Ben Wilhelmi

Tanzania, some random pictures

 

Just being a bit lazy today, there is no particular theme in the pictures below..

 

I wish I had had more time to stop and see that bush contraption from up close. Needless to stay the engine rattled quite a lot. I would venture in naming a Land Cruiser as a base...

 

 

 

 

 

Xmas in a pajama? Or am I such a fashion ignorant again?

 

The Peninsula area in Dar es Salaam, thronging into the Indian ocean.

 

Women have any job they want in Tanzania, even a president these days, Mama Samia.

 

 

The one and only, the unique volcano of its kind in the world, and active: Oldoinyo Lengai. Rift valley.

The same, another view, here on the right hand side.

 

"Yo Bo wassup" etc....very common in Africa.

 

One of those impromptu fashion windows along the bus stands.

 

 

In cities and towns, the most modern bars and restaurants will be available. Elsewhere such a restaurant will be quite common.

 

 

Bush flying in Tanzania

 

 

During my recent years with Safari Air link...

That tiny Go Pro camera to fix here and there outside the plane... great results, crappy manufacture sadly.

 

Fueling in the bush...an old military truck, a coupla drums, a fuel pump, Katavi park

One of the many visitors around or on the airstrip., Msembe, Ruaha park.

 

Busy day/night in the Selous reserve. 3 of our Caravan 208 planes after a rainy afternoon..

 

I took off at dawn, early mornings are not my things but starting at night and facing the wide sky lightening up has its perks. And in this occasion, I had slept next to the aircraft. Wake up, 2 min walk and start up...pretty cool. Breakfast on board. 

A day trip at Iringa airfield for these students. As everywhere they were more interested in pictures...

Boeing 727 dwarfing our Caravan. That venerable beast was a wonderful plane but few remains, getting old and abused. and very noisy. The noise abatement rules make their operations difficult. This one is operated in Kenya but here shot in Dar es Salaam, the commercial capital of Tanzania.

Another early flight, Ruaha park.

Mtemere airstrip in the Selous reserve (now Julius Nyerere national park for half of it), on the edge of the Rufiji river. The plane looks lost on the parking spot.

My colleague Danie on take off, Msembe airtsrip, Ruaha park. Notice the distortion out of the exhaust.

Butiaba, floods on lake Albert, Uganda, part lll

 

 

 

 

And this brave woman smiles! What a resilience after months of misery.

And the massive road work is being carried on as usual. No visible help is diverted to the people. I hope l missed something on that aspect.

There was a street some time ago...

Some residents are relocating, salvaging what they can.

 

Another resilient woman, laughing while spreading fish to dry.

 

The road work going for 100's of km in the area.

B/W portraits on films, in the bush, Tanzania

 

Sieving some analog black and white through my archives...before digital times. it had its perks.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Masai portraits, Tanzania

 

when I was privileged to work in some remote areas in Tanzania...

 

Here is a Masai boy who has just been circumsized, this new status while healing leads him soon to the next awaited one, warriorhood. The white mask and black cloak indicate this impure status.

And here is somehow the feminine version of the circumsized boy. Just instead of the warrior times, she'll be able to marry.

 

 

 

B/W film photography, Masai people.

 

 

One of my little privileges of living in Africa is having the time...well I am obviously still a bit obnoxious about it but I have some free time nevertheless and opportunities, like bringing vintage cameras to remote areas, here around lake Natron with a magnificent 1961 Rolleiflex allowing 12 shots per medium format film roll, very old fashioned.

Why...? Because l can? Because l couldn't afford such an expensive camera 20 or more years ago. And well it is just about driving a venerable car or listening to a LP...

 

Some portraits in the bush, Tanzania

 

 

A Masai boy showing his regalia. It means he has been recently circumsized and the next step is warriorhood.

 

 

Fashion in South Sudan

In the middle of a civil war, fashion is interesting and of various influences.

 

 

Have a 2nd look at her hat...

 

Yep a slab of meat!

 

Ole! A traditional Spanish dress!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

South Sudan, random pictures

 

 

South Sudan, a veeery common scene...

 

Notice the scars and the jewel on the chin. The place was Kapoeta on the Kenyan border. Somebody told me they were cousins with the Masai people.

Fashion, henna work, jewels, South Sudanese women try hard to escape a bit from the daily horrors.

