Ben Wilhelmi

US Route 66, Arizona

 

if I were the owner, I’d put a billboard on top and have bigger letters. I bet he is not even Indian.

 

around Flagstaff

 

my car was about half the size of this beauty. What’s the fuel consumption of this?

 

here is common scene. I wonder it is done on purpose to give a special touch to the Route 66.

 

 

I visited once or twice such shops and lost interested very quickly. Touristy curios shops are rarely interesting anywhere. No better here.

 

I remember some strong wind here, a panel was being rocked against something, the restaurant doors were squealing, old wooden crumbling barracks, this wreck was left in a oblivious place for everybody to admire. The owner definitely wanted to keep the property in an orderly so-called wild and old place. Bagdad Café or so.

 

another thing to the glory of the 66.

 

general view

 

for the colors. Why “Canada” mart, I don’t know.

 

imagine this place in the movie “American Graffiti”.

 

just in case you manage to get lost, there are reminders all over. Having said that, these huge letters are useful for lost pilots. Flying low and slow allows to read the town name. I’ve once wished that Belgian villages would have the same feature. Because a regular road sign is bloody hard to read from an aircraft….

Petrified Forest Park, Arizona and around.

some more pictures of Painted Desert below.

 

 

next door to Painted Desert lays this other wonder, Petrified Forest.

the area is peppered with those bits of petrified trees. The trunks broke down neatly because of their weight, thus heavy like stone. They haven’t been chopped by humans. Dating back 200 million years, these giant trees were growing on a delta. They died and were covered by sediments rich in silica which helped to preserve their structure. The silica slowly replaced the vegetal matter and the trees got fossilized. Erosion and other geological factors brought the trees in sight again.

 

 

 

 

 

 

back on the road. Unfortunately the Route 66 has been decommissioned in the 80’s, replaced by the Interstate 40. So one drives in fact only on that I 40 if wished. Or as I did, leave the I 40 whenever there is an old loop of the Route 66 that survives. Business has been hit hard by that Interstate of course. Mexican food! Finally! I had been craving for it.

in hotels, shops, fuel stations, people hardly spoke to me so far. Only other motorists were keen to start a chat. C’mon, the car had a Missouri plate, I had a worse French accent than now and that was way before the fucking Freedom Fries issue…I had to wait for California, more open-minded people and less rednecks around I suppose to get people interested and curious by the rest of the world. Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas…leaving up to their reputation apparently. That reminds me Texas in 93 where the bank employee (supposedly educated?) had put Belgium as a small island near Australia!! I swear I don’t make this up. At least she was partially right…on “small”. And some of our nationalists behave as if on an island, true.

 

those so-called wigwams were made in concrete! Not even canvass…poor taste if you ask me.

 

the station was closed. For good apparently nevertheless the gas board.

 

talking of poor taste…pretty ugly. At least the “visually impaired” know where they are.

 

not in Chicago nor Los Angeles. Maybe the 66 was extended from here

Painted Desert Park, Arizona.

 

 

a park that can be described as badlands. Dry, hostile…but for the eye of course. This scenery above is not an aerial picture.

 

some rocks have been decorated by Indian tribes ages ago.

 

layers everywhere.

 

 

 

more layers.

 

a dream for taking pictures. I’ve spent hours there whereas other people just stopped for a few seconds, the time they needed for a snap.

 

 

did I mention the layers already?

canyon de Chelly, Anasazi village, Arizona.

 

 

I was dreaming of trekking and camping in there.

 

 

 

a sheer cliff with a lot of colors or different but similar tones.

 

here is a troglodyte village. It must have been a hard work to build a pueblo on a cliff. These Anasazi Indians disappeared before the Conquistadores arrived and had a chance to wipe them out. It is another advanced civilization that keeps the researchers busy.

 

 

these ancient pieces of art are numerous in the neighboring states too. This one is big, compare with the house (below).

 

 

surviving in this arid environment must require some skills. Though researchers suspect the area must have been more humid some centuries ago.

 

on US Route 66 and around.

I enjoyed cruising on that historic Route 66 but mostly for the scenery. I didn’t care for the museums and curios shops etc. So I went around, like here below in Arizona, towards canyon de Chelly, the Pueblo of Zuni, or Shiprock in New Mexico…

 

snow!! near deserts, that doesn’t fail to surprise me. Dark clouds promising more snow.

 

even fog…

 

wonderful vistas. That helps to keep pace with the awful 55 mile speed limit!

