Ben Wilhelmi

rains and various scenes in Arusha

 

 

soldiers who seem to take care of their own food. Maybe they’re not fed properly at the barracks…

 

I’ll think twice before I eat chicken again. Alongside a main artery in Arusha. Notice another example of “swahilised” English word: kontena for container. Just try to pronounce container with an African tone. Now guess the following swahili words: betri, picha, puncha, daktari, compyuta, kemra, pasipoti and stesheni (hint: forget the “i” on these words), baisikeli (drop the last “i”)…

 

downpour, flooded street, sheltering people, jumping man.

 

 

“WTF, and now what…?”

 

those dala dala, often displaying some funny motto. This driver is quite optimistic, he’ll never get rich driving this bus but he’ll die trying, that’s for sure and the double meaning applies as they are the worst drivers I’ve ever seen.

 

American style school bus.

 

 

another deep ditch being filled up.

 

 

a bit further the ditch, the street vendor has been caught up by the rains and his bags got wet.

 

sorry for the quality, the wipers and the rain didn’t help. But I always love when a biker rides with an umbrella. What for? Afraid of damaging his perm’?

 

the sides of the streets tend to be chaotic around here. These sofas must have been built a bit further but are now lying in front of a bar. 2 schoolgirls in uniform. Unfortunately, as if people were not poor enough, uniforms are compulsory and not that cheap. No uniform no school…

 

loading a dala dala. I’m always a bit surprised by this attitude: a dala dala driver or his helper will waste precious minutes to load big bags in the boot or on the roof but would drive over their mother to gain 5 seconds and pick a passenger….

rainy season

 

green pasture on lake Victoria.

 

some funny algae on the surface. This lake is quite polluted and invaded by alien species… up to 40% of the endemic fish would have disappeared since the Nile perch was “smartly” introduced. It seems that some pseudo scientists don’t want to learn from the Australian experience…

 

floods near Arusha.

double rainbow, the 2nd rainbow is never as bright and sharp as the first one I’d say.

 

 

interrupted rainbow.

 

backlight on showers.

 

 

people trapped in a sudden downpour.

 

other people sheltering from the downpour. Mix of style: Masai, street wear, middle class…

the streets in Arusha are easily overflowed.

 

here is another example. These ditches like the one the lady is bravely crossing are quite deep and just one downpour fills them in.

 

  

Entebbe, Uganda. An Antonov 12 under a threatening sky. Notice the glass nose. It used to be a bomber plane in the 50’s.

street pictures, Arusha

 

one of the few good tarmac roads in Arusha, towards Njiro. This contraption is very common in Africa, it carries basically everything, even stripped cars. The second guy is there as a helper though sometimes the help just consists of relaxing himself while balancing the cartwheel so the guy in front has only to push forward, not down or up. Notice the splendid braking system on the lower back: bits of tyres. Releasing the handles will drop the cartwheel on these tyres. Simple, cheap but mildly efficient.

 

this man didn’t like me taking his portrait.

 

but this lovely girl enjoyed it ‘au contraire’. Belgian colors by the way, black, yellow, red.

 

common scenes in many streets in Arusha. Metal gates, half finished ugly high walls, poor road conditions…

 

Masai women shopping at a butchery before heading back to the bush. Pepsi is quite popular in Africa, not quite beating Coca Cola but getting a good share.

 

I don’t know what this lady was doing with the flour but it seems to be her regular business considering the number of sacks around.

 

some colors in the middle of grayness.

 

First time I see red hair on a black fellow. I assume he has done the pilgrimage to Mecca if the red color on his hair has the same meaning as when applied on a beard.

 

grilled corn, very popular type of cheap lunch. These women are installed at every corner. I prefer the boiled type of corn that I’ve only tasted near the Coast, never inland.

 

another cartwheel, same braking system.

 

no clue, don’t ask. Pro Palestinian activists around?  I’d be surprised as the local news are a bit on the crap side here. Other funny political captions, on public minibuses for instance, the infamous dala dala: “Slododan Milosevic” or “Kosovo” (WTF in TZ?!), a special for Clinton’s visits: “Monica Lewinski”(she didn’t help the fighting against smoking…), “Led Zeppelin” (which pleases me as opposed to usual bloody Congolese music or rap)

 

women waiting for the bus, 3 different styles.

East African Safari Classic rally

I was driving this Tuesday near Kilimanjaro and was quite surprised to cross a few old timers like this Porsche 911. Support jeeps with tools and dozens of tyres were common scenery too. Unfortunately it was only a liaison leg so these vintage cars didn’t pass every  minute like on a race leg. There was no need to stop and wait. Amongst other beauties, sometimes weird, there were a few other 911’s, various little Japanese cars, one Mercedes SLC(that is a funny one for a rally), a Ford Mustang(that too is weird, no?), Renault Alpine A110, even a rare Citroën DS Proto (special rally model)…

check their site for nicer pictures.

 

the cars must be made before 1975. 50 cars on the run this year. The event started in 1953, got revived in 2003 and now runs every 2 years.

 

the yellow one is a Ford Escort.

 

a huge blow up of the official logo.

 

 

this is a Datsun 240 or 260 Z, getting some checks done I guess.

 

definitely some repairs on this other Datsun, a 1600ss I think. I was really good at knowing cars when I was a child, like most of my little friends.

 

with a support jeep and some curious people.

 

 

Another Ford Escort with a Belgian team I discovered after editing. The driver is Jean-Michel Martin, who was a Belgian celeb’ with his brother. These two were participating on many races in the 70’ and 80’s. On this rally or previous there were some other famous drivers like Eric Comas on an Alpine 110 or Bjorn Waldegard with a 911, Stig Blomqvist, Juha Kankkunen all back having fun with a bit of nostalgia for real cars (that is without electronics and gitzmos).

now this F… stupid useless piece of paper we got here only mentioned the race this week in the paper, I saw no advertising anywhere in town. I saw these cars by coincidence, all pictures shot while driving so you’ll forgive me for the quality. Too late for me to organise a visit a these cars on the pictures were on their way out to Kenya again. I’ll be monitoring next year.

