Hello Mountain Zone cybernauts, this is Vern Tejas with Team Harambe from Alpine Ascents. We've come down from the mountain and we've been on tour for the last couple days of the wonderful national parks of Tanzania.

Yesterday we stopped by Lake Manyara and saw giraffes and elephants and monkeys and baboons, it was quite the treat. One of the most fabulous parts of it was seeing all the storks, the giant storks down by the lake itself. After that we drove out to the crater of Ngorongoro and we stopped by a Masai village and they were able to show us around and show us how they lived, in manure thatched houses and we actually got to go inside and appreciate how warm and insulated they are; that also translates to smoky so we all still smell a little bit like the inside of a manure thatched house. But everybody's digging that. We still haven't quite got out all the mud from under our fingernails from the descent the other day of Kilimanjaro so we're feeling quite organic.

Today we launched out early morning into the fog and dropped down into the crater where there's quite a menagerie of wildlife. It's focused in the crater itself because there's so much water, it's got a natural bowl which is what Ngorongoro means, bowl. And in the bottom of the bowl there are several lakes and around all these lakes the animals come because it's the only water during this dry period of weather.

We got to see lions and tigers and...no that's another story. We got to see elephants and rhinoceroses, cape buffalo, gazelles, hyenas, lions, zebras, wildebeests, black rhino, hippos, flamingos, it was quite a full day. Squirrels even, do you believe that? When we went to have our lunch at the lake we didn't realize how wild this place was. Some of us had some of our food nearly confiscated by black kites, these are birds of prey who would swoop down and, if you were not paying attention, would take your lunch from you. So we had several close calls and amusement for all.

Then we loaded up our Land Cruiser vehicles and drove several hundred kilometers over to Tarangire National Park, which is known for its elephants and the fact that it has a small river running through it allows the animals to come here for a drink which tends to concentrate them. We got to see herds of literally hundreds of hundreds of wildebeests and zebras and many, many elephants. It was quite the evening. We topped it off with an erotic show put on by two lions, much to everyone's fascination. Someone said it was just like watching The Discovery Channel. And it was the perfect way to end the day.

But not to be topped, we came over to a wonderful hotel here and had the local cook staff sing to us after dinner and present us with a cake that looked just like Mount Kilimanjaro. So with tears in our eyes and cake in our bellies, we're bidding you farewell because in the next day or two we're going to jump on planes and come all the way back home to see all of you.

So thanks very much for tuning in, this is Team Harambe saying goodnight. [Postscripts inaudible]

— Vern Tejas, Alpine Ascents International Guide and MountainZone.com Correspondent