we left on Saturday 15th Dec but not very far. Alternator failure but not Murphy's law failure. I don't use the car usually, doing most of my errands on the bicycle.
So I really started to use the Land Rover again for the exhibition, with no problem of course. It had to break down that day. Anyway we managed to get it changedquite easily but too late for the 6 hour-drive to Ndutu before dark. I'm not blaming the Landie, after all, she is a venerable old lady...she used to be abused while serving as a commercial safari vehicle...sure the mileage shown on meter is not correct for instance.
off again next day. Rains on Ngorongoro crater but mostly clear on Ndutu area. Ndutu lies on the outside of the crater, just short of Serengeti. But the scenery is similar past the forest and the lakes. I've been dozens of times to this lovely lodge, never been disappointed. Warm welcome, good food, quiet, excellent location, cozy... and quiet again! No touristy attractions like dancers, acrobats and musicians every bloody night. I had to suffer through this in most of my duty nights while flying away in different lodges. Camps and some smaller lodges don't go through this but we pilots were seldom sent there unfortunately.
30km short of the lodge, a horrific loud metallic noise made me pile on the brakes. The front propeller shaft had ripped apart! Again, such an old lady (20 years) requires a bit of forgiveness...no phone signal, only a little tool box and a pair of binoculars to get us out of there. The binoculars were for Karine to scan for any bloodthirsty predators tempted by 2 legs sticking out from below the car. It took me nearly me 2 hours and many curses to f...designers to remove 4 bloody nuts. Why do designers don't work on their own creations? It's a bit like architects who don't live in the houses, specially modern ones, they've designed. So we just finished the trip with a 2wd Landie.
this time, we really took time to draw some sketches, use more our old cameras, ranging from old Russian cameras( Zorki), Mamiya 6x6 medium film format, Polaroid, Leica M, and even infrared films. Curious to see the results of the latter, when/if I find how to process these films. When I say drawing, I mean not only copying or taking inspiration from existing images but also on the spot with live animals a coupla meters away. I thought that was utter privilege: time for that activity as opposed to some tourist attitude, too often heard "got my picture, let's go". Rushing from one animal to the other, one lodge to the other....
here are some examples, all drawn on the spot.
view from Seronera airstrip
red-billed hornbills.
I was having lunch too, like these squirrels.
The 3 watercolors above were done while I was waiting between
2 flights or staying overnight in a lodge. Just watching wildlife
and trying to be quick.
Ndutu Safari Lodge, some genets (nothing to do with cats)
chose the lodge roof for playground. A lot of fun to observe.
and outside the lodge...these elephants wouldn't stay still. So I had to
observe and split their movements. This one really had his trunk over the tusk.
but lions stay still, too much I'd say.
I even got time for a watercolor! Lazy buggers...