 

 

Shiprock, 550m high, named after the sail shape. Holy site for the Navajos. The Indian settlements are usually pretty sad sightings. Poverty, alcoholism…they must really regret the good welcome to the Mayflower pilgrims. I always give a lift to hitch hikers, in memory of my hiking days. I thought it would be even more “rewarding” to give a lift to Indians and listen to stories. Though sometimes rough stories, they were always interesting. One legend was about the superb turquoise stones: the hiker, who was already reeking alcohol early morning and refused I took his picture, told me that warriors had left a pueblo to fight the US cavalry. The women and children were left behind and attacked by the US soldiers. They begged and cried for mercy to no avail. Their tears became turquoise stones.

 

 

 

those Indians shacks remind me of the poor African ones I’ve seen here.

 

 

 

 

 

never boring to drive in Arizona.

 

entering canyon de Chelly.

 

 

flying under bridge, end of seaplane flying

 

this post should be set before the Missouri floods..

 

not the lowest bridge, true. But just for a first and since I was just out of school, that was not too bad.

 

 

I swear I’m flying, not just floating.

 

a moment of utter happiness!

 

 

and now flying for the 100$ hamburger. That’s as a rule of thumb the price of a hamburger when one takes a plane to go for lunch. There were some marinas around, peppered with jet skis, little boats, sail surf…full of guys showing off. But dwarfed to nothing by this guy beaching on the sand with a seaplane, heehee. To get out of the beach means pushing the plane back in the water first, then stand on one float and use the paddle to turn around, start the engine, move slowly around all these jealous people and finally take off.

 

 

to be honest, there is an exception for flying legally below bridges, well more a loophole in fact. When you need to land or take off you are allowed to come close to ground and obstacles. So a river to land on might have a bridge nearby the precise landing spot I had chosen…

Flying in flooded Missouri

March 97, I was training for my pilot’s license in St Charles, Missouri, near St Louis. There were serious floods over Missouri and neighboring states. The Mississipi River was the culprit.

 

 

 

 

 

funny feeling to fly overhead such a devastated area…

 

 

 

  

following the River, some cliffs.

 

 

 

 

something of Belgium?

 

 

once in a while, even the best succumb for a silly picture…me at the controls of a Mitchell B25.

 

but I flew this vintage one, not so glorious I agree. An Aeronca Champ. ‘Champ’… except for the name, there was not much champ about it. But made in 1946, fabrics, wood, start the engine by hand, hardly no instruments…that appealed to me. And still does.

 

 

after my final exams and the hangover*, I was itching for good weather. It had been pissing rains for weeks…so the Gateway Arch or Gateway to the West is all I saw of St Louis. It looks like I didn’t miss much according to the grapevine…The Route 66 starts in Chicago but I jumped on it here. Too bad for the 500 km stretch I missed. I had invitations to many places in America, as there were few Missourian student pilots at the flying school. But Route 66 or at least part of it, and the famous parks rank top on my list. The old car I had bought was an old Dodge. From Europe that sounds like a mythical name. A name associated with a muscle car, right? Nope it was just a small car based on a French design, the Horizon Talbot, nothing juicy really. I was tempted by a superb Chevrolet Stingray from ‘65 but the guy wouldn’t bargain. Africa was for later. The Americans can’t build or manufacture anything small so they buy designs somewhere else. I can hear my chauvinist friend Damian W say “Dude, we leave the small shit to the rest of the world to keep it busy”.

* one of the rare hangovers in my life as I normally don’t drink. But there was no way to escape from fellow pilots: threats, sweet talking (something with Belgians and beer), promises of hot chicks at the bar, pole dancing…they would have attached and feed me the medieval way otherwise.

 

weather got better in Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas but it went awful again in New Mexico. Sante Fe was blocked by a snow storm, unreachable by normal road. Pretty sad…something cultural for a change would have been nice. So I sped up to Arizona.

aerial scenery from the seaplane near Yosemite

after I got my the seaplane rating, I wanted to visit a bit the area and fly in mountains or in canyons. I thought that “canyoning ops” as my instructor called that might be useful in Africa. And I was right: fly low and slow, tight turns, learn to know the turbulence in a rugged terrain…So since Calaveras county is near Yosemite park…We landed on all kinds of rivers, little lakes, sometimes with no view of the landing spot till the last seconds after the final turn, being ready to go around in case of a fisherman for instance.