Arusha town and around, aerials

 

general view of Arusha and towering Mount Meru. The council pretends it is a city…if that statement makes them happy, fine. The center has changed drastically in the 10 years I’ve been living there. 2 main reasons, the UN and tourism presences have boosted the infrastructure (though there is still a huge amount to be done) and business. New buildings are sprouting, some roads are slowly, painfully slowly, being rebuilt…the electricity grid on the other hand is still a disgrace and even seems to go backwards, run by the most incompetent people you can imagine.

 

leave the center area, the slums show up quickly.

 

something that is quite rare, or let’s say not seen very often: a cemetery. And this one looks abandoned anyway. I’ll have to ask what people do with their deceased.

 

some slums look better than others though. Well so to speak. “Flying toilets” is still the norm in many places, that is people shit in plastic bags, tie them up and throw them in the river or in unoccupied terrains. Sweet. No regulation, no street planning, the huts or houses are packed against each other to fill in any free space.

 

a bit further from town, the nice suburbs show up, neat gardens, bigger houses, and space. Still, the planning in architecture is not always improving very much.

 

 

our house in the center. Not the poshest suburb but quite decent. The area is now really green. The bloody neighbor doesn’t have to water his garden anymore. That reminds me of a Nairobi story: a friend of mine has a white female neighbor who has her car washed twice a day no matter what the drought condition!! That fucking cow should be shot dead. And her potential offspring too to cut off that poor gene pool.

 

 

 

 

green houses east of Arusha, mostly run by Dutch companies. Referred as the Dutch Connection.

 

plenty of them, it seems that flowers and vegetable seeds are big business.  

drought and rains

 

up to 3 years have passed in some parts of east Africa without a drop of rains; needless to say the toll has been high on farmers and herder: harvests and cattle have been lost, children are sometimes highly malnourished. They won’t develop properly, won’t catch up from the ailments they’ve suffered from. “A lost generation” said a journalist.

the small rainy season has started a few weeks ago. I don’t have the figures yet to see if the numbers will satisfy people but I bet they won’t, or at least not everywhere. look at the pictures below…these were shot on the same small flight from Nairobi, southbound to Kilimanjaro airport, 230km.

 

just outside Nairobi, no green to be seen except some trees. Maybe  these are freshly tilled fields so there would be no grass..but I bet there would be wild green grass here and there if rains had showed up seriously.

a bit further south, some green shades appear but nothing exciting.

the savannah didn’t look very lush either.

 

 

this is Namanga mountain on the border between Kenya and Tanzania, quite green, probably due to the altitude, because Amboseli park and the adjacent lake not far away were dry.

 

 

 

Namanga village-border post, the green looks present thanks to the mountain river.

 

look in the middle of the village, there is a large strip without any hut, the no man’s land with a few impounded trucks.

 

the triangle silhouette of Oldoinyo Lengai in the distance under a typical sky. The visibility gets perfect in rainy seasons. The dust gets pinned down, the heat waves weaken…

 

 

lake Momella in Arusha nat’l park, at the foot of Mount Meru. Flamingoes resting.

 

and finally some lucky guys around Mount Meru: rains have arrived in decent quantities here.

 

the area definitely looks green and a lush, the ponds are full. Cows must fatten again…

 

The area looks lovely to live in by the way…

 

lake Duluti, a crater near Arusha. A perennial lake anyway.

so rains have been erratic, some areas got unlucky, others like Arusha got a lot of rains apparently but let’s wait for confirmation. Farmers will know for sure and some have been keeping figures for decades.

leaving Lira

little anecdote in Tanzania, sad one. Karine uses everyday a paying parking lot near her office, supposedly safer than the street parking but that’s not the point today. Anyway the point is that today she handed the due sum to the parking attendant and she was waved off because the pen didn’t work so no ticket could be issued. As usual, other people were hanging around that attendant, 3 in this case. What for as it is the most basic work in the world? Dunno but it is another common scene in Africa: one employee surrounded by friends or relatives or whatever to slow down any action potentially going on. So back in the parking booth, 4 of them, supposedly 4 brains, not one able to find a spare pen…ughh.

 

anyway, back in Lira, Uganda:

 

the infamous Lord’s Resistance Army, the LRA, led by another madman since 1987, one who talks to God for a change. En français il s’agit de l’Armée de Résistance du Seigneur. In term of resistance, these so-called rebels don’t resist anything of their lowest bad instincts. They kill by dozens whenever they raid a village or a refugee camp. They torture, mutilate, chop limbs like legs, nose, ears, lips…They rape any age female victim they find. They abduct young girls for sexual slavery,abduct children as little as 5 year old for soldiers…all under the Lord’s name. Christianity has had its moments all across History I’d say. The Crusades, the Inquisition, the Irish conflict…all noticeable with some horror in their going. The LRA has been classified as terrorist organisation, no wonder. Now it has been pushed in some remote corners towards neighboring Congo and Sudan but it is still to count with unfortunately. Lira is safe now.

Uganda hasn’t been that lucky lately. Obote before and after Idi Amin with 400.000 victims, Idi Amin with 300.000 victims, LRA with 1000’s and still counting.

 

the army sign near the barracks, next door to the airfield.

 

I found Uganda streets and the rest cleaner, at least in my little experience in Uganda, than in Tanzania. I had noticed the parking lot around the aircraft very clean as usual when I arrived. When I came back I couldn’t fail to notice a used condom in the grass a few meters away. Now the plane had been under surveillance permanently during our stay. The soldiers even stay, eat, sleep(and shag apparently) under the aircraft wing. At least whichever watchman involved did it protected. But African watchmen are really good at one thing, that is sleep. Sorry if it is not politically correct to say so but it is an undisputed fact. And I bet they sleep even harder after sex…

here is one of the watchmen, was he our shagger, no clue. But he was very nice and conciliatory: he let my passengers play with his Kalashnikov, let them pose for pictures! Either way is not positive: no bullet in the weapon and he is next to useless in his job but still he shouldn’t give away his weapon or there were bullets and it gets even worse and scary.

