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this little dude was definitely having a blast. He was so joyful, not caring to show it whereas the others were more composed, more serious.
I really like those blurry drops of water.
even on the way, he is still full of energy.
passing by the jeep, quite close as we were not there.
artistic mud patterns.
cute, no?
last bite of food before rejoining his mates in the river.
it all started well, just one other jeep (not on the picture) and us to watch this show.
Then this other jeep came in, which is kind of fine, I can’t be that selfish and claim the place for myself. But I hate when they stop so close to the animals, worse between us and them for that matter, showing no respect for the other drivers who made an effort to stay a bit further, to give room to the animals for their activity.
Look at that mess, we had arrived there second and we got to see nothing in the end. And worse the elephants got bothered and left the place. I wish these drivers-guides were better trained. I mean some are really good, depending on the companies. These are obviously mass-market companies which don’t give a shit of quality and respect. I remember while flying for Nomad Safari for instance when I was invited by my passengers on their safaris. Another league of quality guides, well trained.
luckily there was another group a bit further. Slow shutter speed on the camera, the drops of water are “dragging” in the air. For those interested, the zoom Nikon 80-400mm in use at 1/50 sec(!) with Vibration Reduction on and a monopod. Even in high resolution the picture is sharp.
sometimes it looks like the tusks are on the way of the trunk.
they look happy in water, they’d stay in forever if they didn’t have to feed for hours as well.
then when all cleaned and refreshed, a bit of dust as make up. That is to make a protective crust against flies.
pretty zebra running down the hill….
crossing a small patch of water. Like many animals living in groups, if one starts some action, the others tend to follow no matter what. One zebra started to run and cross the water, and the others followed. There was no apparent danger. Just trust….one might think: “well if this guy starts to run, he might know something I don’t know…”
that reminds of a flying story in some air force. 2 pilots in one jet. The front one, the student, loses something on the floor, so he bends over and picks the thing. In the meantime, the rear pilot, the instructor, is doing something else. When he doesn’t see the student’s head in front, he gets a shock and just uses the ejection seat in a flash of a second! He thought the front pilot had done the same for whatever emergency! He should have thought of the sudden blast of air and noise that would have kicked him…anyway, the student pilot feels all of that blast and ejects too in a flash of a second, thinking that if the qualified experienced instructor ejected, there was some good reasons for that, and he, the ‘rookie’ is just the usual piece of shit not in a position to argue with him…so a perfectly safe plane was destroyed for nothing.
a redunca (un redunca aussi en français), a bit of a shy and rare gazelle, as far as I know only seen near fresh water when it is available. He then doesn’t seem to wander away till water lasts.
I was hoping for the perfect reflection again for close up but bad luck with the grass.
long line of zebras following whatever “leader” in front of them, whatever happened to make him move.
the elephants for whatever other reasons go the opposite way. Of course, if communication can be crap between humans, imagine between elephants and zebras.
elephants…one can spend a lot of time observing them and not being bored.
as I mentioned earlier, we had wandered away from the main visited and known areas. To no avail, so we came back to the Tarangire River and surroundings. We didn’t see too many jeeps though. The global crisis is still on full swing. Here is a little swamp near the river. Elephants always happily bathe in mud or water. Always, just like kids.
covered in mud.
the little one experienced some difficulty to walk across the soft mud but he managed. Elephant foot prints in mud are the size of a big water bucket. That’s why landing after an engine failure in a pond, dry or wet, is not a good choice at all. The landing gear would mostly likely get ripped off, the plane would cartwheel…
tying knots?
he was fine, no worry, just basking in the sun.
clumsy or drunk elephant. He had a funny way to stand.
a little one breastfeeding. Notice the palm tree. Far away from the ocean. It always amazes me, I don’t know why.
another nearby pond. A lone elephant crossing zebras…
more zebras looking for shade.
zebras with an attitude. I had hoped for some fight but one shied away quickly…too quickly.
chewing male impala.
impalas and elephants sharing territory
a fish eagle, dubbed the Voice of Africa. The squeal is superb indeed, a real melody.
and we had our lunch on a river bank, just ourselves! Lovely!
elephants greeting each others.
male impala in front of a termites’ nest
the same with his buddies.
female impala (no horn) in a herd of other females, only one male to keep some order and enjoy benefits of this harem.
bushfires…it looks desolated but a few rains will make new grass shout quickly. There is a big debate to know if those fires are an ecological disaster or not in the long run. Soil depletion, smokes, dead animals…but the new grass definitely grows quicker when the old dry grass has burnt. A real disaster can happen when the rangers start a controlled fire that get out of control…
from far the land looks awful, destroyed. But coming close, some green shoots are there.