 

Welcoming party in Yirol for a VIP. Dance and...

...guns! I hated those happy trigger dudes around people and my airplane...

When the plane drops cargo in a no-seat configuration but people insist on boarding on the return flight...ah well if they are happy to sit on the floor, why not. I just to be careful and explain in detail that the aft area is a total no go (not exactly true but just to be safe over the language barrier).

Happy to sit on the floor or on anything...on another occasion there had been fighting all night long and people had died in Rubkona village and sporadic shootings were still going on while boarding! That day I took about 10 women and 22 kids on board. That plane, a Grand Caravan 208, is normally configured for 13 passengers... South Sudan being the wild west, thsi shouldn't be a surprise.

USAid center on a delivery day, Pibor.

 

Full load of biscuits...the plane was so packed I couldn't take another box. Except on my lap.

Those Chinese made bicycles are everywhere in East Africa, and beyond? One of the few kind of good Chinese products...a Grand Caravan in the background. Yirol.

Tribal woman, impressive scars to say the least.

A rare sweet moment in that war torn country... there were a few kids on that airstrip in Aweil
, all dressed in an interesting fashion and more than happy to pose and check the results on the screen.

Guess what some airfield lousy little chief of whatever (you know the kind with a few pens in his shirt pocket and black sunglasses) gave us a show of abuse of authorities, trying to make me delete my pictures under the name of security...kids, a dirt strip, one aircraft wreck, one old hangar, scorched earth as far as you can see, you get the picture...

some smartphones are great to fool those photo idiots. If you don't open the phone with your password but open the camera function, it shows "no picture no video in this folder" coz they are stored somewhere and one has no access without the password. This guy didn't  know that and I fooled him.

Scenes in the bush, northern Tanzania

 

 

When there are no official public transport...

 

Hard work for this woman.

 

Notice how nobody stepped out to lighten the car...

 

 

This Masai lady uses an umbrella obviously not from the rain nowhere to be seen but from the scorching sun. Temperatures can come close to 50C at the bottom of the Rift valley.

 

A dust storm or dust devil passing by. Pretty harmless except for a slow and low flying plane. Very common near the equator.

 

 

Kids are the same everywhere!

 

Kids are the happiest in the rain season which only lasts a couple of months.

Masai portraits in the Tanzanian outback

A selection of masai people in various stage of their lives...

 

The married man.

 

Young woman.

 

Young boy freshly circumsized and in the impure healing period. It shows by his black cloak, his feathers at an early stage around his head, and the white make up.

 

same period for these 2 teens but they belong to another clan and are more sober in display.

 

And for girls, the fashion also shows their new status, here are 2 girls from 2 different clans . The black cloaks and the white beads are the main markers.

 

 

Another married man. Where did he pick his vintage 70's hat?

 

A young girl who has not been through the ear extension process.

 

A married woman in full traditional gear, included the extended ears.

 

 

B/W film Masai portraits, Tanzania

 

 

 

All shot recently with a Rolleiflex 3.5F, a medium format beauty camera from 1961. Sometimes it feels good to show the millennials that there was life of various sorts before digital era, before selfies....

 

Bush portraits in Tanzania

One of my jobs in northern Tanzania allowed me to meddle in the very remote areas where foreign visitors or workers were rare, like these pictures around lake Natron or Sonjo valley many eyars ago. I gave my models, usually Maasai but along Sonjo a lesser know tribe, proper prints never money. I didn't want to spoil the game.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Random pictures, Tanzania

 

 

 

 

One of my previous jobs, pilot at Flying Medical Service. Real bush flying as this airstrip implies.

 

 

Technology discrepancies...

 

Fishermen casings around Pemba islands.

 

Waving at friends... I will never forget these experiences in such balloons. Here in Ruaha NP.

 

 

Not a car from the company I fly for! we meet interesting dodgy companies out there...

 

One of the ferries between Zanzibar and the mainland.

 

Many rivers flow in Tanzania, here is the Luwego.

 

A young woman in Zanzibar.

Different cultures and religions...

A young girl in the bush.

 

Portraits in the Tanzanian bush.

 

 

 

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Tanzania, people in the bush, B/W analog pictures.

These pictures come from my archives, around 2000, northern Tanzania, but I still use a few analog cameras nowadays.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Birds in Tanzania, feeding d'Arnaud's barbet.

