Ben Wilhelmi

Aviation in Tanzania

 

Some old analog pictures from my early years in Tanzania.

When I was a child in the 70’s I remember a short movie about flying in a canyon, maybe the Grand Canyon, on a half sphere screen. That was in the leisure park Phantasialand in Germany… The field of vision was nearly full of the movie! That movie made a big impression on me obviously. Ok this is not the Grand Canyon but my field is full…

 

Anti hyena planning aka acacia branches. The tyre sent attract those beasts.

 

Nearly a combined landing in the bush.

 

Sometimes spare tyres are not really worth being used…

 

Decent oil leak on a C206.

 

My first week in Tanzania, my 2nd airtrip in the Ngorongoro Highlands. When one is fresh out of flying school, this airstrip looks impossible at 1st. Atmospheric engine, rough surface, a gulley on one side, 6500 foot elevation, 400 meter long only, 11% slope, that means a highly no way out in case of a go around because this strip lies on the slope of a crater. Even after many years, one still shows respect for it.

 

A soft airstrip made of sand can be challenging and result in a propeller strike.

 

How many airstrips in the world can boast such a spectacular approach before landing?

 

Rumours were all about insurance scams after a coupla belly landings within the same company and this in a short time…

 

White paint and fences are luckily not always available in the bush to limit an airstrip.

Wildlife, Amboseli, Kenya

 

A small national park in Kenya north of the Tanzanian border. But the mount Kilimanjaro towers over that little park.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Street photography, Paris

 

Be careful of those hot air vents when the metro is running!

 

The poodle is missing to make a perfect match.

 

 

Charlie Chaplin is still an attraction.

 

 

And various types of fashionistas…

 

 

 

 

 

An illegal street vendor, always ready to run away when the cops show up.

 

The usual narcissists….

Cars on the road, USA

Some relics are abandoned to rot brilliantly on the Route 66. It is usually more an open museum than a real junkyard.

 

 

 

 

Tanzania, wildlife

 

A pied kingfisher (martin-pêcheur pie) dives in the Ruaha river to fish, not afraid to compete with a (placid) crocodile.

 

But the same crocodile got successful too later.

 

 

Tough meat out there…

 

A cute resident in my garden, a brown-hooded kingfisher (martin-chasseur à tête brune)

 

A lesser-striped swallow (hirondelle striée).

 

A lilac-breasted roller (rollier à brins fins) flying amongst elephants.

 

 

A little swift (martinet des maisons) fishes too in the Ruaha river but instead of diving, it comes flat and normally only skims the water with its beak. They misjudge quite often and get wet.

 

Mud mask for this elephant.

Wildlife in Tanzania

 

Hippos resting in the southern Selous.

 

Disease or burn mark, I haven’t got a clear answer yet.

 

 

The ugly marabou stork keeping distance with the lioness.

 

Late afternoon, a hamerkop (une ombrette) caught a fish.

 

That was a perfect way to start the year, well maybe not on a railing… the picture is a bit blurry because it is taken though a mosquito net. The pair wouldn’t like to be interrupted (the act is already short enough, safe sex in the wild means not being eaten)

 

Aerials of sea, lakes and rivers, Tanzania

 

Tanga town on the Indian ocean.

 

Ruaha river and residents in the Ruaha national park.

 

 

 

Selous reserve, some side lake and river near the Rufiji river. They were created some decades ago by massive floods. The dead white trees show the waters haven’t receded to this day.

 

 

 

Mahale village, lake Tanganyika. The red spot is a giant fishing net being repaired.

 

 

 

Mafia island at low tide.

 

On the Indian Ocean between Mafia island and the main land, one can observe that sharp separation in the waters. Those sediments (well I guess) seem to come from the island.

 

 

Fishermen village in the Rufiji river delta.

Flight between Egypt and Dubai

 

Fishing some old pictures from an old ferry flight between Switzerland and Dubai.

Suez canal.

 

Somewhere over the Sinai.

 

 

Over Suadi Arabia.

 

 

 

Arriving in Dubai…

 

Aerials over lake Natron in 15minutes

 

The camera metadata don’t lie, those pictures are stretched over 15min, between 2 airstrips on that wonderful salt lake in northern Tanzania, in the Great Rift valley, the Gregory Rift to be precise.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

15min and that was just a selection, I took about 100 pictures, it is just impossible to be bored (well maybe some teens can)

Some random pictures, 2016

Not necessarily the best pictures…sometimes it was just a first moment of something,  sometimes just a beautiful moment I tried to render through the pictures, sometimes a strong burst of happiness.

 

My 1st male African Paradise flycatcher, the female doesn’t show off such a long tail.

 

The joys of flying in the bush. Not the best picture as it was shot more than one km away through the reverberated heat.

 

A recurrent scene in some rivers but never had I enjoyed such a close action. An African skimmer.

 

How can one get bored of this? I’m asking because I’ve witnessed some punks who preferred staying glued to their smartphones or won’t look twice, like “been there seen that”…

 

Selous river, a piece of art…

 

A rare flight over the southern part of lake Tanganyika, Kipili Bay.

 

My best leopard show since 1999.

 

Some of the most colorful birds in Tanzania. Above a regular performer: the lilac-breasted roller (rollier à poitrine lila) and below a rare southern carmine bee-eater, rare at least in the areas I travel to, one sighting in Mombasa years ago, and this one in Tanzania… (guêpier écarlate)

 

I had been walking outside camp when I noticed these ox peckers on a massive rock, so I had walked closer for a better picture, what else,  when I realised quite late, 20m away, that the said rock was a hippo! Luckily it was a placid dude…but the electric jolt in my spine was not placid.

 

First time I had flown in the far southern part of the Selous reserve which is huge at 55.000 sq km, twice the size of Belgium! Not much for a country but for a reserve…Here is the Luwegu river and its beautiful sand banks. And hippos as in many rivers in Africa.

 

A mangrove around Mafia island.

 

I had been stalking these elephants up to 40m when that beautiful roller flew between them and me.

 

Not the smartest idea to let wild animals pass between you and your safe place, I know but what a thrill. Nowhere to run except up a tree.

 

Finally the year I got these little divers caught in action. A pied kingfisher hovers over the river for a  few seconds then dives in the water and hopefully catches a fish, Here I caught it just when the beak enters the water. Next picture just shows a splash… (martin-pêcheur pie)

 

Another first for me, a crocodile catching a prey.

 

As opposed to the kingfisher, this swallow doesn’t dive but tries to skim briefly the water. Apparently this is a fail since only the beak should barely touches the surface… the swallows survive easily these numerous fails.

 

And a last exceptional sighting: a mongoose carrying a cub like a lioness would do. I had not only never seen that action, I had never heard of it. The whole group and her were running away from an unidentified danger, not from me.

 

Some of the idyllic spots where I happen to spend many nights. Here my airplane will rest in Mtemere, Selous.

 

More birds to add on my list since I got a 600mm lens. Here an good old fish eagle  (pygargue à tête blanche)

 

Some of our 8 airplanes (including a helicopter and a jet) at Safari Air Link, the best little company in Tanzania and beyond. My dear boss might be reading this…  

When there are no passengers on board, we are allowed a close inspection of each other…

 

Our latest Caravan after a shower, Zanzibar.

 

One picture that made some people, let’s say envious, criticizing my tan (or lack of)as a cheap revenge….haha. Here in the Ruaha river.