Ben Wilhelmi

market day in a village, maize selling, Tanzania

while flying on a medical clinic, the market was happening in Olbalbal village nearby Ngorongoro Crater. The doctor didn’t need any help so I went for a photographic stroll.

 

maize was sold from the back of that truck, spread on the blue tarpaulin and bagged again with the help of the bucket.

 

quite often potential Masai client would grab some grains, roll them in the hand, squeeze or even smell them. One is never too careful.

 

10.000 Tanzanian shillings, the highest denomination unfortunately, are worth about 5 euros. Imagine buying a car hand to hand with such a banknote when you need a few dozens millions …

 

2 kids helping…

 

here filling a goat skin bags which look really sturdy.

 

the bucket is used as a reference for payment and then used to refill customers’ bags.

dust storm, Monument Valley, Arizona

 

Monument Valley, always admired under a bright blue sky, showing off bright ochre colours…

…like this. The clouds seem never to burst into rain.

 

then the sky got obscured, the visibility dropped quite suddenly.

luckily we had finished our visit by the end of the afternoon.

outside the valley, dust kept on spreading for miles.

isn’t the same very old model, without modifications, of the Fall Guy?

a small Indian homestead.

 

nothing compared with the serious dust storms Arizona experienced a few weeks ago but for a European couple, even though living in Tanzania, this was a bit of a novelty.

Paris, street photography, b/w films

 

Louvre, in the “cour carrée”.

 

Eglise St Vincent-de-Paul.

 

Champs de Mars. 2 young girls napping after a serious lunch on the grass. Bottles of wine, empty…

 

Basilique du Sacré-Coeur in Montmartre.

 

Eglise (church) de la Madeleine.

 

One Yellow Corner shop.

Karine wondering what piece of art to buy. Yellow Corner is a superb springboard for photographers. Maybe I should consider?

all pictures shot on Leica M6, loaded with b/w films.

why flying …partVI

 

when I get a puncture, it is always about a nail or an acacia thorn. Except for that example….pretty worn out right? Well I had asked to change our tyres because they were worn out. The maintenance company, Tanzanair, was short of spares so it gave us this one on a friendly loan. I still fail to understand why they gave us tyres that were in worse conditions than the ones to replace…. With ’friends’ like this, you don’t need enemies anymore.

 

Flying Medical Service, the secret for nice airstrips…

the day of the miracle: an airstrip being cleared up! Engoveroni THE airstrip. A touch of bad weather around.

 

up and below, a dusty airstrip, Kiba in the Selous game reserve.

bush fixing…rocks in tyres to be dragged to smoothen the surface

 

 

quite an oil leak but manageable. It became expensive to run at some point though: 3 lt of oil every hour. Not to mention the concerned passengers.

 

variation on the same theme: another leak but not as bad.

 

Ikuu, Katavi nat’l park, refuelling in the bush. Though we were careful with extra fuel filters, I experienced once an engine failure. Luckily there was an airstrip not too far so I could glide down there without damage. The 3 built-in fuel filters were clogged with dirt.

 

Ikuu, planes ready for the night. The branches are from acacia trees. The thorns should prevent bloody hyenas to come close and chew the tyre, which they love to do!

 

I knew something was wrong in the air: the vibrations were really shaking the airplane. A quick inspection revealed this cracked bit on the propeller section. The white spinner or cone had been rotating out of balance and even damaged the blue bit on the nose.

so I removed that spinner and flew like this for a while, not a big deal. The black arc is where the spinner has been rubbing the nose.

aerial photography in Tanzania

 

between 2 airstrips on lake Natron, where Flying Medical Service operates on a regular basis.

there is a spring nearby an extinct volcano, one of the very few springs around the lake, and is really prized by local people and their herds.

here is a chunk of that volcano, Shombole, on the Kenyan border.

a Masai homestead.

transport in Tanzania

 

the Ngorongoro-Serengeti road, respectively linking conservation area and nat’l park, unfortunately open to public transportation.

 

typical imported Korean truck. Any color you like providing it is blue. Over the years they get repainted at various level.