 

we landed a bit further finally, to avoid all that junk…

 

 

how to resist to land on that piece of water….

 

this one we avoided. A little log could easily puncture the floats or pontoons.

 

 

near Yosemite only. By law, the park itself can’t be overflown for general purpose, too bad. But I got a good taste of the surroundings.

 

 

look at the window locked on the wing…the beauty of the Piper Cub is that the huge window and the door can be left open in the air, nearly one square meter open! Loved it.

 

as explained above, coming from a long canyon, here is the last turn, I discover the lake, I check it is empty and I land. Other approaches were more rock’n’roll and tighter than this but with my little experience I had to focus on flying and took no picture. Frustrating.

 

 

see Yosemite is very near with the snow peaks.

 

general view above or closer view while flying at the bottom of the valley (below)…

 

 

great time on a seaplane in California

April 97, I had just received my pilot’s license in Missouri, bought a junk car, drove slowly all the way on Route 66 till Los Angeles then up and down all around California. Next would be the famous parks but in the meantime I decided to get a seaplane rating on this Piper Cub 135. The place was Angels Camp in Calaveras County, near Yosemite Park. So it means no sea but lakes and rivers finally. More fun for sure. The fishermen hate us of course. I’m not sure if I‘ll ever get a job on a seaplane but it was worth every penny. never know if I ever wind up in Alaska…. I was just out of school with zero experience and another pilot was there training as well. An operator in Alaska and he offered me a job up there. I had been stupid enough to refuse his offer because I had a job waiting for me in Zaire, or so I thought. It happened to be a bunch of clowns from a famous NGO, the Belgian wing though, who didn’t know the way to their ass. Too bad for Alaska then…but i keep on eyeing that option.

 

  

the beast near the fuel tank.

 

  

another pilot was training, I was waiting for my turn and shooting to keep patient. Here slowly moving to take off position.

 

stick in the belly to keep a nose up attitude, full power, lots of waves behind, which will decrease when the plane speeds up.

 

that pond was not that big.

 

  

she was doing some go around, here on landing, little waves, no power on the engine.

 

 

  

off again.

 

 

another landing.

 

 

beautiful area.

 

 

coming back for my turn, finally.

in some remote villages across Tanzania

 

early age and already at work. poor girl.

 

women resting while building a hut. They’re still finishing the coating, that is to cover the wooden frame with cow manure.

 

drying grain under the sun in the home backyard.

 

 

 

bloody soccer, everywhere isn’t it? At least there are no hooligans, no fixed matches.

 

 

herding goats can be performed either by kids or adults

 

 

 

Masai homestead. The floor is all cow manure, as the roof of the hut. Notice that the hut is really low, the entrance door is the size of that kid. initially I nearly thought the kids had their own place to sleep.

 

 

 

boy herding cows near the volcano Oldoinyo Lengai, Rift Valley.

 

 

 

 

mothers waiting at the clinic for vaccinations and maybe treatments.

 

 

granny coming along for social gathering.

 

precious grass, precious water.

 

 

the airplane sits in the distance on the left, on the airstrip which is used by everybody. This can be a problem: too many animals crossing at the same spot can erode the surface, create a gully, mostly during the rainy season. Another problem is that people and animals don’t always move as quickly as they should when one plane comes for landing. Which gave me an opportunity to strafe them very low, make them run or dive to the ground and scare the shit out of them, heehee. Well no, finally I have to admit this was not a problem after all….

scenes in villages, Tanzania

men at work with donkeys to ease the burden

 

 

 

 

women at work, without donkeys.

 

 

tourist booby trap…

 

 

 

action! a empty truck going somewhere is not going to stay empty for long. Everybody wants a ride, no matter what the (lack of) comfort. Goats, sacks, bicycles, oil containers…and people of course

 

 

green bananas. To use as starch or veggie. I really don’t like them.

 

 

 

Masai warriors at a grocery.

 

 

 

main street, Loliondo, fallen tree that nobody cares to clean out.

 

 

water duty…as always.

 

Fort Knox styled grocery. Bars at windows are all over in Africa. For good reasons unfortunately.

market day, Loliondo

 

a typical market in a remote village, but it is not always that different in a town, sorry a city they say(??!!), the goodies are laid on the ground, the bags are now used as table cloth.

 

 

 

happy mamas: a Mzungu (white person) to rip off or try to.

 

 

Masai men hang around a bit further, possibly near a pub…

 

Loliondo main street

 

 

too bad the day was cloudy and the colors dull. Imagine a bit of sun on this scenery….

