Well hello, Mark Tucker checking in. Here in the living zone. Lots of trees, air's so thick you can cut it with a knife. The whole team is already in the rack. 7:30! What's that all about? We had a big day, a very successful day. Everybody can take a big, deep breath. All the team is here and doing well. Fantastic! I can start to relax a little bit. We've got a few hours left on the hill tomorrow but overall, we are looking great. Happy times, great dinner, early breakfast and we'll have a nice program with the team here that has been supporting us. Donate a bunch of gear and cash in their direction. They've done a fantastic job supporting us. Not that we couldn't do this without those 56 men that have helped us a long the way. So we are all looking forward to singing a song with them in the morning. So all is well. We'll keep in touch.
RMI Guide Mark Tucker
RMI Guide Mark Tucker checking in from Kilimanjaro
Jambo! We are back in Arusha getting our last minute shopping in. Today's game viewing in Tarangire was excellent. We started with several close ups of elephant families and then, right before we exited the park, we came upon a pride of lions that was stalking a herd of wildebeests. The lions made several runs at the wildebeests but did not make any kills. It was still really cool to see the big cats in action though.
After we finish shopping we will head back to the Dik Dik to clean up and then it's off to the airport for our flights home. It's been a great trip and today was the icing on the cake.
RMI Guide Seth Waterfall
Well hello, Mark Tucker here. On the top of Kilimanjaro one more time! Uhuru Peak looking all the way into Kenya, beautiful day! A big shout out to last week's team. Sorry to inform you, we had a pretty breezeless day. Hardly any wind. You guys had a tough day. You guys hung in there, fantastic. We have a colonel from the armed services with us on this trip and he brought out the Old Glory. A beautiful flag that he has had all over the world during his services. A real special moment for us all. The team is doing great. Everybody's doing well. We're going to go ahead and knock this one off and head on down here. All is well and thanks for checking in on us.
RMI Guide Mark Tucker
RMI Guide Mark Tucker and team on the Kilimanjaro summit!
Hello Everyone,
This is RMI Guide Seth Waterfall checking in on our way to Tarangire National Park. It's our last full day on safari. Tonight we'll stay at Kikoti Camp, a remote safari camp on the far side of the park. Tomorrow we'll start our journey home.
Tamara,
I am so proud of you!!!! You rocked Mt. Kilimanjaro! When you set out to do something,
you always do it well! Have a safe trip home and can’t wait to see you!
Hey again from Mt. Kilimanjaro checking in with our evening update. From the Karanga Camp, hovering around 13,000'. Well we had another great day, can't help but reported it. We climbed the Barranco Wall, which was a half hour of fun. I can't tell you how many pictures I shot and they are going to be looking good in the old photo album, I guarantee it. It was getting a little bit dusty so we called upon the rain god. We got a little sprinkle then we got into camp and the sky opened up a bit. It didn't really soak things but just enough to kind of keep the dust down. Now I see the summit above me, a billion stars out, a little cloud layer below, temperatures not too bad. We are all in good shape. There was no wet gear created. We were perfect timing on that so we are looking really good for our push up to high camp tomorrow. We are all thrilled. Had a great meeting. Went over a lot of details and as a team are doing very well. Don't you worry, we are having a good time and everything is A OK.
RMI Guide Mark Tucker
RMI Guide Mark Tucker checks in from Karanga Valley.
Hi Steve - Judy has her first two open water dives tomorrow. We’ll take lots of pictures:-). Pulling for you to have the best experience ever tomorrow. Enjoy! Love you! Shari, Connor, Judy, and Micro
Posted by: Shari Fox on 8/11/2012 at 5:05 pm
Hi Steve!
Glad all is well and trust the rest of the trip will be equally if not more so…
We're half way through the second day of safari and we are off to a great start. We had an early breakfast at our safari lodge and then drive to Ngorongoro crater. Before entering the crater we visited a Maasai village. Once inside the crater we got lucky and have been able to see some of the big cats. We're about to have lunch now and then we'll do some more game viewing.
RMI Guide Seth Waterfall
Mark Tucker checking in from the Barranco Camp, Kilimanjaro climb extraordinaire. Well, I'm looking at about ten jillion stars, beautiful night. Let's see here, about 10 days ago I think it was quite windy and a lot of dust. Not tonight, not today. Very comfortable climbing conditions and not to worry, the team is doing just fine. We are looking forward to the short hike tomorrow, a late start to let the other teams get a head start on this little more rocky climb section. Not to worry, doing great, having fun, wish you were all here. See you tomorrow.
RMI Guide Mark Tucker
RMI Guide Mark Tucker checks in from Barranco Camp.
This is Seth checking in from the shores of Lake Manyara. We have officially started our safari! We had a nice morning at the hotel. Then said goodbye to Matt, who is headed home, and drove out to the edge of the Great Rift Valley. Once in the national park we started our game viewing with what Eddie calls 'bamboons'. We've also seen elephants, water buffalo, giraffes and many others. It's a great warm up for our visit to Ngorongoro crater tomorrow.
RMI Guide Seth Waterfall
Hi Tamara-
I’m so excited for you! Have fun and be safe!
Jo
Posted by: Jo Guscott on 8/9/2012 at 7:09 pm
Hi Tamara and Jerry,
Glad to see that you and the team are relaxing after your climbing adventure. Tamara, that’s a great shot of you and the elephant. We’re looking forward to seeing your photos.
Mark Tucker checking in from Camp 2, Kilimanjaro, the Shira Camp. Well over 12,000'. You can see your breath tonight, a little bit chilly. What a great day. Perfect climbing conditions. We received a little sprinkling yesterday so the dust has been settled. We had a little cloud cover so it made quite comfortable climbing up to camp today. Then it started to rain just a little bit when we arrived so we are already in the tents. We were fortunate enough that the mountain popped out right at sunset tonight. We have now seen the peak. Everybody is quite thrilled with that. Lots of pictures as you can well imagine. The team is doing very well. Everybody's healthy and we've been moving nice and smooth and we're all developing these great techniques for the summit to come. We have a clear night and we'll talk to you tomorrow after a pretty good-size day. We're all looking for it.
RMI Guide Mark Tucker
RMI Guide Mark Tucker checks in from Shira Camp on Kilimanjaro
We're back at the hotel!!! We awoke early this morning and everyone was psyched to get on the trail. The thought of a hot shower and a cold beer was all it took to motivate the group.
After a wrap up ceremony with our crew we dispatched with the last few thousand feet of Kilimanjaro in 2.5 hours. Our truck met us at the national park gate and delivered us to the Dik Dik hotel. Everyone is now prepping for a celebration dinner. Safari starts tomorrow!
RMI Guide Seth Waterfall
Steve, can hardly wait to see all of the pictures that
you have taken. Enjoy the rest of your trip.
Mom
Posted by: Darlene Fox on 8/13/2012 at 8:00 am
Congrats! It must have been awesome!
Posted by: Kathy and Andy on 8/12/2012 at 12:46 pm
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