 

overloaded pick-up. When such a pick up crashes, a disaster looms. I remember one accident some years ago: a tyre had burst and the 'speeding' Peugeot pick up 404 went in the ditch. There were 27 people on board or hanging! 10 died on the spot, the 17 others were seriously wounded, and some of these died later in the good care of the hospital (no joke here).

 

and the bottles can be full!

 

no fear, nothing impossible to local taxi drivers. I'm even surprised there is nobody sitting in the couch.

 

clinics with Flying Medical Service, Tanzania

 

Northern Tanzania is where Flying Medical Service operates on a regular basis for mobile clinics with 2 Cessna 206’s. The pilot flies to one of the 3 hospitals we use as a hub, and from there during 2 or 3 days, with nurses and doctors and medical supplies, the plane will reach remote villages to treat and vaccinate people, who otherwise would have to walk for days across a harsh savannah to reach an hospital.

Oljoro, a small village at the foot of the Gol mountains, part of the Loliondo Hospital tour.

while the clinic are being done, life goes on in the nearby village. Obviously no schooling is available for this young herder

 

baby weighing, Mpopong’i.

 

a Masai hut in Olemilei in the Gol mountains, not made for tall people.

photo shy girl.

 

young herders in Ololosokwan, Serengeti border. I know that giving names is useless since they’re not drawn on any maps but for the sake of exotic sounds….

Market in a Tanzanian village

 

Loliondo, near Serengeti.

 

I like the match of colors of this picture. But I feel sorry for this mean looking woman's husband…he’d better not show up late at night with alcohol breath and suspicious hair on his clothes!

 

what can be so paradisiac about a hair saloon? Paradaizi is paradise in swahili obviously, another one of those superb direct translations.

 

Paris, street photography

Spring 2011 in Paris, perfect weather. After the Fukushima accident, people were protesting even more than before. Here a lady at the place de la Bastille, symbolic place….

within the Louvre perimeter.

 

fireman on duty.

notice the old fashioned contraption to carry a hose.

 

scooters are all the rage in such a congested city. The old Vespa style still gather many aficionados.

all shot on a 1961 Rolleiflex medium format camera and B/W films.

registration plates, USA

 

car owners in the States have a wide range of freedom to express themselves via their car plates. In Belgium, we can barely choose at high price the letters and digits order. Nothing about color or additions.

historic vehicle plate and the state nickname which is very common. Here Arizona aka Grand canyon state.

 

positions in armed forces are quite common too. My flight instructor last year, a Korean war navy pilot veteran had is plate labelled NAV8TOR.

backgrounds can be quite colorful, showing full landscapes, sometimes sunsets.

 

historic characters…

 

and as if plates didn’t allow enough freedom of expression, a dedicated frame can be added.

 

not sure what Taylor refer to: the driver’s job or a famous character….

why flying the bush might be interesting , partV

 

shit hole places, not much happens, so an aircraft become an attraction. I loved the registration of that plane, APE, since one of the main attractions of that company was the chimpanzee viewing. Some nasty tongues said that the name perfectly described our way of flying…tsstss.

 

a Tanzanian Air Force HS748 which had a problem on landing, on lake Manyara airstrip.

spare parts like the engines were then removed or salvaged.

 

sad or funny story, you decide…these are the engines and the wheels of a cargo Boeing 707. That plane had come at night to land in Mwanza on the shore of lake Victoria. The captain decided to give some extra training to the copilot and perform touch’n’goes at night, a good exercise. After a while, there was a power cut in town. The pilots decided to circle for a while. Sure the emergency airport generator was going to kick in any time right? Well it didn’t! Tanzania, always full of surprises…stolen fuel probably. By then it was too late for a diversion apparently, the pilots had burnt too much fuel instead of leaving right away. So in pitch black night, no lights, no beacons on the ground…they had to land with the help of the GPS, which are not always meant to be used for that type of flying. Anyway the poor guys missed the runway just by a few dozens meters and landed in the lake. All the crew survived! This was not the end: it was decided after the inquiry to pull the plane out of the lake. Some incompetent contractors were called in. They used cables and trucks in the wrong way and managed to rip apart the plane in 3 bits!

