Ben Wilhelmi

in the garden and around

 

 

quite a big flower.

 

butterflies…we don’t see that many. Too bad because some are real beauties.

 

getting closer….

 

various shots of the same flower and host.

 

 

some random shots in Arusha…

 

this is pretty unusual, roller blades…few roads are decent enough to use them in Arusha, and the road sides are even worse. Looks like these 2 were busy training.

 

a typical scenery: a heavily laden bicycle. 11 boxes of condoms. Things change slowly, finally.  Truckers have been known to sell the condoms they were given for free. Health workers have seen condoms drying on clothes lines for reuse or resale, condoms have been accused of carrying aids (a so-called plot from the whites to get rid of the blacks, though such a program has existed in the Apartheid South Africa but not with condoms…), individual condoms have been packed together with staplers…

 

Mount Meru one late afternoon.

 

another typical scenery: wooden carts carrying just about anything.

it was raining in the garden.

one of our last rains here in Arusha, last week. It started nicely as usual…

then got stronger. A real shower, but no storm.

 

 

 

 

 

 

then the sun broke in and colors back back, shining.

cool bugs and leaves in the garden

still playing with Karine’s macro lens, I was chasing this insect, quite big with a loud deep buzz, a little bomber. I have no clue of the species, sorry.

 

What is it doing with red hair?

Funny how I couldn’t see its wings which were flapping like a hummingbird, but the fast shutter speed got them frozen on the picture. They look quite soft, like a flag in the wind.

 

then another model showed up, different colors and 2 stripes but very similar I’d say. The wings are even more frozen on this shot.

 

I’m quite happy with this one, these insects hardly stay more than one second on each flower and are very quick to take off. Its wings are fuzzier for take off requirements.

 

I know this is blurry head but doesn’t it look like a cartoon character?

 

the same, sharp and easier to understand what’s what, but the angle is not so good for the funny face, antennas are now too low.

 

seriously cropped picture, probably some pollen on the butt, fantastic lens to play with (Nikon micro Nikkor 60mm 2.8)

 

 

dead flower stuck on a wet leave.

 

 

 

and some rain helps a lot, adds a nice shiny touch to any leaf. The rains seem to have stopped last week, more than a month late, but I guess nobody really complains.

 

 

 

colors and insects in the garden.

sometimes there is no need to gat far to find a subject for photo shooting. The garden can suffice after a nice rainy season (which has just stopped more than a month too late but few complain)

 

 

bugs are a bit hard to focus on as they hardly stop buzzing and the depth of field is reduced to peanuts at close range, which explains why the butt is sharp but not the head. More practice is needed.

 

 

 

 

I was trying out Karine ‘s macro lens that she has just received, a 60mm from Nikon. That’s a lens which is dedicated for this kind of photo work but I need to practice.

 

 

 

 

 

our house is not Fort Knox…

 

while we were away near lake Natron, we got a sms from our housegirl warning that the back wall in the garden had collapsed. It appeared that a neighbor was maneuvering with a little Toyota and hit the wall. She only broke a back light on her car but 2 square meters of bricks fell down! No, Toyota doesn’t build cars like tanks for the African market. No, this is another example of ‘made in Tanzania’… I know, that’s not politically correct and screw it. Too much sand in the concrete, somebody typically walked away with the ‘excess’ cement. The lady took responsibility and paid for the damage. Too bad we couldn’t ask her to pay for a full wall (and properly done this time). Talking about security, we felt a lot safer, realising that all you need when you forget your keys is to ram a wall with your boots…That was part 1 of the story…

 

part 2 a few days later…one afternoon, a storm brewing on Mount Meru, a big loud noise… We thought of a loud thunder but then we realised the sky was blue overhead the house. A quick check outside showed the same wall had collapsed, most of it this time. Clean fall, flat out! Maybe the watchman just leaned against it, or just peed on it and the pressure was enough…who knows. Everything is so poorly manufactured in this country! No victim luckily.

 

when I said flat out…from the base.

 

the white jeep is from our security company.