Partially burnt tree. Why did it turn orange…? It got cooked?
Las Tres Gracias…The Three Graces.
that was Oliver’s camp, a luxury tented camp. Quite nice too but more conventional than the Tree Tops.
this is part of a bigger herd of elephants. From this distance, about 50 metres or so, they were still quiet but as soon as we came closer, they got nervous…
and left the place very soon. This elephant here is a bit reddish with mud.
There were some babies around but that didn’t explain their nervousness. I’m afraid something has been bothering them. There might have been some poaching activity. Sad but true fact whatever the officials and other clowns will tell you. Like any officials in the world.
this elephant kept on coming towards us, performing mock charges. Maybe mock but this elephant was just convincing enough to make me think of starting the engine. Just…
they crossed the main track and went to the dry swamp where they rejoined the rest of the herd.
except a few individuals, I got the full herd on this picture. Quite a big family. A bit more than 30.
vast dry swamp. There are a few in the park.
Tarangire is a convenient large park, a bit more than one hour drive drive from Arusha, depending on the jeeps…with my Land Rover, no speed record will be broken for sure!
kissing and tree hugging…
searching for shade.
female ostrich, easy to spot as they are brown/beige. The males are black and white.
a beautiful lilac-breasted roller seen from below (un rollier à poitrine lila ou rollier à longs brins selon les écoles)
same roller in full rear view.
lilac is quite the right adjective…
bad luck for the grasshopper.
a giant termites’ mound. About 4 meter high!
one the many secondary tracks, where we hardly met anybody. Which is always nice for solitude, calm, and eye comfort. A herd of colorful noisy tourists always hurts my retinas and the rest…
the track served as a fire breaker. I love those hatches on the roof!
a southern ground-hornbill, in a horny state, looking for a female. So his neck gets all bright red and swollen. (un bucorve du sud, famille du calao)
the weather was rather dull in the morning. The clouds only disappeared in the afternoon. The mountain here is coiffed by some typical clouds when they follow a relief. Coming from the left, they climb over the mountain and lose humidity. When they come down, the cloud base has changed and is much higher since there is less humidity. This feat is called Foehn effect.
fallen baobab but hanging there, surviving.
a rare full blossomed baobab. Notice the yellowish flowers. The trunk has been damaged as usual by elephants ripping off bits of bark.
details of damages due to elephants. They rip off long bits of bark, like peeling a banana.
dwarf mongooses on a termites’ mound. They dig some holes for shelter.
self belly scratching.
forest scenery in one area…
or swamp a bit further.
but another forest not too far.
bloody internet AGAIN today…late now, so just a quick post today.
some neighbors, far enough to my liking.
view from the lounge.
reception area around a baobab.
safari pictures coming tomorrow….
maybe I didn’t insist a lot yesterday but this luxury experience is not wasted on me. I enjoyed that room, the scenery, the perfect ‘Out of Africa’ feeling… but I still love camping as well. I haven’t become middle-class to that extent! I’m still on “the green knees by the end of the day” thing…
I’ve been asked to shoot the premises at Kimemo Cottages for the brochures etc. So a bit of training on interior pictures doesn’t hurt.
refreshment most welcome at the end of the day.
not an original picture I know but one feels biased when this kind of scenery happens on your balcony. Room with a view, definitely.
this luxury camp is located just outside the Tarangire park boundaries. One of the advantages is that night game drives are allowed. So we did one, hoping to see the leopards that had been spotted the day before. The powerful searchlight came handy to help for the pictures. No luck for that and any lions or elephants. But still, we were thrived to spot our first spring hare (un lièvre sauteur). OK just a hare you might say. But as anything I spot for the first time is interesting, especially on rare night game drives…admit the thing is hilarious, doesn’t it look like a kangaroo? I don’t know about kangaroos (Sarah, some help?) but spring hares leap up to 4m! Not bad for such a little rodent.
there was also a pair of bat-eared foxes (des otocyons, des renards quoi)
the usual zebras
and impalas.
so we went for a long weekend in the Tarangire Tree Tops camp. No camping as you can see. I had tried to use the tent on the Land Rover. I was told that: 1, the weather was too cold and humid (true I admit) and that :2, the tent was probably bug riddled (I didn’t check anyway after point nr 1 was made clear). So luxury accommodations it will be. This camp is located just outside the Tarangire nat’l park. Initially I thought I had taken the wrong dirt track because people ignored us, kids didn’t run to ask for money, there were no tourist shops and linked speed humps to force you to slow down(nice booby trap, whichever was there first, the hump or the shop)…that was definitely not the usual commercial drive to lodges, camps and parks. I admit I had foul thoughts on the issue.