 

 

this is not a pub but a chemist’s. Cows are much loved around here

 

 

a grocery.

 

 

shy kids. Nevertheless Loliondo is a major hub in the bush, little kids are not always accustomed to a Mzungu or a camera. Maybe parents try to keep the lid on their kids by saying that the mean Mzungu loves naughty kids…

 

 

preparing the donkey for a journey.

some aerial pictures in Tanzania

 

some huts near Loliondo. The circular fences are made of acacia branches, the thorns should keep the predators at bay.

 

a well with a concrete slab and a tap. Notice all the tracks converging to the precious spot.

 

Pare mountains on the way to the Indian Ocean, high perched village.

 

the green line is obviously showing where the river keep things wet longer in the dry season.

 

  

bad weather below for the Earthlings, white sea of clouds, beautiful blue sky and Kilimanjaro for the flyers…

 

a Sonjo village in the Sonjo Valley. A small little known tribe, quite peculiar. The men sell their wives and kids to the market when things don’t go very well anymore between them! Funnier part is that the wife can ask the husband to sell her too when she is fed up! How do you sell a wife? What kind of marketing tricks and other lies can be used? “like new”, “hardly been used”, “as she is”, “have a try”, “free looking” as they love to say here for goodies? Puzzling…And then the kids, part of the package? It’s probably easier to sell a wife than a husband here anyway, heehee. Try “hardly spends time in pubs”, “hard working”, “doesn’t chase other women”…? No woman would believe that here….

 

Mount Meru with little Meru in the foreground.

 

then below, my all time favorite: Lake Natron with flamingoes to add a colorful touch.

  

  

 

 

  

remote villages in Tanzania

 

little girl playing with a maize grain container. Chem Chem, near lake Eyasi.

 

bike shop repair and local banana beer being brewed, the smell was awful to say the least. Chem Chem.

 

restaurant, Chem Chem.

 

that must be the City Hall with the Tanzanian flag floating, Chem Chem.

 

main street, Loliondo, near the Kenyan border and the Serengeti.

 

 

Masai elders visiting Loliondo, to buy some medicines for their cows and some beers for themselves I bet.

 

Loliondo even with its few shops is really not that big but it must look like a metropolitan city to them.

 

a school playground, kids in uniform, Olbalbal in Ngorongoro area.

 

 

lake Tanganyika, near Mahale nat’l Park.

 

Mount Meru

 

 

in some remote place, me, a Mzungu that is a white person, visiting, and with a camera (kemra in swahili), is quite an attraction. Habere, Sonjo valley west of Lake Natron.

 

  

feeding a giraffe in a sanctuary, Nairobi

street scenes, Uganda

 

my flight just got cancelled today. On a Sunday, I’m not complaining!

 

 

 

bicycle-taxis waiting.

 

 

this girl attracted some stares and comments from the many idle men….

 

obviously she enjoyed the attention.

 

 

 

bicycle is the big thing in this little town of Lira.

 

 

2 passengers but it is easier than it looks at the main street has a good gradient.

 

  

sewing business. Not only women do that, it is very common to see men at the job. Nails and screws for sale in those bags.

random pictures in Tanzania.

 

just back from Nairobi yesterday, welcome by a usual power cut all evening, today a wedding, tomorrow an early flight (apparently), so I just dropped a few pictures at random for this post.

 

I love this one, very graphic on my special lake, lake Natron.

empty flights, my favorite ones.

 

making friends….

 

 

greeting some friends near Ngorongoro. Lovely airstrip.

just going somewhere in the bush and camp, far from people, well if possible because Maasai people are really good at spotting any ‘intruder’ from miles away, even without fire!

 

Kilimanjaro with a bit of Mt Meru on the right part of the picture.

 

Mount Meru after a storm. That hail doesn’t last more than a day or 2, pity.

 

No lighting system in Arusha airport, it was time to land before darkness. Nice little sunset.

 

below some pictures of the ashes covering the area around the volcano Lengai nearly 2 years ago.

 

with the Zorki S, part V

 

 

 

 

Ngorongoro in the distance, lake Ndutu in the foreground

 

 

lions at lunch.

 

Ngorongoro crater, an old elephant with huge tusks, the biggest I’ve ever seen in live, a storm brewing behind.

 

 

Karine with one her antique cameras, the Mamiya C220.

