It started to seem like we’d get fog and rain for the rest of the trip just to pay for the sweet summit weather we’d been granted. But when we woke today at Mweka Camp, we were under blue skies and high above the white clouds. After breakfast, we enjoyed a gathering of the entire staff for the traditional tipping ceremony. We expressed our great thanks and the guys serenaded us with a few more memorable sing-alongs in the bright sunshine. Then we shouldered packs and hit the muddy trail downward at about 8:30 AM. It was just a few more hours of careful walking in slippery conditions to get down through the rain forest. We stopped at one point to see a couple of colobus monkeys high in the tree canopy, but mostly we paid attention to the treacherous track and to where we were putting our feet. At the Mweka Gate we were down in the clouds again and had a brief rain shower just after signing out of the park. A short walk in the deep dirt of a road construction project took us to our lunch venue and the bus parking lot. We enjoyed a fine picnic and a round of Kilimanjaro and Serengeti beers along with Savanna ciders. Two hours on the bus through the Tanzanian countryside got us back “home” to the Arumeru River Lodge. Showers and a few shaves made the team presentable by evening. We finished with a delightful victory dinner out on the veranda and discussed just how much the climb and our interactions with each other and with the staff have come to mean for us. We are excited to begin the safari tomorrow but we will miss our climbing buddy Tim who will begin flying toward the States and home. Best regards, RMI Guide Dave Hahn