After a glorious day game viewing in the Ngorongoro crater, the team made a stop by a Masai village.
We received the full tour and were able to help support the local economy. These folk are tough. Who is to say what life you live is better than one or another, I can sure tell you it is a different sort out here in the bush than most of the USA.
Our plan is to pack up in the morning and drive about an hour and a half to our next park, Tarangire National Park. We will be on the look out for the elusive leopard. Our safari staff has promised us a barbecue in the bush and we are looking forward to that. We end up in a tented camp tomorrow night and I can tell you I know tents and this is as far from any tent I ever stay in. Lets just say a king sized bed, toilet and shower are not the norm after I pitch a tent.
Once again the word is out..........Roughing it in Africa is all relative.
RMI Guide Mark Tucker
All right you deserve to know. We have to be honest to all of you that have been following our trip. We have not been roughing it.
Tables and chairs on the mountain, hot water for washing at each camp. Fifty five local staff with us throughout the Kilimanjaro climb. We could carry any or nothing throughout the day. Fresh foods at each meal. You would have loved it.
Now here we are at the Plantation Lodge with white table cloths and fine china, eating incredible curry chicken and organic garden fresh salad, do not even want to rub in what we had for desert. All this after an awesome day of game viewing in Lake Manyara National Park.
I feel so much better now that you are in the loop. Wish I could say that it's tough surviving here in wild Africa but that would just not be true.
It is a real vacation now after a pretty physical week on the big hill. There are a few sore and tired muscles but over all the team is in great shape. We said a sad good-bye to one member of the group as he started his trip back to the USA, he had to get back for work. We will miss his wonderful sense of humor and great companionship.
Tomorrow we are off to one of the great natural wonders of the world - Ngorongoro Crater. Where there are so many animals in a small space, I better get the camera battery charged up tonight.
All is well,
RMI Guide Mark Tucker
Now I’m really jealous. The ultimate zoo - minus the fences! Dennis, I would tell you to take lots of pictures, but I already know that you will. Hope you’re having the time of your life! Love, Kim
Posted by: Kim Mulherin on 7/31/2012 at 6:29 pm
Please don’t let Dion bring home a monkey. Thank you!
We had an easy hike out of Kilimanjaro National Park this morning. After such a full day on the mountain yesterday, it was just a walk in the park today. A nice lunch was prepared for us at the Mweka Gate, which is the exit point from our route in Kilimanjaro National Park. Had a nice send off with our local staff with singing, dancing and gifting for the great service we had throughout the trip.
After our celebration dinner it is now time to repack for the next part of the adventure.... SAFARI here we come!
RMI Guide Mark Tucker
Mark Tucker checking in from Tanzania here at our last camp on this trip of Kilimanjaro. We are all down safe and sound; good spirits and good health. What a day! Beautiful summit, chilly and windy. Hopefully you got that message from the top. We pushed our way down to 10,000', so a 9,000' descent. Everybody's feeling it. Ready to go to sleep. A great meal. Looking forward to getting up pretty early and getting out of here. Have a nice celebration and take care of our fabulous local staff that has been providing us with this great service. I'd love to think we could do it without them but we'd be here for a couple of months. Everybody back home, all your friends and family are in great shape. Everybody did a fantastic job of doing what they could on the mountain. We'll check in after a good night's rest.
RMI Guide Mark Tucker
May God grant all safe returns I was looking for the yellow ducks Rob, Jodie,Ashlyn & Erick did they not go with this time? Love You Rob & family
Mom &dad;
Posted by: mom & dad on 7/30/2012 at 6:49 am
Hello,Milbraths,Eric,and Dennis
You did it. Congratulations! Another thing you can check off your bucket list. Hearing about the weather sounds like you needed your puffer jackets.:)Enjoy the rest of your vacation. See you soon. Love Brandie
Darned if I'm not standing on the top of Africa! Here on Uhuru Peak with the team. Everybody's looking good. A little beat up but not so bad; no issues. We're taking a few shots. It was a cold and windy one. Man, freezing, all layers on. But these guys know how to climb, they demonstrated it. They all did it with great style and impeccable technique. We're looking forward to a safe descent and back to that high camp sooner than later. All is well, we'll check in again later.
RMI Guide Mark Tucker
Mark Tucker checking in from High Camp, Kilimanjaro. It is very breezy but hopefully that will change. We are in clear skies. We have a sea of clouds below us. The route looks like it's in pretty good shape. May need a little bit of luck with the weather. The team is all together up here. And you know, we're doing okay. There is the typical this, that and the other thing, but so far so good. So we got our fingers crossed and we have a great group of support team with our local staffing and an early, early dinner. The sun is just setting or we're gonna crawl into the tents for a 5-hour nap and then we're gonna hop on up and get goin'. Hopefully the next call will be from the summit, if I get the chance. So we will be checking in sooner than later. Thanks for checking in with us as well.