2 Russian Ilyushin 76 in the back.

 

airstrip nearly flooded, Olaika, northern Serengeti.

 

this is what happens when lazy people don’t maintain THEIR airstrip, blaming each other, the bad moon or the evil eye, whatever. The blades look like grass cutters.

and the rest of the aircraft is no better…

wet grass, chopped, pulverized by the propeller… it got very sticky and hard to remove.

 

Olpirikata, one the narrowest strips I know.

 

Njurlan, Rift Valley. Some high grass again but not too bad.

 

a bit of a sandy strip wedged between trees, Pininyi, Rift Valley

 

airstrip spared by wild fires. I didn’t need the map or the GPS to find it!

 

elevator damaged by rocks from rough strips.

 

a friend visiting his chick, my by-then colleague. Now the Masai have a monster in their legends to scare the kids, a mix of a bat and a man who kidnap naughty boys. Imagine when they saw that microlight coming in! No kids to be seen around, within miles. They must have been shit scared, even hiding in burrows I bet.

 

I think that by now, you start to get the idea on why I love to fly here, right?

street life, Arusha, Tanzania

striking face, isn’t it?

 

the local Hell Angels club?

 

rare haircut, 1970’s, remake of the musical “Hair”?

 

common transportation tool: the hand cart. Cabdrivers waiting.

 

Cellphones are all over the place in Tanzania. Every shop sells vouchers and advertising signs exposed every few meters…

 

these bikers are really good at keeping balance while overloaded like here with 4 crates of bottles.

 

colors and shapes, route 66

 

Karine and I loved to cruise on route 66, here in Arizona, without specific plans. We would stop whenever shapes and colors and unusual subjects would call. Well, unusual, that is for a European point of view.

a bit of a Corvette, just before sunset.

 

bit of a Mercury.

 

a GMC pick up.

 

Chevrolet…

 

Chevrolet Bel Air, station wagon. Numerous souvenirs shops dot the route 66, not always painted and decorated with the best taste…

 

Ford.

 

Dodge.

 

open 24/7, only in the US?

aerial photography of people and herds and water, Tanzania

 

Ngorongoro area, a Masai homestead or ‘boma’ seen prior to landing at Olbalbal village (probably not to be found on any map…). Classical structure, a large acacia branch fence contains the goats, cows and huts and sometimes a smaller enclosure.

 

a dam, not to provide electricity but to keep water in the dry season.

 

another ‘boma’ with modern materials like tarpaulin or corrugated panels. Ugly sighting and the panels must be dreadful under the fierce sun…

 

here is Olbalbal, western slope of Ngorongoro Crater, a main village in the area notably for the water pump in the center.

here are the Masai ladies with jerry cans and other containers collecting water. water collecting with stay a women’s duty for the next century around here….

 

on short final, a herd in the dust.

 

a ‘boma’ near Endulen hospital, still in Ngorongoro area. Masai people are targeted in this conservation area to be expelled. Which was easy in the past when they were still leading a nomadic life and were prevented to come back in many areas. They’ve learnt their lessons the hard way and now have settled more permanently in the disputed areas. So the hamlet here is quite crowded and not so conventionally organised. The outside fence is missing and there are too many huts for one sole husband and his wives…normally each wife has built her personal hut and the husband makes his choice every night, not owning a hut himself, too much menial work regarding a male status.

 

some cow tracks start thin then, when well trodden, get larger and more eroded. Some could be used as a decent bush airstrip like this one.

 

friends working at Endulen hospital, in front of their house.

flying the bush partIV, Tanzania

flying formation is an exercise I really enjoy…since I was the only pilot on board, I had to fly myself and while taking the pictures, I’d keep some distance. Otherwise we were much closer.

above the vast empty African expanses…the airplane is a great Cessna C206, a workhorse. Notice the Maasai homesteads in the high right corner, just next to the airstrip, Olpirikata. There is even a smallerl strip but that’s only the taxiway, a rarity in the bush.