Tree Tops, aptly named. Those baobabs in the area are magnificent.
all rooms with view, large vistas.
the closest neighbor. That changes from the factory lodges where you can hear the farts…
graphic composition everyway you look at it.
baobab fruit, the size of an orange. For whatever reasons, baobabs look dead most of the time. They don’t even blossom together…
just a quick post today. I’m busy preparing a safari this weekend, leaving tomorrow late morning, hopefully.
pretty unusual pink garment for an old Masai man…
typical way to carry a kid. Mom and kid wear matching purple colors.
young girl in school uniform
top and low clothes matching in local fashion, very common in Tanzania.
sifting maize.
bottom of the Rift Valley, near lake Natron. Inhospitable but beautiful country.
poor little girl, already at work with laundry…
I wonder what the Masai man thinks of the Sportsman cigarette advert with the horse…Masai don’t buy bullshit very easily.
Loliondo, a village near Serengeti, that is quite visited by missionaries and useful NGO’s. Here a water pump has been installed. It still looks like an awful lot of work to carry 20 lt of water on one’s head, but the distance to the bush has been reduced, the reliability has been improved…and women can see friends and chat while queuing.
Endulen, near Ngorongoro, another village that is equipped with various amenities. Different ways to carry water.
this is not a picnic site while en route to another faraway village. This is the “restaurant” in an hospital. Explanation: none of the hospitals I’ve seen in Tanzania feed their patients. The problem comes from the funding. So it’s up to the patients’ family and friends to take care of this issue. That was sometimes a problem for us when we had to fly a patient to a hospital and leave family members or friends behind for lack of space in the small airplane. They had to walk to the hospital, 2 days away in some cases. In the bush better count in hours or days than in kilometers… even if the feeders arrived 2 days later, that didn’t mean the patient was left to starve: the Masai sense of belonging kicked in, or other tribe, and other patient’s people already present in the hospital would advance some food and money before being paid back (in theory, money lending is a risky activity in Africa). So here are 2 Masai women cooking for patients. Obviously, after I saw this, I said to myself I’d never complain again about military or hospital food in Belgium. Mom was a bit shocked too when I had her visit this hospital, Endulen, some years back. She had wanted to see all the aspects of my life in Africa, which was brave but I guess I had toned down my earlier descriptions or was not clear enough. It’s probably difficult to render the cramped wards, sometimes 2 patients in one bed, the crowd in each ward (forget the concept of visiting hours or patient’s rest or maximum number of visitors). Then there is the basic equipments, the lack of comfort, the heat, the ugly wounds from animals or fighting…to be on the spot with all your senses assaulted is another experience than to read or listen about it…
old Masai man on his way to the hospital. Notice his big eye bulging out. He was complaining of headaches. Some serious tests were waiting for him. Striking face otherwise.
Arusha, knife sharpener. The guy is pushing the pedals backwards, seated on a second saddle on his Chinese bike frame. The grinding stone is linked by a cable to the wheel rim. Very smart and simple.
Kigoma, kids selling fruit. Scared by the camera. Soul stealing belief probably.
Kigoma, near center town. Don’t waste your time visiting that town…except if you’re a journalist or something like that.
I was stuck there for a few days, waiting for a spare part for the aircraft. Nothing to do. So i shot a bit. Then after that some luckily shorter visits…
looks like a monster silhouette made by fingers
and this KIMEMO, for Kilimanjaro, Meru and Monduli, the neighboring mountains. This is the center where I lately put some pictures on exhibition. Maybe I’ll organise a proper exhibition here. 5 nice cottages for long term visitors, and a center will all amenities.
lake Manyara can offer the same salt patterns as Eyasi but for some reasons, it was that day more flooded. Different rain pattern or more inlets.
lots of escarpments in the area.
salt marks but only on the edge.
mostly brownish tones. I’ve never seen red colors here as with lake Natron.
Ngorongoro mountains underneath the clouds.
the beach, the salt marks in white, then some brackish waters.
some weather phenomenon must explain why those clouds stubbornly stayed over the Ngorongoro crater.
a river carving its way through.
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