Ben Wilhelmi

just quit my job

 

all is said in the title...I have resigned yesterday.

I will now enjoy life a little bit more here, have time, have real weekends with my girlfriend, have the Land Rover run again in the bush, have the ability to make plans more than a day in advance...

I will have time to draw a little bit more, take my bike in the bush, just around Arusha for a day or two with camping gear.

Karine and I will finally find time to go to Nairobi, to see friends more often...

and of course I'm starting to look for a another job, probably abroad, some short term contracts, and take the leave in between here. It can't be harder on our couple than it was so far with only 2 weekends off a year! She came here to enjoy Africa too and finally didn't have so many opportunities because of my work.

more than 9 years flying in Tanzania...one could think that is plenty and that it is time to move on. True but at the same time, this is such a beautiful country to fly over and bring photographs...

and as for the Let 410, the bigger twin engine aircraft I was to train on, too bad but the delay is nearly over a year now, and the instructor was still nowhere to be seen anyway...

lake Natron, new coat, part III

 

lake Natron, last part. Except the pictures of a delta, all the other pictures below are details of a dry, or near totally, crust. Colors in turn are not that bright. But the patterns remains striking.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

lake Natron, new coat part II

 

lake Natron is located in the Rift Valley, in northern Tanzania, a hot and dry area.  The word "valley' is not very striking in many places because it measures a few thousand miles. So sometimes there are huge chunks of flat bits. When I arrived here in '99, I had imagined a huge Grand Canyon or something. Here below is a part of the SW part of the lake, where cliffs can be as high as 2000 feet and pretty steep but the opposite shore is flat.

 

 

the black part is still wet, drying out towards white.

 

I was really pleased to see "new" patterns and mixes with blue color. In my experience of the lake and seasons, blue only shows up on dry patches.

 

the same here, though turning steel blue/grey.

 

 

good old wet red color

 

 

 

this came as a surprise. This marble pattern in blue...Unusual. Must be my first picture like that.

 

towards a delta, some water tries to find a path through the salt crust.

 

the receding marks are well visible here. Next rains should only come in late October.

 

Lake Natron, new coat, part I

 

I have been flying overhead this lake hundreds of times and it still manages to surprise me with new tones, new patterns, new colors...and it was cloudy that day which doesn't help for bright  exposures. And still the results are quite striking.

I used the Nikon D200 with Karine's 50MM f:1,4, excellent luminous lens for big shutter speeds when flying slow and low! Most of these pictures below have been shot between 6000th and 8000th sec to freeze the movement; Sorry for those of you who are not technical ...

 

broad view, south western side

 

details of the grey tones. Pretty common scenery when the surfaces are really dry.

 

 

multiple layers, a sense of depth though the surface is a typical salt surface, that is really flat.

 

 

a little further, the colors darkened. Not too rare scenery.

 

 

and this is quite new, though not that bright nor striking, but blue and red together is a novelty for me. This surface is totally dried out which explains the dullness.

 

the opposite here with blue dominating, still a first...more wet maybe?

 

 

a lot of blue, even some purple in the background.

 

 

bright red wet patterns surrounded by dry white or brown patterns were also new to me.

 

classic one.

 

and a variation but classic too. The brighter red color is wet, the pinkish one is drying out.

more of Zanzibar

 

 

 

one second vision...

 

2 old friends greeting each other. That can take some time in Tanzania. I used to joke that after asking the news for every relative, one can start to ask about the chickens in the garden...Not politically correct I have been told....

 

 

ice-cream they say...I'm longing for Häagen-Dazs for instance or the nice one from a parlor called Gelati here in Arusha

 

 

other old friends

 

Romeo and Juliet if we are to believe the clothing...

 

Hindu door I guess.

 

 

old building being restored in a posh hotel.

 

 

 

hard life....

 

public transport. The bus doesn't go, as everywhere, till it is full, really full.

 

sugar cane juice machine. In the background, under  the caption "zanzibar pizza", one could read on the high resolution picture "banana chocklate".

 

 

 

Royal Beauty, yes M'aam...hope the hair dresser is better than the painter.

Royal...funny from an ex-communist country.

 

 

funny passenger...

 

sometimes passengers make me laugh. And of course they're not all as bad as I describe them usually.

-female passenger: "are you our pilot today?"

-me: "yes..."

-passenger: " cool, can I sit up front next to you?"

-me: "sure" (though normally I tend to discourage copilots...)

-passenger: "great, thanks, because you know I'm already 7 years old and I've never sat next to a pilot!"

-me (managing to stay reasonably serious): "wow, indeed it is high time to correct that fact!"

The parents were laughing big time behind of course.