 

this one is a Czech airplane, a Let 410. This plane was flying faster than me, just overtaking me. We wouldn’t be allowed to come that close to each other in the West. Well here neither normally but …

 

this Let 410 made a belly landing, that is the landing gear was not put down. The pilots, 2 of them, forgot…they must have been picking their nose before landing or what? Since it happened a few times within a year or so, all aircraft involving the same notorious company, the beliefs were that it was a scam to the insurance…specially that they never replaced these aircraft by the same models but by bigger planes…

this idiot running towards me was a self proclaimed ‘chief in charge’ trying to seize my pictures. He couldn’t even tell me his position or job on the airport. The janitor probably… that was my first ‘fuck you’ in Tanzania. And I still own the pictures….

 

waste of time but how can I refuse a poor smiling kid to pose in the driver’s seat…

 

this Cessna 206 had been delivered to us across the Atlantic Ocean. Extra fuel tank is required for the 16h flight in one go! Poor pilots, it must be boring and inconvenient. The 500 lt tank is seen here being removed from the inside of the aircraft.

 

a mini twister called here dust devils. They can be way higher than this one. Harmless but they can rock the airplane and surprise the pilot, me for instance, on take off.

 

notice the little ravine behind the airstrip. Better be concentrated on landing.

 

another bush fix: the oleo strut was flat, oil leakage, no more shock absorber. So to keep going without damaging the metal parts, we had put these pieces of rubber on the chrome part to avoid friction and metal contacts. The nose is tilted up for the time being fixed. Once lowered, the chrome part will be hidden.

aerial photography, lake Natron, Tanzania

 

route 66, abandoned cars in B/W

 

cool sightings to admire these old beauties alongside the route 66 and elsewhere too, though to watch them rot…

street life, Tanzania

 

some scenes in Arusha….

condom ad showing a healthy and rich couple…facing a destitute man.

 

some years, the decision was made, and budget found, to paint Arusha in bright colors. Not only once and then wait for decay but painting is remade on a regular basis. Good decision as the buildings used to be Stalinist-era grey, very dull and depressing. One might not like peach or raspberry or yellow colors but it really gives a sunshine touch to the streets. And the numerous (too numerous) ads concur in that color mode.

foreign city or country names are really popular amongst pub owners…misspellings are popular too.

 

unfortunately the paint quality is crap and it peels off quickly…

 

isn’t that depressing? One hires a watchman and what does he do beside sleeping? Bring his friends around and chat up, AND sits with his back towards the street, as we all know the best way to spot potential danger….

 

one of the 2 international schools, proudly showing off its US style school buses.

 

nothing oriental in those carpets: they’re made of plastic thread or beads.

 

taxi drivers having fun. I'm getting some experience at driving and shooting at the same time.

wildlife in Tanzania

 

curious giraffe.

 

pelicans resting a few days on lake Manyara during their long migration.

and storks were part of the migration apparently. Bird pooling?

 

our neighbor, one of the pair of beautiful crowned cranes that some jerk keeps illegally in his garden. Their wings are clipped to prevent flying. There is a chimpanzee too in that garden…not only illegal but dangerous too!

 

hartebeest on the run. Une bubale en français.

 

I wonder what happened to her ears. Infection I guess...

my early pictures in street photography, Germany

 

When I turned 18, Mom offered me my first reflex camera, a nice Minolta X700 with a 50mm lens, I started to shoot where I lived partly by then, that is the greater Köln or Cologne. I got into street photography right away. Which makes me smile because street photography is all the rage right now. Excellent school for learning a camera handling and understanding the light.

here we go back in 1987…

I’m pleased to see that nevertheless I’d shoot some pictures differently, I was already busy trying to spot details, like these 2 who obviously had each troubles with their trousers bottoms.

 

I remember this blonde girl, I kept on seeing her on many of my field trips over the years.

 

there was always a car exposed like that to win on some lottery, the Dombau Lotterie as written on the board.

 

around the famous cathedral, the Dom, the square was large and often used by various artists or acrobats. There were those funny jean’s by then, even the jackets were hilarious seen from 2011…

 

my first lovers, Doisneau in mind but far from as interesting.

