Ben Wilhelmi

South Sudan, random pictures

 

Juba International airport, my new base. A Caravan is dwarfed by the huge Ilyushin 76s.

 

A nicely decorated airfield, Rubkona. A bigger plane crashed on landing and rammed into these jeeps. I initially thought they had been blown up in fighting. An easy mistake to do since there were some skirmishes in the village the very morning I landed there.

 

The legendary Mi 8 Russian helicopter, a workhorse. Notice the UN peacekeepers.

 

Juba suburb.

 

Another famous craft, the Ilyushin 76, or Il 76. At least 7 of them are based in Juba, packing up the apron.

 

The Nile in Juba.

 

After the flood.

 

The famous Dinka cows with huge horns. I need to see them from close and bring a better picture.

aerial photography, Tanzania

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

landscape photography, Tanzania

 

volcano Lengai, what a marvel.

playing “Amélie” with a hedgehog fluffy toy.

 

 

a squatted airtsrip…

 

playing soccer near the volcano.

 

 

 

view on lake Natron and another volcano, Shombole.

people in the bush, Tanzania, photography

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tanzania, human activity seen from the air

 

that gray area is a lava flow from the major volcanic activity in 2007 and 2008. That truck is using the regular track near the culprit, Oldoinyo Lengai.

 

another truck, but this one has some problem to sort out. This a delta on the lake Natron northern shoreline

same truck. I wonder if the driver enjoyed the scenery while waiting for some help…

 

laundry day a bit further in the delta.

 

cows and goats…. to be seen everywhere in Tanzania and further. The country is vast and not barb-wired everywhere like in South Africa.

 

Masai farmers plowing the fields the old way, an ox or and a hoe.

 

Market day in Loliondo, a village north of Serengeti.

 

the person in the river is an adult, a masai man in his bright red clothes but he could have been a 5 year old child as well. Those kids don’t always go to school but they enjoy somehow a great outdoor life. Roaming the bush without a real schedule, meeting friends…

photography in the bush, Tanzania

 

while busy on clinics with Flying Medical Service, I have time to walk around, even to the nearby village.

Nobody is going to steal my aeroplane, right? A cessna 206 by the way.

 

Masai women have traditionally been stuck in blue, red or black, according to their social status in the tribe. There were slight variations depending on the clans as well. Now men haven’t actively looked for clothe change of style. But guess what? Women did… so let’s enjoy the explosion of colors and patterns nowadays.

 

Cows, the most precious possession for a Masai man, volcano Lengai in the Rift…

and looking behind is an airstrip, Engoveroni. I went for a short walk on a neighboring ridge because I wanted to have a large view of the sloped airstrip. Notice the tiny white shape, that is the aeroplane.

 

Masai men on an errand. The plane in the distance again.

 

Mini market in the village.

 

 

Modernity creeps in and I would never have guessed in some remote areas…

 

I hate those ugly wool hats, especially when the temperature comes close to 30 Celsius. It ruins my pictures and I am convinced the kids don’t feel comfy.

In the digital age of photography, I still enjoy too my old film cameras, loaded with slide or B/W films. These pictures were shot this year with my Leica M6 and 28, 50 or 90 mm lenses. A minimum of neurons is required to shoot with this kind of equipment…

people and animals from the air, Tanzania

 

Northern Tanzania is the main living and grazing area for Masai herders (with a big swat of Kenya), which is also the area I fly mostly over.

Cows, goats and donkeys will be seen all over.

 

water holes are still numerous after a good rain season but they’re shrinking fast already.

 

 

 

 

 

 

the bush around Arusha, photography

 

Drive just a few miles off Arusha, a half decent town, and there is the bush right away. Karine  and I spent last Sunday afternoon north of Arusha just cruising around in my Land Rover which was more than happy to see some action, since I’m always using my bicycle or motorcycle in town.

 

Lengijave area, women (and girls) still do the water or firewood runs. Men? Well, the few we saw typically didn’t seem to do much except chatting up under the shade of a tree or in front of a shop.

 

Mount Meru culminating at nearly 15.000ft.

 

Little boys are also at work albeit an easier one: lead the herds of cows or goats.

 

Kids were usually more than happy to pose for us. Last time, a teacher even thanked us for visiting their remote and forgotten village. Obviously no tourist ever wander out there. Marketing is the key…

 

 

 

Dust! Fine dust like flour. If the wind is coming from the wrong direction, you’d better be careful otherwise a dust cloud could engulf your jeep. Tracks tend to be badly run down, Arusha municipality doesn’t pay too much attention nor anything else out there…And the next rains are not expected till November.