 

a close up of the famous Kalashnikov AK 47, with the handle folded through the clipper, produced at more than 100 million units. A real success. Mr Kalashnikov has been named an official hero in USSR by then.

 

another armed guard who doesn’t take his job that seriously with a lady to keep him company.

 

since we have only one engine and no life jackets so far, we have to follow the shoreline of lake Victoria between Entebbe and Mwanza, where we have to stop for fuel and immigration, Well at least to keep the shoreline in sight and gliding distance should the engine fail. Clouds can be interesting I think.

 

Mwanza, a large town on the SE of lake Victoria, the 2nd or 3rd town (or “city” as authorities like to brag) in the country. Nothing special to it. There was the interesting and shocking documentary movie “Darwin’s nightmare” about it, weapons and other goodies smuggling, Russian airplanes, prostitution, poverty…all the items for a good Hollywood movie.

 

the disused Mig 21’s at the end of the runway. They crashed a coupla times too many and haven’t flown since the 80’s. Supposedly a “new” batch of them has arrived in crates in Aug.

various scenes from Lira

 

notice the white doll in the basket. Maybe black dolls are rare…

 

all colors in one image.

 

so many watchmen with some kind of weapons work in Lira though it is really a small town. But new banks and hotels to protect are popping out all over. A rifle is probably not the best choice of weapon for street job I guess.

 

a tout and a watchman again with a rifle.

 

milkman at work. Imagine when that jar is full and heavy, how unbalanced the bike must be to ride. And only one strap to hold the fort, made of a rubber tube.

 

 

I like the “bros” thing. I’ve never seen that before in Africa. There is one Obama T shirt hanging. Containers of all kind are very valuable in Africa, big business too. Kerosene, cooking oil…then recycled to carry water at the end of the line ….

 

idle youth glued on the cell phones, just like in the West. Cellular phones are extremely popular and expanding big time in Africa, and phone landlines are dying fast, not a big loss as they were usually crap anyway. But it is still pricey to give phone calls. So sms are mostly used or flash calls, specially to white people who have then to decide to call back or not.

 

colorful facade and happy people, in love maybe.

 

 

how come you can give anything on wheels to a man and he’ll start to take a cool pose on his contraption as if it were a Harley Davidson or a Porsche?

 

taxi and cool lady. he doesn’t seem stressed at all usual. They must be so used to it even though the bikers can go quite fast down the slope with hypothetical brakes.

 

cool hat.

 

look at this burden, potatoes? Well it must be heavy and unbalance the bicycle anyway. She still manages to carry on a baby and ride standing up on one pedal only. She went down the slope as far as I could see her like that, avoiding any obstacle with ease.

market in Lira

in my actual job, there is as much waiting or hanging around as flying. On this trip for instance, I left on Monday and came back on Thursday. 2 days of rest between 2 days of flying. Luckily I’m an avid reader amongst other occupations.

I shot a B/W film as well. I’ll develop it this week.

in Africa, if you can’t find a bottle of Coca Cola, you’re really in a remote place. This company is really efficient in Africa. The trucks are all over the place, always pristine. It’s probably the only product in Africa that I’ve never heard it was out of stock one day. I even heard somebody saying the Coke CEO’s should rule the world…

 

these poor guys…what is their margin on selling plastic Chinese made sandals? For sale for less than 1$ for a pair! Having said that, Africans in remote areas tend to drag their feet and thus wear off the soles more quickly…

 

not the sharpest portrait but it has been blown up from a picture similar in size as the one above, this lady walked past the other lady with a blue dress. I was standing at the same spot, same lens.

 

a typical butcher’s in Africa. Not engaging huh? No fridge for one, then a cloud of flies buzzes around, the meat hangs on a butcher hook collecting the flying dust, blood flows on the white tiles and I’d rather know nothing about the hygiene on the workers’ side. Notice the sitting guy picking his nose, another typical scene on the same level as balls scratching.

 

 

 

 

 

 

a knife-grinder with sparks. This is still an ongoing job in Tanzania too. These guys ride along on a regular bicycle but there have been some modifications on the back wheel to accommodate the string plus an opposite saddle fitted on the frame. And that’s it, just pedaling backward to rotate the grinder. My Grandma complains that she used to see knife-grinders in Belgium some decades ago and that they’ve disappeared, like other jobs.

 

his buddy checking the ax blade.

colors in Lira streets

as opposed to Tanzania, this little town is bright and colorful. The business companies and little shops have been good at promoting their products around.

I wish I had waited for something red  in this picture. Like the one below which looks more balance with red, blue and yellow.

Yesterday I dropped a few words about Idi Amin. I also mentioned Milton Obote. Another Ugandan tyrant-president who has the honor to see his portrait hung up in that hotel lounge. He’s got also a street named after him, see this picture. Quite a feat for a guy who has had up to 400.000 of his countrymen tortured and killed! Idi Amin scored up to 300.000 “only”. But Idi Amin was such a circus character that he made history whereas Obote stayed low profile so the West didn’t focus on him.

My driver didn’t stop unfortunately because pictures are not allowed but the late Obote had a secondary mansion in Lira with his own statue in the garden! What an ego again. I don’t know if Idi Amin still has a street named after him. Curious to know. By the way, against all odds, the Tanzanian army (and Ugandans exiles) kicked Idi Amin out of the country in 1979. The Tanzanians went home full of glory, some Mig 21 fighter planes in the booty, heehee. He had started to lose the grip on his people after the severe humiliation inflicted by that Israeli commando in Entebbe in 1976. Imagine, Amin had welcome Palestinian terrorists with the hijacked plane mainly composed of Jewish passengers. The Israelis, who lately don’t tend to offer the other cheek anymore, sent some airplanes at night with commandos. They trashed the place and released the hostages. What a major slap in the face indeed.

 

 

blue, blue and blue again, with a hint of mauve. If those 2 are not sisters, they share the same designer.