 

the Dom and its unmistakable silhouette.

market day in the bush, Tanzania

 

my Flying Medical Service duties bring me to nice remote places, I land on airstrips that would take hours to reach by jeep. Just before landing in Olbalbal in Ngorongoro Conservation Area (thus not a national park), I noticed the village was busy. So I left the staff to perform the medical duties and I walked to the village. Market day, that is lucky day for any curious mind.

heavy sacks of corn are offloaded from the truck.

that yellow bucket serves as a reference container.

I had crawled under the truck for a different angle.

a customer bag is being filled up. 5 $ a bucket or 8500 Tanzanian shillings.

this woman bought a lot of bags apparently. She must have come with various helpers.

Paris, B/W street photography

 

I know it looks awfully touristic but these guys are often real artists. In Montmartre around the Sacré-Coeur, dozen of them offer their services.

 

le Sacré-Coeur.

 

Place de la Bastille.

 

2 views of Notre-Dame.

booksellers alongside the Seine. I just love wandering near these books shops, I’ve found great stuff there.

All above hot on b/w films and with a vintage Rolleiflex camera from 1961.

flying the bush, part 2, Tanzania

 

so flying the bush…I was just hoping for nice pictures, a bit of dust, a nice landscape in the background (the Rift Valley at a place called Ngaresero, 600 meter cliffs), a touch of color with the red Cessna 206…I got more than expected: a tricky airstrip, quite soft and sandy and rocky altogether. The pilot got a bit rough on the controls, kicked the pedals a bit too hard and jammed the nose wheel in the sand…

 

just starting to move and turning to align with the airstrip heading…

the propeller is still rotating here….the 300 HP engine roaring, creating a lot of noise.

 

then the engine stops, see the dead propeller, and the total silence sets in…impressive moment.

 

nobody was hurt but the pilot’s pride. Two propeller blades are pretty twisted.

 

show time for the Masai!

 

on take off in a dusty area, Olpirikata, near the Serengeti. The power of a propeller!

 

Nairobi Wilson airport. A bombed airplane! Mafia style. The story was never cleared up…

 

the plane stayed there, like this, visible by everyone for months! Parked on the main parking lot, nice impression for the tourists who have just arrived in the country…nice marketing.

 

you’ve got long hair? Blonde? Or worse, red haired? You’re in to feel like a circus animal amongst the remote tribes who have never or rarely seen this kind of hair. And real, not extensions.

 

some incredible airstrips. Some pilots have refused to use this one again after the first training visit. Ngoveroni, one way in one way out no matter the wind, altitude 6500 ft or 2000m, on the flank of a crater (Empakai), 400 m long but luckily quite steep. No going around once you’re committed to land because the crater slope is too steep for the aircraft capability. For the pilots, 600 ft down on the VSI during take off, aspirated engine…

 

so steep that once I got booby trapped: heavy mamas were in the back of the plane, and as soon as I got out, the plane sat on her tail. Not proud of myself even if the conditions were unusual. The mamas were yelling at me while I was shooting instead of getting them out. Maybe they were angry that there would be a long lasting proof of their big weight…you know there is no television out there. Little stories like this are gold for people, not for the victims of course, and they stay for long. Legends start for less, nicknames or references too. “It was the day when the plane sat on its tail because fat mama 1 and fat mama 2 were on board…”.

 

here, the steepness is quite visible, and also the airstrip banks to the right as well. Quite challenging airstrip.

transport in Tanzania

 

safari car in Ndutu area during the wildebeest migration ( la migration des gnous).

 

home made anti theft on a truck rim.

 

incredible the variety and weight of goodies that can ferried on the back of a bicycle!

Arusha on a Sunday. Shops are closed and street traders have found good use of the gridlocked shops.

 

ferry in Dar es Salaam. as opposed to many other places in the world like Congo and Asia, naval accidents are pretty unheard of here.

 

an old Land Rover that deserve some rest by now.

 

my Land facing the volcano Lengai on a cold lava flow.