 

sometimes it is not so funny. There are a few female pilots around. One is all blonde, quite young and petite. One day a woman passenger looked a bit dissatisfied when she realised the pilot was a she. She tried to conceal her feelings but couldn't help asking:

"hmmm, so you're our pilot but tell me you 're Ok and that you don't suffer from any neurological disorders..."!!

I just can't believe it...some passengers should be shot dead or at least sterilized...

 

on another note just one photo today. I spent a night in Mahale nat'l park last week in one of "my" previous camps. Lots of memories of course. The night was warm and clear. So around the camp fire I took some partial pictures of the Milky Way and the fire together. Lots of trials and a bit of camera twisting. Far from perfect but good enough for the atmosphere I think...

 

 

for those who are interested, I put the camera in the bulb position, shot the fire quickly then still keeping the shutter depressed, I moved the camera and framed the sky, holding the camera firm on the chair. This is kind of double exposure which explains the white dots, that is the stars, around the fire, for those who noticed and wondered.

Lengai with different coats and lighting

 

 

the volcano Oldoinyo Lengai recently...it looks it has (unfortunately) gone asleep again. For another 40 years? I'm told that there was a big forest on top of this volcano about 100 years ago!

 

 

 

in distant slight haze

 

one early morning

 

a few months ago. Bright white ash. The Ngorongoro mountains in the background

 

 

last month, some old ash leftover

 

 

    

all the pictures below were shot last week,one  late afternoon after some rains had cleared the atmosphere.

 

I was flying as a passenger for a change.

 

nice visibility for a change....

 

 

 

just before Arusha...still visible, quite unusual...

surprise with zebras II

 

 

all females, dunno what this one was 'looking' for....

 

 

 

 

     

just having fun at close range, less than one meter in the one just above, with the 12mm lens. Nevertheless these things looked tame, I got charged a little bit a coupla times, like the picture on the top right with the ears folded backwards. And twice, one zebra turned around and was ready to kick backwards!

 

 

nice teeth...

 

 

birth marks probably on these two individuals

 

surprise with zebras

 

a little break from Zanzibar....

 

2 days ago I had a night stop in Kigoma in a big hotel. Run by a previous boss, the owner of the trashed plane pictures I showed here a few weeks ago... this company is also involved into poach....sorry hunting. So I remember that the hotel lounge is full of stuffed animals, the so-called trophies. I only accept the word 'trophy' if the hunter killed the poor beast with a knife for example, not cowardly with a gun.

Anyway I'm now walking in the big garden and see a zebra 2 meters away from me and think: "ah a stuffed zebra is a new one, but why put this in the garden exposed to the weather?" and I walk past. Then in the corner of my eye, I see a movement and get surprised because the thing is well alive! A live zebra in a fenced hotel? That's a new one to me. Then I spotted a few more around. 7 or so, all females, for family planning I guess.

view from the restaurant. Lake Tanganyika in the background

 

for once I could shoot close-ups, I walked around them and had some fun, looking for details ....

 

 

like these eyelashes. I didn't know they grew so long.

 

 

zebras port stripes, right? Would you have said simple stripes, more or less parallel? Like above?

 

 

 

not only! there are many irregularities, dead end, curves, spots... interesting patterns which are unique to each animal like a fingerprint.

 

 

 

 

 

more like donkey ears, no?

funny enough I expected to get some allergic reactions , like with horses. I've spent a lot of time around the zebras, shooting and drawing, with the wind facing me at times. And I was fine. Nice surprise. Too bad zebra riding is not an available activity. Illegal for once to tamper with wildlife (except hunting) and also their spine is not as strong as a horse's one.

quick one on Zanzibar

 

 

culture shock...tourists are asked to dress decently as to not offend the locals blablah. So even the blonde chick doesn't meet the requirements because of her bare shoulders! And some girls are just dressed in a hot way as if strutting on some European or American beaches...

 

 

shoes, like many things, have many lives in Africa.

 

looks like a waste of space in such narrows streets but for shade purpose maybe that's the reason....

 

 

   

plentiful choice, not sure he'll ever get rich...

 

Zanzibar, some colors

 

 

 

 

 

 

narrow doors...I'd tend to think that the typical African Mama size is quite new on the continent. Don't accuse me of whatever, it is an official statement from a West African Health dept  that obesity is on the rise in Africa.

 

I nearly wish no restoration will ever happen...

 

real action is quite rare on the Coast, except if a vehicle is involved...unfortunately for the road statistics.

 

 

coconut snack.

 

 

hmmm, colors...ah yes the blue bag....

 

public transport in Z'bar. The space on the roof is of course not wasted...

 

 

 

the usual tourist booby trap. These paintings are available all over Tanzania and maybe Kenya. Henry Ford's style: one dude is busy with the red color, followed by Mr Yellow, himself followed by  Mr Silhouette and so on...

 

Muslim Grandpa with RayBan and sport shoes....