 

red, blue and yellow again. I like that combination.

 

pink is not forgotten.

blurry I know…

 

I wished she wore a blue clothes.

Obama touch with a cool hat.

 

I don’t mean to be mean but the poor motorbike…

 

trying other shooting angles…

 

music instruments being tested by a connoisseur.

a few days in northern Uganda

 

I’ve just spent 3 nights in Lira. It was a bit boring as the weather was always dull, not nice for photo shooting as the light was mostly dull too, even in B/W. The flight to get there was at least a bit interesting with thunderstorms here and there. We flew in an embedded thunderstorm (embedded means that there were normal clouds around to hide the storm) and amidst the blinding lightning and reasonable turbulences, my passengers kept quiet and prayed, probably hoping for a half decent pilot, heehee. The colors get incredible in the rainy season, steel grey veering to near black or blue. The rains sometimes block the view like a thick veil or a tower down to the ground, sometimes beautifully colored by a back sunlight. Flooded terrains are all too common these days. Some people have died near Kilimanjaro after a landslide due to heavy showers.

here are some random pictures while I was walking in Lira between 2 showers.

 

behind this girl, ropes. It seems to be a big business here. I don’t remember seeing these bunches of ropes in Arusha for instance.

 

interesting face, deep lines and sharp angles.

 

 

classy grandpa. His watch was quite bling bling, Sarkozy’s style I’d say.

 

there was a big workshop in town, so most hotels were at full capacity. And I didn’t get to go to my regular one. I was booked in a religious hotel apparently as it sported its motto in big letters on the front: “in God we trust”. And there was a warning about the unwelcome non resident guests, read prostitute or night lady. But these 2 pictures here show a Marie Stopes dispensary located just in front of the hotel. Quite a serious difference in style if you read the services on offer…

notice the “children by choice not chance” motto.

Uganda is quite a catholic country, the Musoveni presidential couple is definitely into it, as they basically wish death penalty for homosexuals, is against abortion etc. Basically against most of the services provided by such a dispensary. But to be fair Uganda has been quite top of the job to fight Aids though, the first country in Africa to act efficiently against the disease and lower the number of infected people. Still in Uganda, and Africa anyway, abortion (even if the notice prudently says “post abortion care”), sterilisation (quite a feat to convince an African male to get his balls zipped as even while males are still mostly reluctant) and emergency contraception is quite a long shot from barely acknowledging and approving the use of the condom. So I was nicely pleased and surprised to see some positive actions for women’s well being in Africa. There must be more Marie Stopes around, including in Tanzania, but this is the first one I’ve seen. I had heard of them because I used to be a volunteer pilot so I had some knowledge in that field and also because they were on the George Bush administration black list and the funding had been cut off accordingly. To dare to provide condom only made you an instant enemy for life with the Bushies…so imagine abortion!! Glad those nasty clowns are gone.

 

 

another surprise, quite a big one, was to see this portrait in the hotel lobby! This tyrant has been the worst calamity for his country, killed so many of his countrymen, was finally ousted and took refuge in (fucking) Saudi Arabia, why did this country welcome a mad mini Hitler is beyond my understanding. I tried to question the employees, to know if he still had fans hidden or not, but they looked a bit embarrassed, one clearly referred me to the owner for further enquiries. Amin Dada was the utmost monster when I was a child. Well that was the perception of a child by then. There was Bokassa on a lesser scale (though with human parts in his freezer), Pol Pot was on the rise only, Mobutu was courted by the West so treated too politely…

notice the many spelling mistakes, mashal-marshall, Amini-Amin. I thus think that this portrait is not issued by the government. There was also a portrait of Milton Obote (another looney tune),  Yoweri Musoveni(the actual president), then foreign politicians as well like Paul Kagame, John Garang, Arap Moi. I thought of a movie title, like “the few good, the many bad and the many ugly”… curious selection of portraits anyway.

 

curious kids, initially shy but it didn’t last long…

 

 

this guy was drunk, dancing with loud reggae music. With a weapon! A FN or so, not a simple rifle, thank you very much. He got upset when he saw my camera and I left snapping blindly, not much luck at close range…let’s hope he was not provided with bullets.

leaving Zimbabwe

food was very easy to get and reasonably various all the way down our trip, except in Malawi where the only fresh product we got there were tomatoes. 2 weeks on tomatoes…

but we never knew what to expect for sure. So whenever we had some free space on the bicycles, we packed with whatever food we found just in case rough times might come ahead.

 

as said earlier, mud huts are often painted neatly.

 

I had said cars were quite rare on Zimbo roads…except on a fuel day! Somehow the word got on that fuel was available at some fuel stations. Queues started before sunrise. I counted one queue to be 3 km long, on one side of the station. Then there was a mirroring queue on the other side. Look at the half white car on the left…

 

here is it again with the rest of the queue behind.

 

 

and still in the same queue, this man was pointing to the faraway station, a pilot himself funny enough but jobless for fuel shortage, and explained that people mostly pushed their cars for a few meters every time a car was serviced with fuel instead of starting the engine and waste precious fuel. Also some wealthy owners would give their cars to somebody and pay him to queue. Of course cousins and brothers, mostly jobless too, would come along to keep company to this lucky man, cook and drink together between car pushes. There was one guard, hired by the fuel station, to issue queuing tickets for chaos control. Man, I was impressed by that! That trick would be reeaaally be useful in Tanzania!

 

 

another day with no fuel, an empty station, a cart takes a shortcut…

 

little business stalls on a pavement.

 

around Oct02, we left Zimbabwe. We had wanted to get into a national park by bicycle and camp there, which was allowed but as usual in many African countries, they wouldn’t accept their own currency. Quite a feat! Zimbabwe has really a shitty currency but other countries like Tanzania? So many services are only accepted in U$D which is sometimes a pain since the next door bureau de change might be closed. Anyway Zimbabwe is desperate for U$D, though Euros, Rands or Pulas would have been accepted eagerly as well. Since none of the white idiots running camps and whatever in Zambia had warned us about the fact that foreign cash was the only way to go, absolutely no credit card, we could only go with our little cash reserve. But we were not spared of scary and bloody stories though. We didn’t have enough cash on us anymore to go in that park so we left for Botswana. We were really saddened by that event, we had enjoyed so much crossing Saadani park in Tanzania that a suite would have been welcome.