 

the new fixed part held a bit better. Of course some bricks were quickly ‘salvaged’ by passers-by. Not sure it is a good deal…

a few days ago, a similar story, another wall in town collapsed and killed a kid, sadly.

Lake Natron, end of trip.

 

the Engaresero river in the gorge of the same name.

 

  

 

  

 

and below, Karine took some pictures of me (that is mainly for Mom)

playing with the Rolleiflex (and looking close through the built-in magnifier for focusing more precisely)

 

I had of course a most refreshing shower too.

 

 

and a print to deliver somehow to Raphael later. Why a picture of me? Friends together he says. I suspect it has more to do with marketing and tourism. good for him.

 

and on the road again to Arusha, cows and volcano Lengai

 

following a Land Rover, only half full so far…hardly joking: more people will board later on. Sometimes i feel guilty that I don’t take many hitch hikers but with all the gear we were carrying in the back, I’d worry too much.

walking up Engaresero river, lake Natron.

 

a few rivers hit lake Natron from the escarpments. One is called Engaresero and runs near the village of the same name. This river starts in a dark gorge, in a natural amphitheater of nearly 400m high. The water is literally squeezed out of the rocks from many crevices. Quite stunning. We didn’t go there this time but I’ll post soon some pictures of a previous trip. We only went to visit a few falls this time.

here is the river at the mouth of the gorge, those cliffs are 600m high dwarfing any human.

 

Raphael our guide showed us the way. Is a guide really useful here…? Not really as initially it is just a river to follow up, there is no way to get lost. But I like this guy from previous pleasant trips. He knows the best rocky crossings and also acted as a carrier for camera gear. Karine has never been wadding in a little wild river(even less fully clothed) and is not used to climb wet rocks. So carrying a camera bag was risky.

 

 

here is my little mountain goat at work, but as she says, “petit cabri’ sounds better in French.

 

 

here is the first waterfall. Nothing big but hey, this was a Monday morning, how often do you happen to bump into waterfalls when you’re stuck in traffic jams? ;-)

 

 

        

it could be cool to backtrack the waterfall up across those rocks and trees. The pattern must be interesting.

 

and quickly after that first waterfall, 2 more bends in the river and here is the second one, a bit taller. Here is the ‘cabri’ discovering that the water is even colder here than near the river mouth.

 

but what a reward! That’s what I call a real shower with high pressure. Those who live in Arusha know what I mean. Further than this, the trip really require a guide as more serious climbing and twisted paths are the norm. I remember a dead tree being used as a bridge.

I had taken my Rolleiflex with me, just for the sport of it. A bit risky with all that water, I know and I’d rather lose my digital Nikon D200 than the Rollei. I’ll have to wait to get the 6x6 cm color slides developed in Belgium.

around lake Natron and volcano Lengai

 

the last evening in Natron area, the next morning would bring us in some waterfalls nearby, another amazing place.

 

in the meantime, the evening lights were soft and we drove towards Lengai, following the path were the jeeps are to be left before climbing the volcano by foot.

 

a dry lava bed, eroded by water.

 

either some left over rocks which had been expelled during the last eruption or broken lava crust.

 

the top of the volcano. The smooth brown layer on the very top is the new crater. The top used to be along the rough edge.

 

details of the volcano slopes. It’s not always to climb that stuff, believe me. That’s why a guide is always welcome to meander through. And even more since the last eruption: the slopes have been heavily modified.

 

looking the opposite way, north of lake Natron is Shombole, on the Kenyan border.

aerials of flamingoes… last part

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

remembering my Grandma and an African story.

 

My Grandma just passed away this weekend. Quite a big loss, I’ll miss her a lot, she was cool, really cool, cooler than many young people in fact. She was a bit of a nutcase in a good sense, she was too modern for the times she was born in, she was interesting in many ways and I never got bored when visiting her. She loved reading books and  sometimes we shared them. She stayed switched on by watching smart programs on telly as well.

