Rift valley, shot from Engaresero airstrip, dry season obviously.

 

 

 

last batch of Natron (for now...)

 

 

near a drying delta.

some beaches....

 

 

 

this red tone with salted islands and lines being the most common pattern all year long.

 

 

all the pictures above were shot on film. The ones below are digital. One cannot see the difference on an internet low resolution version. But I've  just read in a serious French photo-magazine (Chasseurs d'Images, #305, p135) that the actual digital SLR's are now better than good SLR films in term of sharpness, details...Colors are not affected. It makes me sad to finally acknowledge that fact. but at the same time, who knows, if films were still developed and researched with the same energy as for digital, we'd get nice surprises too.

 

 

 

Maasai herders

 

my early days in Tanzania as a volunteer pilot with Flying Medical Service. I often wish I could do the job again and do more pictures. I tend to be the guy who's never satisfied.

Engoveroni village, northern part of the Ngorongoro range. Cold weather due to altitude. These poor guys with only one blanket...

 

no clue why she didn't want me to shoot her cows. People think a picture captures their souls....fine I get the point but cows?

 

lonely cow on the edge of Ngaresero gorge, Rift Valley. Wonderful 2000ft deep and steep gorge. Got many fond memories of wonderful flights in there! Volcano stands in the distance;

 

how old is he? Less than 10 probably. Coming back from shopping I'd say.

 

young boy in charge at a waterhole

 

warrior tending his cows in the greater Ngorongoro. The rim stands in the background.

 

donkeys roam free but never very far.

 

2 Maasais greeting each other. A gentle stroke, not a strong squeeze as we do (normally) in Europe which is here seen here as a sexual offer.

 

volcano Lengai again, seen from an airstrip. Long line of cows. Wealthy man. 80$ a cow by then was the regular price.

no picture

just busy reading aircraft accidents in Tanzania.

last week, a pilot flying a Seneca ( a small twin engine) forgot to drop his landing gear on landing. The guy was quite quick to react though because as soon as he felt strong vibrations, heard metal noise scraping on something (that is the tarmac) and maybe saw sparks flying all over, he pushed the throttle full gas and did a go-around before coming back and land properly this time. The blade tips are damaged, twisted and torn beyond repair, the 2 engines are to be open and fully inspected at best. But a belly up landing would have been worse.

a Caravan hit an impala on landing in Katavi. Propeller to be replaced, engine to be open and checked as well. That was in March, the plane is still sitting out there waiting for parts, mechanics and some competence.....

a plane landed on its tail, minor cosmetic damages apparently...

40 bullet impacts....that was  some years back on a mining strip. Some robbers attacked after landing, sprayed the aircraft with bullets, even threw hand grenades! Far West style....

stupid passenger today: "oh you're not French? so how come you speak French then?". Yes guess where she is from....

or while flying

-the passenger: "oh look, Kilimanjaro! Sooo lovely, better than on picture...."

-me: "eerh, this is Oldoinyo Lengai M'am, 100 miles away and half the size of Kili....". Yes same country as the previous one...

or

-"how long have you been flying ?" but I understood "how long is the flight?"

-so I wrongly answered "20min"

-"and they already let you fly a plane on your own? waow..."

-realising my mistake but carrying on:" yep, this is Africa".

But she realised quite quickly her blonde moment and laughed.

 

or just me being naughty:

-the non pilot passenger: "good flight! you're such a good pilot".

-me: "hmm, well if I were so good, maybe I wouldn't have been revoked from flying at home..."

animals from the air

 

 

long shadows, at dawn somewhere in Serengeti.

 

last Friday, a big herd of buffaloes in Katavi Nat'l park, Katasunga plain.

 

similar view but cropped. I'm too lazy to count them but that much reach a thousand I bet.

 

....and a few waterbucks. I think the big footprints are elephants'...

 

on film, one of my early aerial pictures in Africa

 

 

Oldoinyo Lengai slightly glowing, one early morning.

lake Natron on film again

still sorting out my old films.

black water. Pure black like the background of the blog. Can't see the difference in the low right corner. Black water is always located on the deeper bits.

delta on the northern side. Where does that blue come from while drying out....

