Our last day on the mountain. I felt ready to finish up - I have never been so dirty in my life. We packed up quickly and Lisa and I ended up walking together with Arson, who I think was very interested in Lisa, lol.It took us about 4.5 hours to reach the gate and my feet had had it. This was another type of hell that no one had really mentioned. I wasn't sure I had any toenails left from the descent. People were passing us all the time, eager to get to the bottom and have a beer.
We met a young man who had a teddy bear sticking out of his knapsack. Lisa asked him what that was about and he told us he had spent time in hospital as a child and someone had given him that bear to comfort him - now he takes the bear with him on all his trips. We also met a 64 year old man who had made the summit - he said that 3 of his group had turned back.
We passed through another camp on the Marangu Route. It felt weird to be covering several days' hiking (going up) in one (going down). The rain forest was nice but I think I was too tired to really appreciate it.
Eventually we caught up to Jim and Jane and walked into the Park Office area together. We knew we were close when we started running into guys selling t-shirts and students heading up for a day-hike. There was a gate to pass through which signified the official end. We were the last to arrive as Marilyn and Michael had been taken down an alternate route and the usual rabbits had been well ahead of us. Jonas had us all sign the book at the park office - that took quite a while. I had a coke; Lisa finally got her beer. We bought Arson one too. The little shop was quite good - t-shirts, coffee, beer, maps, etc. At that point, I had no idea if the prices were inflated and didn't really care.
All the porters and guides were waiting for us for their tips. One by one they came up as Jonas called out their names, received their tip in one of Lisa's mini plastic bags and shook all of our hands. I gave Gibson, Philipo, Antony, Ali and Jonas a little extra.Then we were off for lunch at a restaurant in Moshi where Jonas presented us with our certificates. It was 4:30 pm by then and I was done. We still had another 2 hours to drive back to the hotel. I was anxious to check my email to see how Cindy's surgery had gone.
Lisa and Marilyn had champagne and graciously asked Camille, Joost and me to join them for a celebratory drink. A quick rather ineffectual shower, my first smoke in 6 days, an agonizingly slow internet sign-in and then I joined them. I had another burger too as I was starving!
Off to bed by 11 as I was leaving for safari the next morning.