 

 

When one spends so many days in various camps or lodges one might as well develop a liking for birds. 1388 species in east Africa, 900 in Tanzania...birding activity can keep someone busy.

With the rains there has been a renewed activity, for instance in our Ruaha River Lodge, Ruaha national park. One of those many days meandering between the hills, nose up, binoculars and big lens handy, I spotted this d'Arnaud's barbet. I had initially thought he would eat its "olive" on the spot but no, it landed next to a narrow deep hole and climbed it down.

 

It reappeared quickly, see the tail over the hole, flew off and soon after it was back... this time with a big praying mantis in its beak. Quite a feat.

 

...this time with a big praying mantis in its beak. Quite a feat.

Back to that hole, again it climbed it down instead of dropping the prize.

 

 

Eyeing me briefly, I was standing in the shade of a tree.

 

 

Sadly I missed the take off picture... Quite a bright colorful bird nevertheless

B/W portraits, Tanzanian bush

 

 

Young Masai mother and a traditional cheek scar. She will keep her hair uncut till the baby has officially been named during a proper ceremony.

 

This woman wanted to wait to wait while getting prepped up for the pictures.

 

Sonjo woman using an umbrella to protect from the scorching sun in the Rift valley.

 

 

Some masai women in full regalia.

 

(Picture shot at 12am in natural light but with a +3 stop correction while the model stood under the aircraft wing)

 

 

 

B/W portraits in the bush, Tanzania

 

Good ol' B/W pictures on films from the archives...I still happily use my analog cameras. Mainly 2 here, others in Belgium. Here shot around 2000 in northern Tanzania, an area pretty remote by then.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Aeriel view of lions, Tanzania

Somewhere in the southern Selous lies a bush airstrip, Luhanyando 2. Yes there is a Luhanyando 1 across the Luhego river. The location is really stunning, the wide river has crossed some rocky hills and is now running through sandy terrain. Just after take off the stunning vista creates an urge to fly for a few minutes a bit lower than usual for sightseeing and spotting animals. We are bush pilots, well some of us...

Animals we regularly spot are birds of various sizes and the usual mammals, like elephants, gazelles, buffalos, hippos, giraffes, zebras... but felines? About never1 They blend too well and are less numerous. So how did I spot these camouflaged lions on a sand bank, I have no idea. Mind you the aeroplane cruises at about 300km/h.  But I did and that made me happy for the day.

 

The male was unfazed but the female was, surprise, curious.

Scenes in the Masai bush, Tanzania

 

 

Fashion changes slowly even in the remote northern territories of Tanzania. This blue pattern is definitely not included in the traditional Masai clothing.

 

A non-perenial pond becomes the holy place while it lasts.

 

Cows are the main thing regarding status, show off and wealth. But goats are welcome as side dishes.

Donkeys are useful too but not much in term of status.

 

 

Things change...

 

 

Things change!!  "Tout fout le camp" as we say in French...

 

Aerial photography and wildlife, Tanzania

 

 

Can you spot the crocodile?

 

A hippo, a bird or 2 and another crocodile.

Zebras and elephants

 

Water playing with animal tracks.

More zebras.

Hard to distinguish, the camouflage is quite good. A zebra?

2 crocs.

Aerial photography, Tanzania

Tanzania is such a big country gifted with many beautiful landscapes. Not only that, those landscapes vary tremendously come the rain seasons.

 

Salt lakes are perfect examples of ever changing colors and patterns. Here is a detail of lake Eyasi.

I guess pelicans visiting Tanzania.

 

The Ruaha river after the rain season.

 

The famous wildebeest migration near the Mara river, here on the Serengeti side.

 

Lake Natron, another salt lake.

 

The Rufiji river in the Selous reserve.

 

Lake Natron again.

 

A typical homestead like millions in the country.

 

Tarangire national park. Quite famous for its elephants.

 

Lake balangida, a lesser known salt lake. Those white dots are salt extraction activities. I would guess operated by local people only.

In the bush, portraits, Tanzania

 

A collection of Sonjo and Masai people, historically they were enemies but recently things have somewhat improved.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

B/W portraits in the Tanzanian bush

 

 

 

 

 

 

Some B/W portraits, Tanzanian bush

 

A little selection over the years

This one reminds me of good memories. This young lady was shy at first, posed like for a passport picture. After 5 or 6 shots, the other girls were getting impatient to pose I guess and started to tell her to smile for my benefit. And this is my favorite shot, it has been printed in big size and has immodestly enlightened my flat for years.