Above all I could hardly do wrong in her eyes, she approved my wish to come in Africa and live up my dreams. She became my fan Nr 1 (well sharing the podium with Mom), was an avid reader of my road books, and wouldn’t miss any of my photos. Sharing my African experience with her was a pure joy.

when I say I could hardly do no wrong, I managed briefly once or twice. I was explaining my joy at ”strafing” local people, Maasai usually. That is to fly really low, a few meters above the ground and using imaginary machine guns from my wings, mumbling “thud thud thud” ( who said Immature? and yes I know, guns on a C206, that’s far stretched). Of course that means people had sometimes to dive in the dust, that cows and goats were dispersing like hell and that moody warriors threw spears or arrows at me. Then I noticed she had raised an eye brow. Hmmm not good for my sorry ass…she said she thought I was a good kid (I always stayed a kid in her eyes), asked why I was enjoying scaring people away. Before I could answer she started a story…

she vividly talked about a bloody bastard of a German fighter pilot doing the same to her and other girls working in some field in 1940 while the men were busy on some front or prisoners of war. No gunning luckily but she clearly remembered the aircraft a few meters above the ground, the huge engine roar, the pilot’s face, his leather helmet and goggles, the yellow nose of the aircraft (then that must have been a Messerschmitt 109) and the pilot grinning and waving! She showed him the fist of course, the finger was not fashionable yet.

I could see she was back in time, living again that moment. Then she ‘landed’ and asked me again. I gave a few reasons, fun being the main one for any self respected bush pilot, slight revenge being another one as Maasai people drove me nuts sometimes while I was performing for Flying Medical Service and a last but good one: to give people something to talk about. Puzzled look from Grandma. I went on to explain that there is no television out there, as in 1940 by the way, and a bit of distraction must have been welcome. Imagine now an old wrinkled Maasai dude sitting in the shade under the main tree telling the story to an avid audience. I bet he’d embellish the facts and add that he managed to stick a spear in my butt or that he had to run for one week to collect all his scared animals.... Seriously I’d like to hear the Maasai version of the story.

And I looked at Grandma, and pointed that she kind of proved my point as she still remembered clearly the German bastard 60 years later, he’d be proud… she tried to keep on some blame stare on me but I saw a refrained smile. And I was forgiven of course, as always anyway.

I’m sad I didn’t go home and visit her last year because of that new job…

 

this is just reasonable low flying. But shooting and flying at the same time is not that easy. So if I go lower I stop shooting. Even more if there are people in the way. Imagine a smart ass playing chicken with me, I’d better be focus on him and not on my camera. The blue thing is the aircraft nose.

 

aerials of flamingoes over the years, lake Natron, part II

 

these 2 pictures are of a same set, the one below seriously enlarged to show the nesting process. Quality is lost in the process but this is only a blog right? But having said I’m still impressed by the quality of such a big crop in the picture. Good old (yep already) Nikon D200. Imagine the newer D300 or D300s I’m eyeing next (that means soon)…

 

 

 

 

same set here too. The pink dots above are flamingoes, see below on the enlargement.

 

same story here. Look at the eggs in the nests!

 

I wish I had a paraglider, or a helicopter with pilot…

lake Natron, flamingoes taking off.

 

a vast expanse of lake Natron dries suddenly after each rainy season. The mud cracks under the scorching sun, it looks so typical like a giant puzzle. But because of the irregular heavy rains in the country, the cracked mud got wet and soft again.

water is soaking the mud and footprints can be spotted very easily in the soft surface whereas dry mud is normally quite hard.

toe marks very visible.

 

as said before the flamingoes have to run for taking off, they need speed like an airplane, one could say like a seaplane in this case.

quite a graceful movement I must say.

 

he is finally airborne in the next seconds…

 

closely followed by his peers.

 

 

these 2 shots show Shombole or Shompole '(spelling is not always a must in remote areas…) far away.Another extinct volcano sitting on the northern part of the lake on the Kenyan border.

 

 

a flamingo footprint

flamingoes on lake Natron

lake Natron is the main breeding place for flamingoes. A place to be protected. Luckily a project for a salt processing factory on the lake was dumped, a subsidiary of Tata apparently. It looks like major donors heard about the project through a petition an other complaints and threatened to withdraw the cash. The government dropped the authorization.