 

 

 

not many colors but the patterns are interesting. The variable wind must push the water here and there while the lake is drying out. Evaporation is quick since the lake is very shallow for most of its surface. This explains the overlapping curves.

 

 

miscellaneous

some competitor just got this big aeroplane, a De Havilland Dash 7, quite a monster with 50 passengers or so. But it so well designed for the bush that it uses all our regular airstrips without problem

here in Grumeti, western Serengeti

 

 

the volcano Oldoinyo Lengai at 7 am.

 

very top of Lengai. Nearly horizontal light carving interesting shadows.

 

Rift Valley near Lengai.

 

Katavi nat'l park, Katasunga plain, just before landing, a big herd of buffaloes.

 

recycling in Arusha...I'm afraid that is also the way some 'daladala' drivers have learnt to drive...

Burmese market

 

 

 

sugarcane juice with a drop of lemon juice. I just loved it. Providing there was no blood from some crushed fingers in it. Same piece of machinery here in Tanzania though only in Zanzibar. Don't know why.

 

these monks were quite funny, either in Burma or Cambodia or Thailand, with their love for electronic junk. Cell phones, music players and so on. Of course they're only monks for short periods of time, not for life. One even asked me naively some money for gambling! Horse races if I remember well.

 

not only women do that cumbersome job.

 

striking face sand features. Not fully Burmese I thought.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Burma

 

lazy to prepare new pictures today...so some old ones, sorry.

 

lake Inle, water buffalo tended by a young boy. More manageable than the African buffalo which is a nasty piece of a beast.  When I was a volunteer pilot, I flew more than once a buffalo-induced wounded passenger. Never nice to see....

 

fisherman's house, or maybe a few families were sharing. Looks clean, roomy and light is allowed inside! Missing that here with the typical small windows.

 

I really didn't expect to see a drag queen in Burma. Ok it was during a festival, but unusual nevertheless. Since then I read a Nat'l Geo and it appears it is quite common!

 

smart contraption...

 

didn't try...

 

it is not dirt nor pieces of paper but money! Banknotes to be precise. Notice the glass windows all around that jade statue. One has to throw banknotes across the gilded bars higher up. The closer they fall to the deity, the more luck one receives. On the lap is the best spot. Schwedagon pagoda in Rangoon.

 

 

 

still the same pagoda, at night. Same fervor to keep on praying.

 

 

that horrible green light  illuminates a Buddha in each niche.

lake Natron on film

stories and rumors... always double check. Remember the story of the pilot-less 206 a few days ago? Well it appears that there was somebody on the controls but not a pilot, not even a mechanic. Just a ground handler who had been told to move the plane, meaning push or pull, on the apron. Too much effort so this rocket scientist thought he could start the engine and taxi himself. After all, it is easy, an ignition key, a yoke that looks like a car steering wheel...men , he must have shat in his pants when the engine burst to life, when the plane jumped forward, when he realised that turning the yoke left or right wouldn't do much. He didn't think of the brakes either. He still crossed one runway in front of a landing airliner!

then some mechanics and engineer of a big company here managed to drop a turbine engine from the nacelle! Ooops, kaputt....one million dollars for such an engine! It's already 400.000 for a Caravan engine.

anyway here are old stuff just dug out of some files. All shot with my first SLR camera, a Minolta X700 with a wonderful 50mm and a polariser filter, on film. Basic but dead good. Mom's gift for my 18th birthday. Did I mention that already?

 

view towards the north, that is Kenya. This old volcano, Shombole or Shompole, sits on the border.

 

those most common patterns and colors were already there.

 

flamingoes...

 

salty waves.

 

black water. Weird no?

 

turquoise!

 

that grey crust rose suddenly after some heavy rains. Water pushing up, the crust is breaking apart. Notice the black water again.

 

 

same story here but the water is rusty, and the breaking pattern is not the same either...

bits of Tanzania

 

after a big bush fire, Serengeti. Usually the strong plants don't seem to suffer from the fast moving flames. Here though it looks like a forest of white trees, burnt ...