 

Ndutu lodge area. Our favorite place around. Hoping to go again for a week soon

 

 

 

 

Indian Ocean.

 

 

Zanzibar, Stonetown.

 

 

with a Zorki S, part IV

for info, this is a Zorki 3, nearly a twin of the S, with the collapsible 50mm lens extended

 

 

volcano Oldoinyo Lengai 2 years ago.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

elephant and the Moon.

 

 

 

with a Zorki S, part III

 

early morning light for the 3 pictures below.

 

 

     

 

  

 

 

OK OK I agree I have a thing for Mt Meru…

 

 

 

this could be the Swiss Alps, no?

 

 

a lot of security companies have appeared like mushrooms in the last years. True there are some issues, but we’re still doing far better than Nairobi, I think. So this guy here on his Chinese bicycle on his way to work wears on the numerous uniforms to be seen in town. Years back, there were some rumors that some robbers were actually secretly paid by some security companies to scare people off and convince them to use those security companies! I wouldn’t be surprised if this rumor was true…

 

local DHL…not taxi even though there is a lazy guy being ferried in the cart.

with a Zorki S, part II

 

mount Meru under clouds.

 

 

 

Karine and Mt Meru. Bright white is not the Zorki’s best friend I’ve noticed. Probably due to the absence of multi coating process on the lens.

 

 

 

 

tall sisal and short agave. The sisal plant was big business long ago before cotton took over. There is nowadays a little revival because sisal doesn’t need much water, whereas cotton is a disaster on that note.

 

 

 

 

 

another example where I didn’t modify the picture. Colors are definitely more bland then with modern lenses.

 

with a Zorki S

 

this real vintage work, technology from the 30’s. And even some colors for a change. These old lenses, though very sharp, were not treated with multicoating process on the front lens like recent lenses. Contrasts, reflections, flares can show in a different way. Not so visible in B/W but more obvious in color. Sometimes the result offers the perfect vintage touch and there is no need to use Photoshop.

 

 

common scenery, these carts contain products like “samosa” (a triangle of fried paste stuffed with minced meat), grilled sausages, or ice cream. The latter which I wouldn’t recommend as the cold chain is probably dubious…

 

action photo, a bit difficult with an old Zorki as the framing happens in one window, and the focusing happens in another one. Later models, thanks to Leica combined the operation and it hasn’t changed since. So this guy sneaking between cars on his brother’s bicycle wasn’t easy to catch.

 

 

the local CHiPs…

 

somewhere on the hills near Arusha.

 

further from Arusha, Mt Meru seen from the paragliding spot.

 

Mt Meru

 

 

dead agave.

 

 

the same picture, the one above is natural whereas the one below has been worked on with exaggeration, just for showing. Sometimes pictures are best left untouched or so.

with the Leica M6, part VII

finally the company did the math and made me come back on a regular airline instead of spending on 4 nights in a hotel in Nairobi.

 

2 pictures of the same lady with different settings on the camera. The light was too contrasted…Either black is too black or white is too white. I admit digital technology seems to accept higher contrast than films. BUT what if film or analog technology had kept the pace in research. Hardly no new film comes out anymore, so we need to keep things in perspective.

funny lady, I told the story once already: she was begging, and to convince us, grabbed Karine’s breasts and compared with hers, dry and sad looking, said that we ( well mostly me) were lucky to enjoy such healthy things!

 

 

Tarangire park nevertheless the palm trees, not the Indian Ocean.

 

 

natural light from the window.

 

during a sculpture exhibition in Arusha, a violinist with audience

 

aaahh this… some students, university level I read in the local paper, decided to build an aircraft. The contraption is sadly just looking like what some of our pre boy scouts would have built quickly on a weekend…nothing is straight, everything looks  loose, not to mention that the thing is not remotely capable of flying on plan, if any and with an engine if…. They are still looking for sponsors to pay their debts, to buy an engine(!) and a pilot(!!). I don’t know what these poor guys had in mind but they obviously didn’t get advice at all. For a while the plane could be seen on display on a main roundabout in Arusha, with some Masai warriors sleeping in, other young guys trying to collect a dime whenever a picture was taken…

 

  

 

 

   

 

 

quite a lot of shepherds for not so many animals. Sometimes a 5 year old Masai kid is in charge of more than 10 cows or goats…

 

like this one. And I’m not even sure he has reached his 5th birthday.

 

youngster going home. The terrain is quite hilly and dry but some maize is still to be seen here and there on steep slopes