 

here we are on our way out. Botswana language is famous known for its long, difficult, weird names…

I had a little incident at the border with Zambia: some dude approached and asked me to take a picture of him and later send a copy to his family, like a postcard to give reassuring news. It happens here and there, I’ve done it before, I was not surprised by that. Except that we were in a fucking border zone, where pictures are not allowed! Obviously a booby trap: an officer was probably hiding somewhere ready to arrest me on spy charges if I had shot a picture. Guaranteed “fun”, bribe and waste of time to get of out there. The armies on this continent are well equipped with weapons though all ancient of course but the cops and the soldier behave as if it were the latest technology on use, they are completely paranoid about security and spies. To the point where, like in most if not all 3rd world countries, a post office, a remote civilian airfield, a bridge.. are considered “sensitive” materials!! In Tanzania there is such a law forbidding to snap a post office for instance! Don’t ask, it is useless to try to understand. Anyway, I told that asshole to fuck off and we left.

Bulawayo, Zimbabwe

Bulawayo, a real town. We could find pizzas, cosmetics, modern clothes,bike parts, whatever you name it…except fuel. The queues at the petrol stations could be impressive. The days with fuel were announced in advance and people could plan to go and wait with the car. So the streets were reasonably empty as you can see here. Since we needed only one liter of kerosene every few days for cooking, we could always convince the fuel attendant to scrape the fuel tank bottom for us, even if a notice said empty, and even if the kerosene might be dirty.

I was a bit puzzled by this scenery. That used to be a superb car a Chevrolet Bel Air, a 1956 model I bet. even if the owner doesn’t have the money to maintain it, why let it rot on he doorstep? Pity…

off the main road, looking for a campsite, away from people and other nuisance if possible. We never faced any danger in Zimbabwe, nor anywhere else. Only once in Tanzania did we encountered a serious potential threat but it ended up as a false alarm. Local people had been scared of us!

pitching the tent and stoves etc near sunset. Of course we knew a fire, even a small one, at night could be seen from a distance. I remembered a few things from my survival exercises in the air force. I guessed we did quite well because we were seldom bothered. Sometimes it was our fault as well as we had selected a poor location, too close from some huts that we hadn’t noticed. One guy came once in the evening, politely insisting to sell us a …donkey! He could see we had to carry a lot on the bicycles, about 35 kg each in average but he hadn’t thought of the speed I guess or the next border crossing…poor guy, he looked quite desperate.

 

funny how roots can behave and navigate around a rock.

same place but in the morning, empty space as far as the eye goes. Our camping spot below.

we visited an animal sanctuary past Bulawayo. Mainly for the rhinos. I’ve never seen any of them at a close distance in the wild. So few left…

 

this came a bit as a surprise I must say. The jars are about one liter size only and the foetus is completely formed already.

Zimbabwe by bicycle

we crossed Zimbabwe without a problem. We met Zimbabweans, black or white, and all confirmed the awful stories read in the newspapers. Western Zimbabwe is a stronghold of opposition against Mugabe. We didn’t have problem to find food, providing we had foreign currencies with us. Then we could buy anything in the well stocked shops, well stocked with expensive food that the locals can’t buy with their Zimbabwean $ unfortunately. Staple food was scarce, not junk or processed food. We could buy cakes and pies but no bread. The profit being higher on cakes than bread, the little wheat available the collapsing farming system was used for better profit. Bad luck for those who couldn’t afford it. With the black market, we were getting a lot for our US $, like a pizza for less than one US $, or Lee Cooper jean’s for 10. Too bad I couldn’t carry any of them.

 

typical scenery, quite similar to Tanzania for instance.

typical hut, painted as usual. That is a slight difference with Tanzania though.

a bit of a junk hearse but I liked the motto.

From Victoria Falls to Bulawayo, a nice empty road, traffic was non existent…

except for these carts, convenient to buy some food. How do you value food price in such a nightmarish economy? So we just paid what the farmers asked, hoping to help a bit. We would have had no real reference for bargaining anyway.

another rare traffic, really rare, was this tandem. A Japanese couple on the road for 5 years! No fixed plan, just touring the world. Why a tandem? the husband sais his wife couldn’t ride a bicycle! Well, she hasn’t learnt in 5 years? Apparently not. Poor her, 5 years behind her husband’s back, blocking the view…

I would never do that kind of trip on a tandem. Space is too reduced. You can’t carry on as much as on 2 bikes for one. Look just an example we have 2 panniers per wheel, that is 8 panniers for both of us. They’ve got 2 wheels… then if one wants to stop for a pee or a picture, he doesn’t have to bother the second biker to a full stop. What about if you had an argument or are in a grumpy mood? We found it very nice to keep some space between us sometimes. On a tandem would be a nightmare to me.

 

paradox name isn’t? Secret but in full view.

typical painted mud hut.

Bulawayo, a main town in the country. One example of the nice preserved architecture and the success story behind this country. Not crumbling architecture like in Tanzania. People said that money was scarce for maintenance these days, since the collapse of the country. So it was just a matter of time for decay to appear and damage the place. One man and his cronies who didn’t want to lose the elections and trashed the place blaming scapegoats, that’s all it took.

a modern commercial center. I felt in Europe. But except food and a few bicycle parts, we couldn’t buy anything really. No room for storage.

look at this trendy woman. In the morning we were still in the bush with mud huts.

between Zambia and Zimbabwe.

this the bridge that acts as a link between the 2 borders . We went for a little walk on the Zambian shore of the Zambezi river.

a nice little forest hangs there.

bungee activity has been organised from that bridge. What pissed me off was the huge hefty fee for the jump, more than 100$, twice the price of the South African famous Bloekrans bridge and a lower height as well, 115m against 216m there. A second thing was their tricky advertising showing the Falls on the brochures as part of the scenery. Well the Falls are not to be seen at all, too far away hidden by the rock curves.