 

I wish the clouds hadn’t been there killing the light on this flock take off.

 

 

 

this river prevented us from going too close to the flamingoes.

 

our guide.

 

even on a small scale, the patterns are interesting. I could pretend this is an aerial like the ones I posted last week.

 

 

dancing? No, just landing. Flamingoes don’t take off in one shot but like an aircraft they need speed first.

 

sifting for algae and other nutrients. The beak is provided with a double hole.

 

that’s low flying! I’m jealous.

 

scramble take off.

aerials of volcano Oldoinyo Lengai over the last 2 years, part II

 

 

 

flying quite high and here we go with a satellite style picture.

 

another day with a ‘snowy’ cap.

 

some days were peaceful.

 

but other days were crazy! I estimated this atomic plume at 55.000 feet or 17 km high! The KLM pilots for instance hadn’t even been notified! A warning they might have appreciated since they fly over this volcano to land in Kilimanjaro airport…at night. In fact the brilliant aviation authority hasn’t done anything else either, no warning and no closure of the area around the volcano. A radius circle of 250 miles should have been close off as is the norm in case of intense volcanic activity. Nada. Luckily for me as I tremendously enjoyed flying and snapping pictures. That would have meant all the Serengeti, Ngorongoro, Kilimanjaro, Arusha, a nice part of Kenya too. So the flying companies happily kept on flying and only 3 engines died during that period due to ash intake. Invisible ash of course as no sane pilot would fly into this. One of these engines died on me, well agonised since it didn’t quite stop in the air but I didn’t leave my eyes off that road for too long, just in case.

 

 

as seen above the clouds from quite far.

 

 

 

this is the actual look of the volcano.

 

a picture combining Lengai and lake Natron.

 

Kilimanjaro far left, Lengai middle and close, and Meru far right.

aerials of volcano Oldoinyo Lengai over the last 2 years.

it was really cool to fly those months. Patterns, whether for smoke, colors or deposits, were ever changing. Here the smoke is taken away by the wind very far, more than 100km sometimes.

 

here on the other hand, the smoke is going straight up. I keep a nice memory of this one eruption because I saw its birth, from the first puff to this high column. Quite a strong moment to witness that. Empakai crater in the foreground.

 

 

flying for a BBC crew, 2 days of shooting. They didn’t mind me doing my own pictures, here a decent close fly by. So cool!

 

one early morning, long interesting shadows, cold light.

 

 

 

gray smoke here, but it has been jet black or pure white too.

 

ash fall out around the volcano, up to 40 cm thick! I felt sorry for the people down there but I enjoying every minute of flying and shooting at the same time.

 

moon landscapes! Eerie aspects…villages were usually deserted by people and animals, except for some stubborn pig-headed old grandpas, as in any culture.

 

you’d think ash is ash, specially from the same volcano during a short period…well the color change from steel gray to white, through a pink-purple touch for instance.

aerials of volcano Oldoinyo Lengai over the last 10 years.

as for the aerials of lake Natron, here are some older illustrations of the volcano. I think it helps to understand why I keep on writing about that place, why we felt being in a special place, a very special place.

since the 90’s the volcano looked like this. A flat top or filled up crater, slowly filled up by slow activity since the 60’s when the last major eruptions took place. Since 1999 that was the usual view with minor variations in color and shape. Chimneys would crumble, new ones would appear, some smoke or little lava flows on a regular basis but nothing big normally.

 

 

the activity was considered reasonably low risk so climbing the volcano is a great feat. That was the 1st time I climbed it and camped on top and I got so lucky! The top was rambling, there were hissing noises like blowing torches and chimneys or cones spitting lava.

 

  

here is fresh lava flowing towards me. A unique volcano in the world. Its lava is considered cold, well still 600°C. As opposed to the usual lava which can hit 2000

 

600°C is hot but not enough to keep you away. You can come very close and feel like standing around a huge campfire. I felt very privileged to witness such a moment. Shot with a wide angle 24mm lens.

 

various patterns on the ground are created by drying lava and other components.