 

Drivers don’t show any respect for pedestrians…

 

 

Last picture of the day, a beautiful glow on Mount Meru. It was gone within a minute.

cattle in Tanzania, aerial photography

 

goats or cows…boring isn’t it? Well a Masai herder would strongly disagree with me. Anyway seen from the air, those herds take another dimension and these people deserve some respect to lead and keep safe animals through the wild. I might even envy them sometimes. After all these are the original cowboys.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tanzania under the rains, aerials

 

while flying for Flying Medical Service, I get to see incredible places. Places which have changed a great time lately. Green colors showed up in no time, typical tropical feat after some heavy showers. Waterholes, non perennial lakes, rivers have filled up quickly too.

One of our Cessna C206’s on clinics.

this airstrip is normally the driest of all we use. Grass got the upper hand once more, though it won’t last much past December…

Flying Medical Service, meeting people

 

Yesterday I came back from a 3 day clinic tour in Loliondo and lake Natron areas. Flying Medical Service operates 12 airstrips on this medical tour.

We meet all kind of people out there, and this time we had some lovely Austrian medical visitors in Loliondo hospital. They were organising a walking safari between Loliondo and lake Natron and so had hired 2 Masai guides. We got to share our meals and laughed a lot. These guys are highly educated, vivid story tellers, fluent in English, have traveled in Europe and so explained their experiences and amongst many laughs I’ve learnt a few things.

They admitted they enjoyed the encounters and visits in Europe but couldn’t live there. They found Europeans shut off to foreigners, living in a cold selfish environment. Well, they used more euphemism than me to explain this.

We have to admit that quite often most of us will react defensively when an utmost stranger greets you for no apparent reason or tries to start conversation, that we look at our shoe tips in the elevator, that we don’t care for our sick parents at home, we call long ahead our friends to organise a social visit… Spontaneity is not our main characteristic, let’s face it.

All of this is quite un-African. Africans value their family above anything else. Even a friend or colleague’s family. This is explained by the fact that parents have produced you, so they matter and meeting them is thus important. Every year for my annual trip home I’m told to greet my parents by colleagues or friends. They’ve never seen my family and still they insist on passing their greetings. And if family members happen to visit here, you’d better make sure you pay a visit to everybody. They found it puzzling that we don’t rush to meet our new parents-in-law as soon as a relationship starts. I had upset a dear friend like that because I hadn’t introduced my Mom to her, sorry Valentina, I was just plain ignorant.

Then there was the funny description of a farm visit in Switzerland. Imagine the Masai herder…his experience with cows consists of usually skinny cows roaming the vast and dry savannah, producing 3 to 5 lt of milk a day. Now he meets some 700 kg cows, producing up to 40 lt of milk everyday. An army of cows, producing 1000’s of liters at once, “a river of milk flowing in a big vat” said my friend with large gestures and big eyes.

But he didn’t like the taste of that abundant milk. The bush milk tastes much better.

Talking about our mutual women and rules of marriage was quite interesting too. We came to the conclusion that white women seem usually quite complex creatures to handle…

 

And today, Karine (who’s not a difficult creature) and I are busy packing for a one-week trip in Kenya, starting tomorrow. I’ve scheduled some posts on this blog for the coming week, enjoy.

a Cessna 206 in the Tanzanian bush

Flying Medical Service’s 206 at work in Tanzania.

here landing in Ngaresero near active volcano Oldoinyo Lengai, Rift valley. There was a tad bit of crosswind that day.

 

take off from Olorbelin at the foot of an extinct volcano, Shombole, lake Natron, Rift. Notice how people seem unfazed by the roaring plane… But others will run away or lie down even if the plane is not coming close.

 

Njurlan at the foot of Oldoinyo Sambu, western cliff of the Rift valley, lake Natron.

 

just having fun with ancient pinhole technique.

 

Engoveroni airstrip, volcano Lengai, Rift valley

in August, it’s getting quite dusty and the worst is still to come.

 

making friends…

 

Engoveroni airstrip on the slopes of Empakai crater, my first day of flying in Tanzania in 1999. I knew right there I’d love my time in TZ! This strip lies at 6500 feet, is about 4oom long, slope at 11%, VSI shows 600 ft down on take off, it is badly paved, is bordered by a ravine and the winds are always strong. Our 206’s are not turbo equipped…

Since then a homestead managed to develop just on threshold and 2 trees grew up, which we have just planned to have cut down. This being Maasai country, it might take a long while till they are actually chopped down…

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.

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….

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.

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.