 

there were a lot of activities out there, all pricey, some worth, some not. This one above looked pretty cool. A rope is connecting 2 opposite cliffs, about 100m above the valley. Half way that rope, another rope is attached and connected to the client. The client jumps, feels like free falling for a few seconds and then starts a long swing towards the other cliff! And back and forth, and back and forth…the lady here looked like a rocket, like Superman flying down the valley. How cool is that? It looked really impressive I must admit.

David Livingstone, in the park opposite the Falls on the Zimbabwean side. I really wonder what Africans think of the guy. He was not the worst of all the early pioneers I agree, as opposed to Stanley for instance, but from the African point of view, white people generally disturbed their ways of life for a few centuries…

finally we hit the road again, inside Zimbabwe. We heard and read stories of course, the country being on the black list for dictatorship. Well other stories were more reassuring and we wanted to see for ourselves. No problem at the border anyway, as we obviously didn’t look like farmers nor journalists nor spies. But tourists are most welcome for the precious foreign currencies. As you know the Zimbabwean currency is a big joke. The inflation has hit 100.000% I read nowadays in the papers. It was not that bad in 2002 but promising for sure. 1U$ for 50$ Zim at the official rate bank, 700 Z$ on the street when we entered the country, near 2000 Z$ when we left 2 weeks later. Funny enough even in banks or bureaux de change, they’d give you the street rate! Hard on the local people who are paid on local currency, cheaper to use as toilet paper instead of buying any.

on a more gentle note, we saw quite a few animals around, still outside any park, gazelles here, warthogs there…

 

 

too late for the warning as we had seen our elephants in Zambia already, but I loved the sign.

Victoria Falls

 

 

 

The Zambezi River further down Victoria Falls. That’s where the rafting activity happens. Many companies compete for and share the business.   Safety helmet and life jacket are really most welcome. Some of the rapids you can see on this picture are sometimes declared too dangerous to cross on the boat, depending on the water level. So we had to let the rubber boat empty and rock’n’roll through the rapids, we walked around the rocks and picked it up afterwards. At this time of the year, the water level was low enough to skip 2 of these rapids. A bit more water might have been enough to submerge the rocks and make it safe. But then other rapids would have been too quiet and boring to cross. The boats are big inflatable pieces of rubber, containing a guide (quite often a Rastafarian guy who pretends to be cooler than he is) and 8 people I think, all equipped with paddles. We capsized I don’t know how many times, the rapids crossing really gets rocky, I got reasonably concerned a coupla times, my friend didn’t like it at all in the end but she was sufficiently strong minded to refuse to board the chicken boat for a safer and quieter trip. Of course a boat name like that doesn’t encourage anybody to cut short the real rafting. I couldn’t carry my camera down there. So I didn’t get my own pictures but the videotape I bought from these guys is really stunning. Too bad it is stored in Europe.

 

of course between rapids, there is a bit of time to enjoy the scenery.

 

this place is of course unusable, too close to the falls. The departure is further down the Zambezi.

 

the mist that thunders.

 

 

some patches of forests manage to cut the Zambezi and create more than one fall, even in the rainy season.

 

 

this can be a nearly full uninterrupted waterfall, 1700m wide.

 

 

I was dreaming of flying there. Bah, Tanzania has many gorges like that to offer for keen pilots, minus the Falls of course. Ngorongoro, Stiegler’s gorges in the Selous, lake Natron, Mahale mountains…I probably missed a few to fly in but whenever I “discovered” one….

bicycle trip across Africa, Victoria Falls

 

we spent a few days in Livingstone relaxing, cycling around, hanging in a backpackers place, eating some junk food for a change, went for an exhilarating raft trip on the Zambezi (worth every penny). Livingstone is on the Zambian side. The explorer ‘found’ the falls in 1855, gave his queen name to the site. The Zambezi river makes the borderline with Zimbabwe.

this was unfortunately the dry season, so the mighty Zambezi river was low and the waterfalls were reduced to a few “trickles” of water. Normally during the wet season, the waterfalls extend to a full 1700m wide wall of water. In turn at this rainy time of the year, the original name, Mosi-Oa-Tunya which means “the mist that thunders”, shows its full signification. The noise and the mist can be perceived at 40 km they say. The falls are more than 100 m high (128m according to Wikipedia but I’ve seen 107m somewhere else) so the flow of 9100 cube meter of water per second can indeed produce a lot of potential energy and noise.

 

more or less the same view of the waterfalls, Zambia on the right which contains in fact the falls, and Zimbabwe on the left which offers a better frontal view. Imagine the same picture in the rainy season: the cliff on the right would be a long white wall of water. And the misty cloud at the end of the gorge would be much more powerful and visible.

 

looking down on the “quiet” river…water rafting in this!! I couldn’t wait for it.

 

 

 

a bit of mist.

now because the water levels are seriously reduced in the dry season, you can cross the river on the top. This picture here is taken while walking near the edge, as these guys do in the picture below.

 

  

looking down 128 m below from where those guys stand, reasonably impressive.

 

and careful swimming is allowed near the edge. It is not as stupid as it looks, the current is weakened at that location by a natural stone wall. It was a bit of a mission to place the camera  on self timer and quickly jump back carefully in the water. My friend would not do the crossing with me. The camera had been carried in a waterproof bag with my teeth sometimes.

 

 

 

finally a sunny view, from the Zimbabwean side.

bicycle trip across Africa, Zambia

since I’ve met Elvis the biker, my mind is back on track with that old bike trip I did with a friend in 2002/2003. I had published some posts from Arusha till Zambia a few months ago. Here is the follow up.

 

here the bikes were light and empty. The panniers had been left at a camp site and we toured around. Our little big plan was NOT to go straight line on tarmac with a clock ticking. Most bikers do unfortunately for them. From Arusha to Cape Town but dead ends and other loops or detours were not forbidden but encouraged even.