 

 

then things changed in June 2007. The activity started to show off on a daily basis, the middle crater got bigger and bigger, the colors got crazy…

 

the top even looked snowy white one day, to be blackened right away by the black stuff being spewed on this picture.

 

white ashes blown by the wind.

 

 

flying near Empakai crater and its beautiful lake on a great clear day, the smoke was getting more present.

a walk on lake Natron to meet flamingoes.

 

we had tried to drive to the flamingo resting place the day before, following newly made jeep tracks. The “tracks”, though looking normal, got very slippery even with a 4x4. I noticed that these tracks were not interrupted by footprints, meaning these jeeps didn’t stop or at least no passengers had stepped down. I thought the drivers might have a good reason for that, probably struggling as I was to keep control, so I didn’t stop either and tried to keep some speed and traction. Too concerned to get bogged down in the middle of nowhere. So we went to that nearby tented camp( Lake Natron Camp, which looked muuuuch better than ours for a better rate) and hired a Maasai guide for the next morning. A little walk wouldn’t hurt.

 

so the next day, what a surprise to recognize Raphael (his Christian name, Touma is his real name), a guide I had hired a coupla times over the years, to climb Lengai usually. I keep on bumping into him though there are many guides out there, serious or self-proclaimed. Off we went for a few hours under the scorching sun.

 

and I wear a hat, Mom…

 

as said before, the long drought has taken its toll on cows but on gazelles or wildebeests too as the young one shown here. The fur has bleached big time, it should be dark brown. It’s a young wildebeest because the horns are still straight. They curve down and up again while coming to an adult age.

 

the ground got muddy and slippery for most of the walk. And ruined the color of my shoes. So many salts and other acidic components in this water. One researcher spent 2 weeks in an hospital to recover from burns after falling in.

 

just looking down, notice the parallel tracks where an animal has slipped.

foot prints, bright colors, huh, remember the aerials I showed the previous days…

 

 

the flamingoes are quite far but some groups will be closer.

 

reflection of death.

 

volcano Lengai getting cloudy

 

finally here are the flamingoes.

lake Natron, some aerials, part II

 

lake Natron, some aerials

for those who only started to read this blog lately, here are some various shots of lake Natron, a salt lake in the Rift Valley, taken over the years since 1999. I love this place and I guess you can see why without too many words.

lake Natron and volcano Lengai

 

our tented camp was a  lousy one, we had got the feeling it would be great because it is linked to a luxury place here in Arusha, and thus very expensive. Well, even backpackers would have complained on some aspects. We had the feeling like the owners got the cake, ate it and fucked the baker…

anyway, the vista around made us forget that nuisance.

 

the village is named Engaresero. I used to land here while flying for Flying Medical Service some years back. This is Lengai towering above the main street. Not much…

 

here is the main church to give you an idea. 2 crosses just in case you’ve got a doubt.

 

the jeep comes handy.

 

from a little hill we took pictures around. Mount Gelai further behind.

 

 

imagine these 2 pictures stuck together to create a panorama. The pinkish tones are from the salt lake. For my early readers, you’ll remember that the lake is mostly red seen from an aircraft, due to some algae and various salt components. Here below is Lengai under the clouds.

  

 

we got daily storms, offering interesting skies.

 

cloudy Lengai, funny horns.

 

here Karine was shooting with her field camera. You know one of these wooden cameras with brass knobs and a black bellow*, the kind where the shooter needs a black cloak to cover himself? it takes about 30 min to prepare the thing. Luckily I like to shoot as well so I don’t see this waiting as a burden.

* appareil-photo appelé chambre, en bois, boutons en laiton, un soufflet noir et une cape noire pour recouvrir l’artiste.

 

the main track, one of the best parts.

 

the drought has been severe in East Africa for up to 3 years in some areas. Tanzania got its shares of suffering. Lake Natron being generally inhospitable, a drought is a disaster here. We saw 100’s of dead cows like here. And if you look carefully, you count at least 3 carcasses! They were so many dead cows that people were piling them up to make room. Wildebeests (des gnous) and gazelles were not spared either. A serious problem for Masai people who rely nearly exclusively on cows for a living. Talking bout aall the eggs in one basket, this is a good example…

 

volcano Oldoinyo Lengai, far and close.