 

another Land, a bit overloaded. I say a bit because there is room for potential passengers on the outside of the frame.

 

the Clock Tower, Arusha city center.

 

youths hanging on a wreck that probably won’t ride again. There are still some parts to salvage though, Loliondo village.

Paris, around the Sacré-Coeur, b/w film

 

a little walk in Montmartre with a vintage 1961 Rolleiflex camera, stepping in Robert Doisneau’s steps.

flying the bush, part III, Tanzania

just a bit different than the airstrips I know in Belgium….the active volcano Oldoinyo Lengai in the distance. Engoveroni airstrip, Rift valley.

 

grasshopper scheme.

 

LSD effect? Nope just a super wide lens. A cool 16 mm Nikon lens I had borrowed.

 

Barabaig woman. She kept on touching, stroking the metal of the aircraft. It looks like she had never seen smooth surfaces like that.

 

friend of mine who trashed this plane by flying (by mistake) between power lines! He got sooooo lucky and so skillful to bring that plane back. He ripped off a big chunk of the wing…

…and an appreciable bit of the rudder

 

the rudder has been compressed vertically too! The antennas on the belly have been ripped off. No doubt he really flew between cables. Since that company owes me money, I congratulated that pilot for the ‘good’ job.

 

we had received a new airplane, so we went up for some fun, 2 planes together, filming, flying in formation…

 

bush repair…the main contact switch had died. I couldn’t start the engine. Luckily we had a solar engineer with us. He got an Xray machine switch in the hospital and ‘voilà’, an elegant fixture that held for 2 weeks while waiting for a spare part. Very stylish as the cables went outside the aircraft, from this picture to the engine compartment, glued with bandage tape.

 

a narrow wet and short airstrip (the brown bit) and brakes that were useless on that slippery mud…so I applied the emergency way: kick one pedal to force the plane to spin, left in this case, play with the power to control the U turn and full power in the end to push the plane the other way and stop. As you can see, this was not quite perfect, but at least I stopped before the end of the airstrip. Few pilots have performed that maneuver, which is not in the books. Only hearsay, no training. The next one was much better.

that mud would be called black cotton. La traduction en français semble difficile et varie selon les sites, ‘sol argileux lourd’ ou ‘terre noire à coton’…? Thick, soft, extremely slippery and very sticky…the worst kind. But potentially fun.

orange and black abstraction, lake Natron, aerials in Tanzania

 

that lake Natron managed to impress me once more, but on a really high level this time. The patterns and colors change regularly, many combinations are open out there.

But orange and black with a fish scale pattern is extremely rare, I witnessed that feat only twice in 12 years. So that really made my day during the last set of Flying Medical Clinics tour in Loliondo and around this week. All these pictures were shot within one turn with the Cessna 206, less than 2 minutes. Further away, the colors got the standard red hue on this classic pattern.

Orange or amber re not rare colors on the lake but then the patterns are wider and irregular and in slightly deeper waters.

 

a feeling of 3D sometimes…like coral.

 

and below is the first sighting 10 years ago (on the excellent but defunct) film Agfa Ultron 50.

 

 

my guess is that the wind is constantly blowing from one direction, pushing the very shallow water towards the same side of the scaled shape. Humidity must have a different impact on the salts, hence the different colors. And I suppose again that I’ve shot this old picture at a different time of process to explain the black predominance…

flying the bush, Tanzania

busy reviewing some old posts...

sometimes a few pictures tell more than many words…12 years in Tanzania, nearly 6000 hours, a few dodgy maintenance companies, some bad airstrips, wild animals on the way, bad weather…

some pictures don’t exist unfortunately. How could I shoot at my full tail section vibrating so hard that I nearly lost it? The 9 main bolts were either not tight or missing! See dodgy maintenance companies…

I forgot to take a picture of one engine failure, my only engine, after the fuel filter got clogged, I must have been a bit nervous.

There is the wildebeest (gnou en français) or the gazelle that I hit on take off, but that happened so quickly and I was also quite busy trying to avoid them. The wildebeest did a roll in th dust and escape! The gazelle's remains on the other hand got scattered on the ground.