 

 

Young Masai boy who has been recently circumsized. This main event in his life shows by the jewels and mostly the black cloak.

 

 

Old pictures with Flying Medical Service

I'm faffing around through my old pictures from 1999, the year I arrived in Africa, here in Tanzania.

 

One of my first proud Masai warriors posing for me. Impressive guys for a newbie. Greater Serengeti.

 

A village in western Tanzania, Kasulu.

My colleague Steve on take off, Olpirikata, Sanjan plains.

The stunning lake Natron, I couldn't Believe such a marvelous and stunning place could exist. Rift Valley.

Teenagers are the same everywhere.

A Flying Medical Service Cessna 206 on landing.

Me on my first time in the bush, Olaika, Greater Serengeti.

FMS has a knack for the craziest and or most beautiful places to land and operate. Olorbelin, lake Natron, Kenyan border.

My second emergency! This man had been dragged into a brawl with cow thieves. An Arrow landed through his forehead to his lower jaws. He sufefred a momentary speech impediment but sadly lost one eye. I had been in Tanzania for 2 weeks ...

 

Landing with a strong crosswind, Ngaresero, Bottom of the Rift Valley. The mountain is the active volcano Lengai. Another stunning place to operate into.

I was using a great SLR film camera, a Minolta X700 which I still use once in a while.

B/W portraits in the Tanzanian bush

 

 

 

 

Aerials and others, lake Natron, Tanzania

 

Shadow and reflection on the salted surface.

An extinct volcano on the Kenyan border; Shombole.

The Cessna 206, the workhorse I used by then.

Monik, one unchartered airstrip on the western shore.

The only breeding place in Africa for flamingoes. Let's hope that salt factory planning will never see the day, will never have a chance to ruin the whole lake as it has happened in lake Magadi, Kenya.

The main neighbor is that active volcano, Oloinyo Lengai.

Portraits, Tanzania

 

B/W sepia portraits in the bush, Tanzania

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bush portraits in sepia, Tanzania

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tanzania, Masai portraits

 

 

 

 

 

 

B/W portraits in the Tanzanian bush

 

B/W portraits in the bush, Tanzania

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

South Sudan, random pictures

Reading the news, It seems not much has changed. Peace treaties that are not respected, ghosts raping women (yes ghosts, "Horny evil spirit rapes 6 women in Juba" says the paper), million people still displaced, child soldiers, torture, rape and murder...

Here are some pictures from 4 years ago. 4 years already...

 

My old plane back then. Here the Indian peace keepers in Pibor.

Some areas look so peaceful...one would never guess there is a civil war and atrocities raging on. Somewhere along the White Nile.

Eastern European pilots at work, maybe the Russian usual suspects, landing in the middle of the parking lot instead of on the runway. Ah well they make life interesting. I wish I had been closer to avoid the heat distortion. Over 40C...

 

 

Coming home after a shopping spree in Juba.

 

Mi 8 helicopter. Ukrainian registered I think. It was fun to "intercept" it and snap a coupla pictures. 

 

 

 

 

Portraits in B/W, Tanzanian bush

 

Northern Tanzania, Loliondo greater region.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pictures from South Sudan

 

 

Floods in the far bush.

Who designed the ugly contraption...

Common scenery. View from the aircraft.

 

 

 

 

Refugee camp, one of many...

Portraits in the bush, Tanzania

Another selection of portraits in the remote Tanzanian bush. No direct money was ever involved but a print to each model. In fact it would have been cheaper to pay each model and leave it at that but I didn't want to start a filthy game.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wildlife, Tanzania

 

 

 

I love those signs, here in our camp in the Selous reserve, Rufiji River camp.

 

Pied kingfischer hovering before a decent plunge in the hope to catch a fish

 

 

 

Some skin disease I guess...

Lake Siwandu, Selous reserve.

 

A swift coming out of the Ruaha river. The idea seems to skim the water with beak only and catch a prey. It seems they are a bit clumsy, they hit the water quite often. 

 

A speck of color, a lilac-breasted roller.

 

Along the Ruaha river, dry season