 

woman fishing. I assumed the husband kept the fishing boat for himself…

 

nobody is prophet in his own country we say in French. Something similar in English? Anyway, I bet this crook of a prophet is on the most wanted list in Mozambique.

 

Zambia can be really flat and boring.

 

in turn anything was good for distracting our attention, like a bush fire…

 

or a funny cloud effect. I’m still a bit puzzled by this phenomenon. It looks like the shadow is reverberating on the higher cirrus cloud…

 

the river shores are full of life.

 

another distraction: the road signs against sexual transmitted diseases, aka STD’s

 

 

 

I like this one. Balls scratching can be a national activity in Tanzania for instance. But this guy seems to have a good reason.

 

Probably a whole family living in this junk VW van.

 

but the most interesting encounter was this bunch of elephants on the main road!

 

I couldn’t resist coming closer with the bike (but ready to speed away). Look at my bike, there are no panniers.

 

notice the 5th leg. Nevertheless there is a safari car nearby, this is still the public tarmac road, we’re not in a park.  These beasts were browsing just a few miles away from the town of Livingstone/Victoria Falls.

Elvis the biker

 

I met an interesting guy today. He was presenting a slide show of his bicycle trip from Arusha to Cape Town. That why I started to label him with the adjective “interesting” of course. He did the trip in 2 or 3 months following quite a different itinerary than mine. Now you’ll say that there are many bikers crossing the world, so what’s so exciting about this one? Well, he is Tanzanian! And let me tell you, that is quite a feat!

not that a Tanzanian is not capable of doing it of course, but this kind of activity is absolutely not in their culture. You’ll see thousands of bikers on the roads here but not really by choice. People can’t afford cars, simple as that.

also, like with most developing countries, people here have to work hard and long hours to barely make a living. Their few holidays, if any, are spent resting with relatives, sometimes located very remotely across the country. So biking of whatever else requiring hard work is not what they’d consider holidays of course. I know that I’m considered “gringo loco” here because I’ve got a car but prefer to ride my bike no matter what the weather is, and I enjoy it.

Most Tanzanians, or Africans for that matter, can’t afford a passport, have to sustain families, and by families I mean extended families, not only the children.

so for all these main reasons, a lone Tanzanian deciding to jump on a bicycle and see the world is really a feat. Elvis loves biking and from an early age liked to see a bit further than his own backyard. He managed to raise some awareness about his dream and passion, bought a decent bike, receive some gear from various sponsoring companies, got support from some people and finally managed to start on his journey. He admits his family was not too keen on his dream.

he gathered from all the people he met on this trip, and I believe him, that he must have been the first African to do so. Lot of people thought he was an Afro American by the way. They couldn’t conceive an African would waste his time and energy on such a project. He was challenged a few times to produce his Tanzanian passport, was stripped and searched once for valuables and money by South African thugs who didn’t believe him to be African. He was welcome by in every country he crossed except South Africa where he didn’t see any hint of brotherhood between Africans. Immigration being quite a problem out there must be the explanation.

now Elvis is back here and already eyeing the big map. From Arusha to Cairo or to Angola. I suggested Cairo for the diversity of people and countries. What would he discover in Congo and Angola, except war atmosphere, that he hasn’t seen yet in Southern Africa? Anyway I’ll keep in touch with him to sponsor him a bit if he goes ahead. Such an effort from a fellow biker deserves my attention.

in the meantime, if you have time to spare, have a look at:

http://cyclingaroundafrica.blogspot.com/

sometimes this continent…

 

this continent still puzzles me.

I mentioned last week that some fellow pilots had had a few motorbike accidents. As usual a curious crowd gathers around the premises, some of these onlookers are good hearted but most are  ready to steal something. In Jordy’s case, his helmet was stolen. I paid him a visit last week at the hospital. His helmet was in the room. He laughed telling the story behind this helmet. The thief tried to sell it to the biker shop where Jordy is a regular customer. The shop owner recognised the helmet, snatched it and gave it back to Jordy. The story beginning is unfortunately very common. This kind of ending pretty rare though…

last month in Makambako, somewhere in Tanzania, outside bars and hotels some customers and employees were ambushed at night and clubbed to death with iron bars. This happened more than once and nothing was stolen from the dead victims. Men suspected their jealous wives to organise a heavy revenge thing, while women suspected their men’s jealous lovers to take a revenge. Finally the cops managed to arrest 2 groups of criminals carrying bags containing blood stained iron bars. After “thorough” (as written in the newspaper) investigations, the criminals admitted they had been commissioned by various witch doctors to bloodily hit people to death with these iron bars and bring them back (the blood stained bars) to the witch doctors for use in voodoo activities!

voodoo is a big thing here. Look at the news about the 50 albinos who have been killed in Tanzania in less tahn 2 years…voodoo purpose again. Some of the killers have just been sentenced to death by the way. That decision won’t prevent me from sleeping I guess.

In Mbeya, some years back, in connection with Congo, some bodies had been found completely skinned.

in Arusha, I remember a body that had been dug up and stolen at night, a few years after burial!

after all even local bishops and politicians are renowned to pay visits to brothels huh no sorry that’s another topic, I meant to witch doctors! Bishops!? What part did they miss in “monotheist religion”? Having said that, talking about criminals and voodoo, the late French president Mitterand was famous for having a personal astrologist. We can assume he didn’t have anybody killed for that reason but is it worse than believing in juju?

some portraits

sun and dark skins don’t always go well together in the day. Early morning or late afternoon are the best times. Otherwise, I use shades like here at the entrance of a barn with the inside as a dark background. The reflection from the outside environment gives a nice light. Compensation from the light measurement might be needed.

 

 

this man with a very photogenic face is the foreman at Kimemo Estate where I have been assigned to shoot coffee processing and the cottages. He is holding and inspecting some dried coffee beans.