There are the scary violent thunderstorms where the plane is rocking like hell, is climbing at its maximum climbing rate though the engine is idling and I'm trying to go down.

There is the day when the engine got too hot after take off, so hot that I thought it’d stop within seconds and still flying low over…an acid lake, I wish my passenger had taken a shot of my big sweat drops (but he was too busy shitting his pants, so…).

There was the forbidden go-around at Olbalbal on an slope, at high altitude and heavy weight that forced me to fly between trees, which I love to do…in good conditions, chosen by myself, but not at a too slow speed…while doing that I could hear my colleagues advices ringing in my head "you just don't do a go around in Olbalbal, never"...and there I was going around. I'd say the same advice. The crosswind was at 40 knots and irregular while I was dodging storks on final. I probably shouldn't have tried in the fort place.

There are no pictures of the angry Masai warriors throwing spears and arrows at me…

But these pictures below will also show the positive aspects of bush flying!

and I had promised Mom to be safe when I left Europe for Africa.

look at this kind of airstrip and landscape! With a Boeing? haha.

 

some sense of humor.

 

some planes need repairs.

 

typical propeller damaged by sand and rocks from bad airstrips.

 

either the pilot forgot to close that cargo pod door or he didn’t do it properly.

 

when the wreck is beyond repair, which means something about the crash in Africa, the parts are salvaged for other aircraft.

 

waiting for that piece of bad weather to pass by.

 

bottom of the Rift Valley, my colleague and I at work. Tough life. 2 wings so we didn’t have to fight…

 

no wonder we have many punctures. Eeach of these dots on the tyre is a thorn.

 

and below, not funny at all. I got my first job in Tanzania to replace a pilot who died with 2 passengers in a crash. I had paid a visit to the crash site in the tropical forest where it happened.

the tail section.

 

the fuselage which had flipped over.

 

part of the wing. See the squares in the white bit? Local people came in and cut off some bits of metal for their own purposes. Curious to know which ones though. They had slashed the tyres as well, but in this case, we know why: to make their famous Masai rubber shoes.

aerial photography, Tanzania

some various aerial pictures over northern Tanzania

 

some Masai villages below.

early morning, the cows and goats are still in the (small) enclosures.

 

double silhouette over water: reflection and shadow.

 

a precious water point, and in turn there is a lot of activity around. Collecting water in jerry cans, growing vegetables, washing clothes…

 

typical sceneries while flying, sometimes for hours without human activity.

Tanzania, photography in the bush

 

interesting cemetery, New Mexico

 

supposedly some kind of Hell’s Angels bikers must have died on the nearby roads. Karine and I had just Chimayo sanctuary on the the way to Taos, New Mexio.

according to the colors and flowers, I’d say this is a Mexican origin community…

 

 

below, 2 artistic pieces in Taos.

80.000$….pricey huh?

Paris, B/W street photography

 

lovers at the Buttes Chaumont.

 

Louvre, near the big glass pyramid, the small one behind is only a light shaft. Fashion was short this year.

 

near the Ile St-Louis.

a Spanish film crew was shooting a scene at Trocadéro.

 

Champs de Mars.

 

lake Natron, Tanzania, human life, aerial photography

 

new kind of activity on the western shore of lake Natron, where there used to be hardly a cow track, although used by local Masai on battered Land Rover for their on business. The Samunge healer is now luring people as far as Kenya and this is an access unfortunately.