 

storm towards Kenya, the border is on the north tip of the lake.

on the road to lake Natron and volcano Oldoinyo Lengai

 

last month, just back from a Zanzibar stay, Karine and I just had one evening to repack our bags, recharge batteries, empty photo cards and replenish our film stocks and leave the next morning for a 5h trip. The Land Rover was happy to head to the bush.

 

the village Mto Wa Mbu (“the mosquito river”) near lake Manyara is where we turn right to the north, leave the tarmac and receive a free 3 h back massage on that awful corrugated dirt track. It has been worked on they say but the old Romanian way: with toothbrushes or what…

the escarpment on this picture is the eastern Ngorongoro range.

 

the rains should have stopped mid December but nobody’s going to complain I guess after years of drought. We had daily storms out there (And Arusha still receive many showers these days)

 

Masai kid begging. Typical I thought. Well, no. This area will prove to be the worst place I’ve ever visited in term of begging. A real plague. And this in less than 5 years since the place opened up to tourism, though it is still in its infancy. People seemed to have stopped most activities except tracking visitors. They run long distances to catch up with us and ask for money in exchange for they picture or try to sell their plastic bead jewelry. Even the notorious Serengeti track doesn’t seem so afflicted. That’s why you’ll see few pictures of people on this post and next.

 

luckily, landscapes are still free, for now, to shoot at. Don’t laugh, I met some jackasses a few times who tried to make me pay for ‘their’ landscape picture. A strong “fuck off” suffices to sort out the problem, even if they don’t get the translation, the tone is clear.

but what you can’t avoid is the official gate at Engaruka where a fee, 5$ per person, is required to cross their district. That has been going on for years. Sounds like a medieval practice right? This place is still a hell hole, not much seems to happen here. I’m afraid the money goes into some unofficial pockets again. I really wonder what’s the legal aspect of that. It is though not happening on a national scale…yet. Having said that, another remnant of that nasty legal theft is still in use nowadays with passports and visa fees… there were clothes drying on the gate itself and I was asked to backtrack and go through another gate!! They believed me when I said I’d drive through the gate instead… idiots.

 

here a sign announcing an Oldoinyo Lengai grocery though the volcano is still nowhere to be seen. It reminds of the various hotel crooks in the world with their sea view…

of course nearby districts picked up the racket and now 2 more places on the same track extort toll money as well. Nobody was attending the second gate so we didn’t look for him either. And 15$ each at the 3rd gate, which is Engaresero district. There again, no obvious use for the money.

 

extinct volcano Kerimasi in the foreground, Lengai further, first sighting from the track.

 

Lengai getting closer.

 

  

Gelai, another extinct volcano.

 

 

nevertheless it has been raining lately, see the storm in the background, the area stays quite dry and dusty. After all the Natron has been often described as very inhospitable and not fit for human activity. Even in “out of Africa” there is a scene in which she goes to the lake to supply her husband’s party…

 

we stopped near a crater, a real crater, that is made from a rock crashing after an eruption, as opposed to a caldera like Ngorongoro ‘crater’ resulting of a collapse of a volcano.

 

I took a decent shot 2 years ago of this crater, during the eruption period of the volcano. The soil was all steel grey, the grass dry and yellow. Here it is below.

 

OK I complain about the dirt track but obviously this is not that easy to carve a road across this type of landscape. The Land Rover is a must in this. We came through the flat portion, just middle right of the picture, where the shadow starts.

 

looking towards Lengai. I had to chase some running mamas away before they reached us. I could see on their faces that they were puzzled. It’s probably very impolite to do so but their harassing attitude is very impolite too according to me standards. Too bad they don’t realise that fact. I guess tourists’ misleading attitude doesn’t help. They are more patient and a lot think they make an impression on the locals…that could be a post topic: the guys who visit 3rd world countries for 2 weeks and then proclaim themselves experts on the matter.