 

 

aerials in Tanzania, our house, lake Manyara

 

Arusha, our house in Nane Nane neighborhood, south of the “city”. Arusha, a city…. They smoke good stuff here.

large view. Different kind of houses, some nice ones too. Not the most posh place in Arusha but not too bad. Reasonably quiet except for the odd angry preacher ( this could be a pleonasm as preachers always look angry to my opinion) or some pub that used to be loud (Mr Bankruptcy might have paid a visit lately)

 

closer view. Ours is the one central in the picture with all the trees. That was a few weeks ago. Now, with the rains, the grass got shiny green within a few days. Our neighbor is one of those water wasters, his lawn is green while kids are drinking from water puddles nearby, from the numerous water pipe leaks or inconsiderate gardeners leaving taps and hoses flowing away.

I wrote once about that funny habit to build big houses in tiny gardens. Big houses but with a maximum of tiny windows, lost space in various corners, twisted roofs….Poor planning from architects you could say. In turn you get the windows 2 or 3 meters away from a hedge, or worse a high wall! Look at the big house next to us (and the one half cut top of the picture)…their gardener is always trying to cut the hedge short to get some light in I suppose or to peep in. Whatever I yelled at him once and things look OK now. Behind our house there is a smaller house. We suspect our house girl or guards would love to live in, in order to save rent or travel costs. It happens in other families but our peace is priceless, I don’t want to have servants living on the premises. I’m not born in such a wealthy environment, I’m not used and can’t get used to servants, so I’m always happy when I can tell her to stay home whenever I’m home myself and there is not much work to do. So I don’t have to wonder if she likes Led Zeppelin or Pink Floyd, even if I ask she won’t dare to say no anyway, I can wander around naked if I want to and not feel embarrassed. You can call that selfish attitude I know, I feel sorry for them that they probably live in small and maybe shared cramped rooms but I want to live too…

 

bush fire in the Ngorongoro Highlands, in September.

 

lake Manyara in October, dried up at 95%, another flat salt lake in the Rift Valley, like Eyasi, Natron in Tanzania. Bogoria, Nakuru, Turkana in Kenya… all the way up to the Dead Sea.

I always wonder if I could land safely on this. It looks flat enough though. But having walked a bit on lake Natron and heard stories, I know it could be deceiving. The crust could crack and collapse. People have played unwillingly a similar game as stuck in moving sands. A plane has sunk to the bottom for instance, well below the surface I mean. How do you call your boss and tell him you’ve landed on the lake for a lunch with some friends and by the time somebody noticed the plane was imperceptibly sinking, it was too late to free it out?

as for lake Eyasi, the colors are much duller than Natron. But they get interesting enough. The 5% of remaining water are located on the northern side of lake Manyara. A waterfall there seems to feed the area a bit longer. The hippos, the zebras, the buffalos, some lost wildebeests hang around the fresh water as do some birds.

B/W pictures with the Leica M

 

my Leica got jealous of all that attention on the medium format cameras… I can’t say which one I like best. I don’t even try to decide anyway.

Lengijave, a close spot to Arusha but that looks very bushy and remote. We like to go there for a late afternoon. We’ve been rarely disappointed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

some pictures with the Rolleiflex and Mamiya C220

both are similar twin lens reflex cameras. Slight differences in handling but the same constraints and exceptional quality with the big 6x6 cm negatives. They might be old fashioned but quality is there, definitely.

that’s Karine’s baby, slightly bulkier than the Rolleiflex  but equally great to use.

 

 

 

 

mount Meru in the distance.

 

 

not an exceptional picture, too bad the waterhole is made of concrete. But, this is the view we had while having our lunch or sipping a cocktail from the Tree Tops lounge. Waterbucks, warthogs and baboons also came in a bit later to have a drink.

 

all these pictures are made with a fixed standard lens, no zoom here (though the Mamiya does accept lens change). A standard lens is basically the one that represents the same image seen by our eye. No closer, no wider. That used to be the regular lens on cameras decades ago, before optical researches produced telephoto lenses and zooms. These fixed standard lenses still exist widely luckily even in the digital world.

some pictures with my Rolleiflex …part II

 

I’ve visited about 10 African countries and this is a common scenery: hawkers, touts, whatever they are called are a nuisance all over. Except at borders where they are usually kind of forbidden, which is good. There is enough worry with the paperwork, delays and so on. So to get these pestering guys off your soles is quite relaxing and welcome.

 

 

people building hand cartwheels. Big business around.

 

and another good business is rope sale. Since everything is systematically overloaded and overflowing from any vehicle, a good rope is handy…

 

 

some pictures with my Rolleiflex and B/W films

 

 

serious looking lady waiting for a bus.

 

 

bare feet lady. How poor is that…no even some cheap crap Chinese sandals at 50 cents?

 

 

on a more joyful tone, Karine and I went to that splendid lodge, Tree Tops near Tarangire (we’re not on their payroll! It is just a great location) and I wandered around some baobabs…

 

 

 

 

lake Eyasi, Tanzania

 

lake Eyasi last month, before the rains started. Sure it must look like a normal lake by now. The lake is shallow and salted like all the lakes in the Rift Valley, at least in Tanzania. In turn they filled up very quickly. Eyasi is never as bright red and colored as lake Natron but once in a while it gets decent.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

some street pictures in Lira, Uganda.

 

 

 

 

the Obama mania hasn’t been over the top as I would have expected. The first colored US president…it looks like white people finally made more fuss about it that here. I’ve seen a few bumper stickers, some T shirts and a few customized paintings on ‘dala dala’ aka the public transport minibuses. Though if you ask me those paintings don’t count too much as I’ve seen some glorifying Slobodan Milosevic or Monica Lewinsky. So what credit can you give to that…Some people in Kenya might have thought and hoped for some direct benefits, typical tribal attitude, but that fell down quickly too. That’s about it I’d say.

 

a neighborhood in Mwanza, one of the main towns in the country. Mwanza is located on lake Victoria, a fresh water lake for a change. View from the hotel.

 

 

  

client relaxing.