Ben Wilhelmi

Chimps, the end

Hi chicks,

so that place near Ndola was a sanctuary, not really planned as such. Which means the local environment doesn't quite fit the chimpanzees needs. They have to be fed everyday. Hence the cages here. When feeding time comes in, the chimps are brought into cages so to give a chance for everyone to get food and milk. Otherwise just throwing food across the fences means only the strong guys would eat properly. Aggressivity and selfishness are common traits in the chimp world too.

notice they drink from the cups through the grids. Otherwise these little punks keep them. Anything will do as a toy. Anything attracts their attention. Cameras, hats, sunglasses....some smart idiots like to tease the chimps. But the chimps being smarter than we think pretend to try to grab something the arm across the grids, pretend that they can't reach further. So the visitor is having fun standing there one inch short of the hand. Then all of a sudden, the chimp manages to push his arm out a bit further by dislocating his shoulder and gets his target, to the visitor's dismay and surprise! Now it's time for patience to convince the proud thief to give the thing back in exchange of extra food.

after feeding time they go back in the park as you've seen a few days ago.

some chimpanzees stay in cages: the young orphans up to puberty to keep them safe from the adults. These are the ones we can approach and play with. They obviously love attention, love to play with people, groom anybody and expect to be groomed in turn even if there is no flea. It's just a social thing. Anything unsual will do to have fun, like drinking water. They have of course a big bowl of water in the big cage but they prefer to drink from our bicycle bottles with the typical cap or from the outside barrel that had just filled up after heavy rains.

and 2 or 3 adults stay in cages too: one aggressive lunatic who can't adapt to the social life. The new arrived adults also need a bit of time to heal, eat again properly, get some medicine, get used to each other by proximity first then closer contact. And finally a coupla hopeless escape artists are also confined.

nevertheless the area is fenced including with electricity, they sometimes manage to escape. Including one famous successful attempt: one tree had grown branches long enough above the fence. They noticed, all walked on that branch to make it bend lower with their weight and a few tried the jump outside. Then the branch came up again, so it took a while to notice the great escape and figure out how they did! It was apparently quite a circus to get them back in, thanks to food trap and lure of course.

chimps are also famous for using tools, like here a stick to clean ears.

one chimp came from Arusha! Kept in a bar for years to distract clients who were invited to pay her a drink, similar case with any bar chimp. One was such an alcoholic when she finally arrived here that the treatment was just the plain regular one as for any alcoholic human. Same symptoms, same cure, same reactions. To that day she still first raises her cup of milk to every visitor as if holding a shot of whisky!

so you see my reasons to send first the pictures where they were roaming free? The cages look a bit bleak but they are there for good reasons.

cheers ben

Lengai once more

Once again around the volcano Lengai. Notice the dry golden grass around that big crater. It was briefly green after some rains then got burnt again by the ashes apparently.

Above: a big puddle had appeared on top after a night storm, on the secondary plateau. I had never seen that in my years here. The thick layer of ashes would have created a waterproof layer. Within a few days, the water evaporated, the marks are very visible. And since then some activity damaged the smooth surface. Rocks expelled from the other plateau trashed the area.

and notice around the plane, my angel halo is radiating around :-)

seriously those halos appear all the time when the plane is excatly between a cloud and the sun. Must be some diffraction through the windows or reflection due to the white paint?

Ciao ben

Lengai bis

hi guys,

some pictures of the day. Lot of ashes again lately. It just doesn't stop belching, black smoke usually but all the grey tones down to white are also available. Poor people around must go thru hard times again.

cheers ben

A bit of everything

Hi guys,

sorry dead busy these days, night stops and no days off...so I'm just sending a bit of everything. I'll resume the biking pix later on.

the volcano is still belching smoke nearly everyday, plumes going up to 20.000 ft (6000m). Then one morning there was even a small pond of rain water on, never seen heard that before! It stayed on top for a few days (see below).

It appeared overnight after a storm I suppose. By the way I've been published in a volcano magazine, incl the front cover. So yes i'm a bit proud but this is no Nat'l Geographic unfortunately...

some aircraft pictures, flying formation, even with my boss. I was really impressed! We flew much closer than that but this picture further was better. Notice the beautiful Mount Kilimanjaro in the background.

then Mohamed, my colleague on a F406, zoomed passed another day (below).

Too fast, 90 miles faster than a Caravan, too close to my surprise, i had put a too big lens on. That's why I couldn't frame him properly. A passenger is waving, another one taking a picture. So the next time he did, I used a smaller lens and we go, plane complete in the box (below).

Above, one of our Caravans flying above lake Manyara.

Above, a C206 from Flying Medical Service, my old team, above the Ngorongoro forest.

Above, a Beech 1900, not our plane but such a beautiful light around it.

Above, the F406, and a serious dark cloud announcing a big storm on Mount Meru.

off 2 days in mombasa tomorrow! Curious to visit that town.

ciao ben

Zambia

this stall was selling dry fish in little homemade baskets. As with any fish that has been dried, the smell was awful.

Zambia is a big country and on that main road to Lusaka, it ws a bit too much of the same boring scenery. So we hit a ride on a pick up for 100 km or so. One day to see something else.

we hired a little boat and cruised a bit on a river, just for to relax a bit. Then there were those crocodles here and there. At least some wildlife.

this woman was living far off any powerline so she managed to receive a solar panel to power her house. It's a pity in Africa to enjoy so much solar exposition all year long and absolutely zero investments in solar energy. Instead the governements let the people trash the forests, let hem waste a big amount of time doing this, let them pay a high prices for fuel....

one convoy of humanitarian aid going to Malawi. There had been a scandal that year: some high ranking officials in humanitarian sector (and that is white people included) would have declared an emergency where there was none, just to keep their jobs and subsidies...

mountainous area, dry and burnt out as often in Zambia. Burning seems to be a national occupation there. Clear the old grass is the reason behind. But to that extent was extreme there.

Witchcraft

poor kids when they have to learn to write their name...

witchcraft in Africa is sill a big factor unfortunately. Dead bodies dug out of tombstones or people killed for body parts that are required for the curses. In Mbeya by the way, which is famous for witchcraft it is quite common to find fresh dead bodies that have been skinned. Influence from the Congo. How come I'm not surprised by this...some forms are more gentle like here, mostly roots for sale, on a day market. It nearly looked like in a bad novel where frog's bladder, or spider's sperm or bat's eyelids and whatever weird potion is for sale...

by now, you know that I'm concerned by environment, and that i haven't been too impressed so far by deforestation. Well here in malawi, in a remote place, we found a forest, a nice one, not trashed, not exploited. And tehre was even an environment center in the middle of it. That lady gave us a lecture about how she and her colleagues were trying to organise visit for schools. They teach awareness, the importance of forest mostly. But they also explain alternatives to using food for cooking, like with this solar oven made of cardboard and aluminium foils. Nevertheless we were on a tight budget, we happily left a donation. Such a rare touch of optimism when it comes to saving the trees.

a reasonably isolated riverbank, we had another bath. The kids didn't notice us luckily so we had some privacy.

cheers ben