 

Moun Meru, at dawn. Funny cloud that seems to mirror the mountain and surroundings.

 

clouds attacking Mount Monduli. The last plane crash happened in this forested area

 

Around Seronera Serengeti. If early enough one might catch an early hot air balloon, flying low and slow.

 

 

I wish I could have come closer but there was no radio contact. So in a huge effort not to fly by close, I preferred to avoid panic on their board. Am I getting smarter and more considerate with age? It reminds me a few years back when I used to buzz any truck or public bus very close...remember this is Africa. There are people on roofs too. I stopped doing these strafing exercises when I saw a panicked passenger ready to jump off one roof! Poor guy....then I restricted my targets  only to farmers, villages, Maasai shepherds...or passenger-free roofs of course.

 

the good ol' volcano Oldoinyo Lengai. One early morning, soft light, little clouds overflowing the ridge towards the crater.  I don't know what is that white stuff, why does it stay white....

 

not many changes lately.

lake Natron again II

 

another bunch about Natron. Same series as yesterday, shot within 10 min...

 

 

 

 

these two here are from the dries part. Still the colors an the patterns are wonderful.

 

 

a good example on how the colors fade away when drying out, from the left side in this example.

 

such a scenery pays off when I've got a boring day of flying...

aeroplane accidents

 

last week saw the 4th lethal accident of the year in Tanzania. A small Cessna 182 hit mount Monduli a few miles north-west of Arusha. Bad weather, inexperienced pilot... all 3 persons died  This is the 5th crash north of Arusha in 10 years or so.

that reminds me that I got my very first job in Tanzania in '99 because of a similar accident and similar conditions in '98. Weird feeling I must say. That pilot was quite experienced...so, my little self just out of a flying school, I paid a lot of attention to my 2 mentors...Tanzania is indeed a country full of free standing mountains. Kilimanjaro for instance holds 2 records, one is the highest mountain in Africa, the other one is the highest free standing mountain in the world.

last month, a police helicopter crashed a few miles off Arusha. 6 died on impact when it exploded. No known reason so far.

one nearly miss with a Caravan. I showed the pictures on this blog a few weeks ago.

And then yesterday, a real idiot was flying AGAIN north of Arusha in the clouds. Looking for a hole to dive in and find the ground, he said. One pilot jumped in on the radio and yelled at the guy: "Get the hell out of there or the only hole you'll get is a six foot-deep hole!". So luckily that idiot obeyed some common sense and left the area, in one piece, lucky him.

another real nearly miss was 2 planes that nearly collided into each other last month, while one absent-minded pilot cut off the other one, the latter and passengers only survived thanks to quick and violent action on the controls...

and should I mention the total idiot of flight engineer who after working on a Cessna 206, started the engine for a check? He forgot to put on the parking brakes and the wheels chokes, just leaned in the cockpit, nobody in the aeroplane! Of course the engine burst to life at full roaring power and the 206 left in a rush without him, crossed one runway before stopping by miracle in the grass thanks to a hole! I'm wondering if the "engineer" was, like in a good movie, running after the aircraft....

as already said, 30% of the world aviation accident happen in Africa while there is only 3% of the world traffic. And Tanzania is not even that bad if compared to Sudan or Congo...so I'd be curious to know the rate of accidents in Afghanistan or Iraq for example. One of us here has left for Iraq amidst criticisms and reminders on how dangerous Iraq is. Well it depends how one looks at it. True a missile hit makes headlines.

as for me, it has been pretty quiet. Just one idiot of a fee collector in a park who didn't seem to be in a hurry to collect the landing fee with the receipt handy. 10 planes a week in that area and he can't even do a quick job. So when I was done with the passengers and so, I started the engine and backtracked the airstrip. On turning around I was quite surprised to see his Land Rover 'parked 'across the airstrip and that clown walking away, showing me that I could now stop the engine, go and pay. Well if I can avoid wasting my time with assholes....so I saw a bit of room between the jeep and the windsock and I just took off, veering a bit off centerline, the wing zooming above the roof. Too bad I had to concentrate on the maneuver. I wish I could have seen his face.

flamingoes and lake Natron

 

sorry if it's bring to hear about flamingoes again but personally, I love the subject.