RMI Guide Mark Tucker
Mitch/Dad and Dion: We knew you would go great things!! We are very happy for you both. Can’t wait to hear stories and see photos. Woots & Dubs!! Connie, Kirby & Mac, Blaire, Scott
Posted by: Connie Barnhart on 7/29/2012 at 5:57 pm
Love You All Very Much Glad you made it this far with hopfully minor things Be safe going down Can’t wait for your safe trip home Mom & Dad I know your all in Gods hands
Mark Tucker checking in from Mt. Kilimanjaro 12,826’ at Karanga Camp. We had an ascent of the Barranco Wall today. More fun than fear. We have some great photos, that I can’t wait to see. The Karanga Camp is situation a bit on a hillside so we had to get creative with our extra clothing to buffer up some of the slope. Hopefully, it is not going to take away from a good night’s rest. Everybody is pretty fired up for, really the start of the ascent, tomorrow morning. We will move up to our high camp, spend a few hours of rest and then begin our climb tomorrow evening, early, early morning.
We experienced intermittent clouds and a high of about 65 degrees today, cool, but not bad, reasonable weather. We have a good view of the upper mountain from our camp here right now. At times in the clouds, but a bright half moon above us and the team is doing well. Wishing you were all here. Maybe next time.
We’ll check in tomorrow.
RMI Guide Mark Tucker
RMI Guide Mark Tucker checks in from Karanga Camp on Kilimanjaro.
Hello!
Mark Tucker checking in from the Barranco Camp, situated at 12,992’ on Mt. Kilimanjaro. We had great conditions for our hike today. Sunny and a little bit of clouds down in the low lands. Our conditions were just perfect. Everyone on the team, except for myself, had record breaking altitudes. We got up to 15,272’ was our high point and then descended back to his camp at 12,900’.
It is a wonderful night out. A little breezy, clear and lots of stars. A half moon is illuminating quite a bit of snow cover up there on the summit, not the true summit but up to about 18,500’. A really pretty night tonight, that we are all enjoying.
We had a birthday celebration, one of our team members Carlos, turned 50 today. So, we had a cake, candles and the local staff did a sing-song and a beautiful red-rose covered card all signed by the team. He had quite a day.
We are staring at the Barranco Wall which is our challenge in the morning. It is more intimidating than the actual effort it takes to climb it. It is usually one of the more fun parts of the whole climb. [Call connection lost]
Well, checking back in had a dropped call there. On a satellite phone here so sometimes it does that.
The team wanted to give a shout out a big “hello” to everyone back home. Everyone is doing just fine. Rumor has it there have been some comments made to the Blog site which we are unable to check. But we look forward to taking a look at them when we get back to some computer access. Much appreciated by everybody sending their best wishes. Thanks for following. We will be in touch.
RMI Guide Mark Tucker
RMI Guide Mark Tucker checks in from Barranco Camp on Kilimanjaro.
Mark Tucker checking in from the Shira Plateau Camp at 12,500’ on Kilimanjaro. The high today was about 80 degrees and mostly clear skies. There were some cloud layers below but it has mostly cleared out and there are beautiful views of the mountain most of the day.
This evening the crescent moon was illuminating the southern and northern ice fields. It’s been a fabulous night and we had a great dinner. The team is doing well and having so much fun. Wishing you were all here.
We are in the area of one of the three principal volcanoes that make up Kilimanjaro. The Shira Plateau has a bunch of parasitic cones that we are all staring at and getting some great pictures of.
We are looking forward to a big day tomorrow to hit a high point of over 15,500’ feet and then we’ll drop back down to the Barranco Camp which will be situated at about 15,000’. So, we have our work cut out for us but it will be good. We’ll be just fine and will check in tomorrow when possible.
RMI Guide Mark Tucker
RMI Guide Mark Tucker checks in from Shira Plateau on Kilimanjaro
Hello!
Mark Tucker checking in with an update from Tanzania, Africa. We are on our day one of the ascent of Mt. Kilimanjaro with RMI Expeditions. We started under clear skies and beautiful weather with a high temperature of close to 80 degrees throughout the day.
We arrived our Camp 1, Machame Camp, around 10,000’ and everybody is in good shape. Attitudes are very, very well. We just finished a nice chicken dinner and we are getting ready to crawl into our tents.
Being a clear evening, I anticipate that it will probably get down to about freezing maybe a little frost on the tents in the morning. But everybody’s gear is checking out and will be tucked into warm sleeping bags and we are looking forward to a good night’s rest. We are still a little tired from our flights from the US. Everyone is doing very well and excited to be here.
We will check in tomorrow with another update. All the best from Tanzania.
RMI Guide Mark Tucker
RMI Guide Mark Tucker checks in from Machame Camp on Kilimanjaro.
Happy birthday to your 50th’s from the EU Team! Hopefully you’ll be able to find a piece of cake of your way up today! (Who knows, maybe Scott brought some?)
All the best for you and the team for the way up!
Posted by: Daniel on 7/25/2012 at 11:34 pm
Hello Dennis, Eric and Milbraths,
We are glad to hear that everyone is safe and having a great time. We are sure that you are seeing some amazing sights. We’ll relive it with you when you share the many hours of video that will surely come back with you. ;-) Hope the Go-Pro’s hanging in there! Tomorrow sounds like a challenge - stay safe and enjoy. Love, Kim, Sarah & Danny
Amazing….hope you got a lot of pictures!
Regards from Lobo and Serengeti
Posted by: Monika Semkova on 8/2/2012 at 10:26 am
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