 

on the border sleeps a volcano, Shombole. A spring sprouts just at its foot or the benefit of a few local people. Here is a fisherman. I was told there are not Masai of course. Too mush of menial activity for these proud warriors. Cows are the only real thing to worry about.

supposedly, they fish with a stick on which a kind of spatula is attached. When a fish swims over the spatula, a quick wrist movement will make it fly to the ground behind.

check the specks: animals.

volcano Oldoinyo Lengai, aerial infrared

 

notice the pink spot on the right lower side of the picture: vegetation which showed after some prolonged rains.

shot on Kodak Aerochrome EIR film and Rolleiflex 3.5F medium format camera.

on wheels, Tanzania

Arusha streets, various vehicles on the move.

my enemies, the public minibuses aka daladalas, or matatus in Kenya. I should say everybody’s enemies. Those punks were on strike last week because the government wouldn’t let them raise their fares like any other commodities. Fair enough but they were also striking for the police keep on stopping them for futile reasons (as read in the papers)! Futile reasons? But there are dozens of reasons to arrest those dangerous and reckless drivers. Trying to run over peaceful cyclist like me is one, then cutting everybody’s way, overtaking wildly in traffic jam queues, stopping anywhere to load passengers and thus blocking the traffic even more, no use of direction light, no lights, no respect for the mere 2 traffic lights in town, overtaking by the left and scaring people, being overloaded, unsafe vehicles, uninsured, speeding…

 

new breed of taxi in town, the motorbikes. Reckless drivers too but at least they don’t really worsen the traffic jam.

 

colors at the Clock Tower, that is the “city” center. Here a driving school car. Not uncommon to spot such a car full of passengers. Why not combine driving lessons and taxi service, right?

 

more colors between the yellow hotel and the 2 mains soda competitors, Pepsi and Coke.

 

wrong side of the road and using a cellphone. Some people really have an inner death wish…early morning and little traffic luckily.

 

daladala being loaded. Notice the decoration on back window, some bible stuff and a Jesus. That doesn’t mean the driver has any christian attitude while driving, trust me. Notice also that this is another example of a white Jesus, even Swedish style sometimes. How did the missionaries managed to convince Africans about believing in a white god is a mystery to me. Imagine the opposite situation: black missionaries flocking to Europe and trying to impose some black god on us…well it worked with a Levantine prophet, but darker? Anyway the artists over the years represented him and Mary and others rather blonde with blue eyes. Strict orders from the religious authorities?

 

prisoners in a truck, very casual safety as you can see. The guy in brown at the back is supposedly the guardian…

 

this picture is awful I know but because of the subject I couldn’t resist to post it. Why use an umbrella and take risks while biking…the guy is not even rasta so wet hair shouldn’t bother him more than et clothes…

vintage cars on US roads

 

a funny home made contraption in Sante Fe.

nicely restored pick up in Page, Arizona. I had never seen a beetle with a trailer.

some wrecks on route 66, Arizona.

Harley Davidson gathering, Oatman, route 66

 

April 2010, Karine and I were cruising along route 66 and arrived in Oatman, Arizona. The little village was invaded by Harleys and some few other brands. A lot of bike equipment and beer were on sale.

Let’s imagine some dedicated music here, like “the Good the Bad and the Ugly”….

Some bikers seemed interesting characters….

seriously there were 1000’s of bikes that day, here in Bullhead on the Californian state line. Too bad we had booked a hotel in Las Vegas that night. One of the very few bookings we had made…

Tanzania, wildlife

 

unusual sight of a zebra’s belly, It took me a long time to realise that the lateral stripes were connected to a main bar, like a sternum.

 

hamerkop. Une ombrette en français.

 

pelicans flying tight formation.

 

praying mantis in our home.

 

nice pattern isn’t it? An immature lark I guess. Une jeune alouette je crois.

 

trekking in Yosemite, California

 

there were just waterfalls everywhere, at least in May (1997)

the half dome, a must-do for serious rock climbers.

 

half dome, snow in the distance.

 

El Capitan, half dome and a famous waterfall but I forgot the name.

aerial photography in Tanzania, market day and animals

I just came back yesterday from Ngorongoro large area. I spent a few days there with Flying Medical Service airplane to perform mobile clinics. The area is awfully dried out already and there are still a few months to come before the next rains.

these herders below my wing are scratching for the last grass and moisture on Olbalbal swamp which was still wet not too long ago.

the herd is here moving on the shore. The dry flat bed is clear and distinct on this picture.

 

 

Endulen village, market day. Very colorful event, mostly red and purple from the Masai togas (or “shukas”) and blue for tarpaulins.

a lower fly by to show details.