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.
Rift Valley, volcano Lengai and a detail of its slopes
Mt Hanang and lake Balangida
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…
Me having a haircut in South Africa while on a long bicycle trip from Arusha to Cape Town.
Tanzania below:
An old weekend bike trip around mount Meru near Arusha.
some difficult passage.
My longest flying job in Tanzania, with Flying Medical Service.
Taking a short cut through a 600m high gorge. Watch rocking videos on my Vimeo account.
Amazing encounters with chimpanzees in Mahale.
Walking safaris in Katavi.
Infrared picture in the Rift valley. Volcano Lengai.
Colleague landing in bad weather, Serengeti.
Aerial view of the mythical Kilimanjaro at about 20.000 feet high.
This is lake Natron, an aerial picture, which is not as red as the pictures below because there is little vegetation. Only the mountain and the horizon show the infrared look.
Here is more red tones thanks to the grass and the trees. The triangle on the horizon is the volcano Lengai.
I was surprised to notice the rocks turning pink.
shot on a medium format camera, a Rolleiflex 3.5F and Kodak Aerochrome EIR slide film (most likely not available anymore)
Those large B/W square pictures were shot with a medium format Rolleiflex camera, a vintage beauty initially designed in 1929 though mine is a later 1961 version. But the design harly changed over the decades, a bit like the VW Beetle or the Citroën 2CV. Below are some portraits of an active volcano in the Rift valley called Oldoinyo Lengai.
Not the easiest camera to use, especially for the aerial pictures below while I’m flying at the same time!
below are some of my very earlier pictures in Tanzania with the volcano in the background, from 1999 till 2002.
while climbing down that incredible mountain.
the triangle, that’s her at the northern Ngorongoro Highlands seen here on the right.
slowly but surely, after more than 3 years, vegetation is reclaiming bits of land on her slopes. Ash layers must have been so thick after the eruptions in 2007/08…
an active volcano in northern Tanzania, a unique one in the world. Deified by the local Masai tribes. These shots below were taken over the last months.
the new crater rim since the last major eruptions in 2007 and 2008.
the volcano slope, more than 3 years later, the grass is still battling to regain ground through the thick ash layers.
further away, the grass shows sometimes a green hue. By then, ashes were to be laid more than 100 km away.
seen from overhead lake natron.
the Flying Medical Service Cessna 206 that helps me to bring those pictures. The volcano on the horizon always adds a nice touch to the landscapes.
while operating a Cessna 206 for Flying Medical Service in the bush, like here in Monik on lake Natron, an unusual ‘highway’ type bush strip, I’ve got time to walk around, meet people and get a few snapshots.
Another common way to carry a cumbersome burden is to place the strap on top of the head.
McMinus visiting the Tanzanian bush, here on lake Natron with volcano Lengai far back.
I get to fly to some interesting places in northern Tanzania. I’m so lucky to enjoy these amazing sceneries. the schedules don’t always give the best time of the day for the best light but hey, I’m there and this is what I see and experience. Here one of Flying Medical Service Cessna 206’s in Olorbelin, lake Natron, at the foot of volcano Shombole.
Soccer, international game if one. Here in Monik, on the lake again with volcano Lengai in the background.
a bit further up, that is on top of the high cliff bordering the lake to the west. Oleparkashi, don’t look for those names on any map, I just like to name a few for your info. Lengai behind.
same place, looking towards the lake and Shombole below. Where the grass stops starts a 600 meter vertical drop.
Or towards mount Masonik, a landmark on the cliff.
Engoveroni airstrip and a shrouded Lengai. Pieces of clothes drying in the new after serious downpours.
McMinus and people in Pininyi, Natron and Lengai far away.
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…
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.
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.
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.
| Sun | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ||||||
| 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 |
| 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 |
| 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 |
| 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 |
| 30 | 31 |