 

a very old picture, shot on film. Each pink spot is a flamingo.

 

and this morning, just a quick buzz, 100 photos. The contrast between the white feathers and the dark water makes it difficult for any camera to judge the light properly. So this time, I underexposed by 1,3 and the birds are much better...

 

...like on this one, cropped from the one above. I'm still struggling to fly and get the sharpest pictures....

 

 

 

  

these dots on the dry surface are the old nests I mentioned last month. I didn't see any grey chicks. I assume those from march are full adults by now. But what about the eggs from last month? Is it possible that they're already teenagers, flying with the big group? I must say that there are different kinds of flamingoes in the flock, some are not showing full pink wings. Maybe young ones that are not fully grown up.

 

the nests, like egg holders. Eggs here and there. Probably some that were not fertilised...

Meru again

 

view from a village

 

preparing for paragliding above the low clouds.

 

Twin Otter taking off in the morning.

 

 

the double rainbow is just visible.

in the morning, Kilimanjaro in the background .

 

 

 

 

 

Floating Meru in the mist.

 

 

and floating Kilimanjaro.

 

 

Kilimanjaro again with Meru in the foreground

versatile Mount Meru, Arusha

 

 

 

after a heavy hailstorm. Unfortunately, it melts quickly....

 

sunset.

 

slopes of Meru, slightly foggy

 

another hailstorm.  They don't happen very often though.

 

view from the airport.

 

 

Kilimanjaro on the left like a flat hat.

Lengijave the end

 

 

 

I quite like this one. I don't know why the 2 of them look like they're about to lose balance. Imposing Meru in the distance.

 

 

 

 

 

deforestation and firewood go together. Years back, the government had tried to keep fuel cheap so people wouldn't waste time and forests to cut firewood. to no avail unfortunately.

 

4 goats....not too hard to handle I suppose. Kids under 10 are often charge of a full herd of cows or goats....

 

these curves are not included in the picture. This artifact happens sometimes on internet pictures because the resolution has been heavily reduced.

 

Mount Meru dominates Lengijave area.

long flight II

 

south west of Arusha. Interesting patterns, different crops, different use of water too I suppose. I like the way the green culture perimeters are not always straight at all. It looks like each farmer got what he could grab and started to harvest.

 

 

 

these pictures are continued from the yesterday flight. In more than 7 hours, one can see a few bits of the country, from Arusha to Mahale, then  Katavi and finally Ruaha, all nat'l parks.

 

these elephants were digging holes in a dry part of the Ruaha river. Why I don't know since the river was wet a bit further. I noticed these guys just next to the airstrip before landing. So I nearly kicked my passengers' butt out of the plane and took off quickly before they disappeared....

 

 

I took off tailwind, the wrong direction, to overfly them and shot a few snaps. This one here is quite enlarged.

 

and a bit further I met these hippos. Notice the footprints on the low right part of the picture.

 

great color for the water, patterns like art drawings....

5 to 10 min between the takeoff and this shot here. Some parts of the country are really amazing, either you press your nose against the windows or the eye gets glued to the camera....but even so you'd need more than one pair of eyes. Or maybe a chameleon system would be even better.

long flight

 

 

sunrise over Mount Meru, Arusha airport. 7 am departure for more than 7h of flying. Luckily, common sense prevailed and I got the only Caravan with an autopilot today.

 

 

Ok it's only fog. Common scenery in northern countries. But here we're in Africa, close to the equator...we don't see it that often, moreover under a blue sky.

 

 

colors on the ground, human made. Probably some Dutch farmers growing flowers or something else than corn anyway....

 

 

Mt Meru. Notice the ugly white blurb that is the sun. Typical digital signature. Films were better at that excessive light. But the newer digital cameras are improving that flaw by the day.

 

clouds attacking a forest on top of the Rift Valley near Lake Manyara.

 

 

here again some different colors inside corn fields...better water system to help probably.

wildebeest migration

 

Northern Serengeti, between Kogatende and Kleins Camp to be precise, last weekend.

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