Though I promised myself I'd fill up the last page of my Tanzania journal with a more detailed account of day 7 and the story of day 8, I got caught up with showers, beds, good byes, and then was rapidly thrown into life back in the states and never got around to it. It's now March of 2011 (though I'm backdating the post for August 2010 to make it stay with the rest of the Kili trip), and I've been procrastinating big time on transcribing this blog, posting the pictures, and closing the Tanzania chapter of my life. (Sorry, Erika. I'll get the photos up REALLY REALLY REALLY soon, I promise!) (6 months, you say. Not so bad. Yes so bad. I haven't even looked at all of my safari photos yet!)
So, after a quick perusal of my facebook album from the trip (I got that up in October!), my memories are refreshed and I'm ready to write about day 7 again!
I would have loved to spend hours and hours at the summit, watching groups of people from all over the world come and go and celebrate their accomplishments. It is one of the most starkly beautiful places I've been to, though it feels kind of like another planet. Most of our group was able to be at the summit together and we (kind of) patiently waited our turn to take a photo at the sign. Though I'm sure many of the Kili climbers at the summit are lovely people, the chaos by the sign got a bit obnoxious--people cutting in line, yelling at other groups to get out of the way of their picture or for taking too much time.... Anyways, the various components of AMC groups managed to get our pictures taken with the sign (the gnome got one too :-) Lots of people commented on the gnome. It was great.) I spent some time just walking around the plateau, looking at the incredible--and different-- views on all sides. We were so lucky to have a perfectly clear summit day!
We left a few people at the summit to welcome and celebrate with our group's stragglers, and began the long descent. The hike down along the Mweka route was much more crowded than our time on the Lemosho route, making me really appreciate the fact that we took the "road less traveled" up Kili. After about half an hour of hiking down, we got the part that I'd been waiting days for: the skree skiing! Though the technique for skree skiing is 100% the opposite of good downhill form, I managed to master it enough to fly down the slopes (well, maybe just move along at a slightly faster pace than walking) and have a great time! Basically, you sit back, lift your toes, (cover mouth, nose, cameras, camelbac hoses, eyes, and anything else you won't want even more encased with dust than usual), and let gravity do the work for you! We'd been watching Barafu camp, a sprawling tent village below us, grow closer, and tried to pick out our mess tent from the mess of tents from different outfitters.
After a couple hours of skree skiing and hiking down, we reached the outskirts of Barafu Camp, which we quickly realized was more of a tent city than a camp. It was HUGE. I'm REALLY glad we didn't stay there for more than just lunch. It took more than 45 minutes to walk through the camp, which was littered with trash, smelly in places, and overflowing with people and gear. Makes me really, really glad we took the Lemosho Route. Anyways, by the time we reached the SPS tent, my knees and feet were in a LOT of pain from all the down hiking and arriving to a tent set up, tea, our bags with a change of clothes and the possibility for layer adjustments, and even one of the toilet tents set up was a HUGE relief. We sat and waited for the rest of our group, waiting for the people gingerly walking down the road through camp to be our people. Eventually, we had lunch, took little naps, dug out the last of my Amsterdam airport chocolate, and started putting our boots and gaiters back on for the rest of the hike down.
The rest of the hike was nice, but uneventful (though painful. I was GLAD for my hiking poles.) With so much available oxygen, we chatted away and left polé polé in the dust, just ready to be done hiking down. The terrain after lunch was not difficult and the trails were surprisingly well maintained, for the most part. It was clear that this is a major hiker highway with thousands and thousands of people using it.
By the time we finally arrived in camp, we were elated and exhausted, ready to both celebrate and curl up in our sleeping bags and not move for about 48 hours. We also were worried about those members of our group who were behind us. We knew that they were in good hands, but had no way of knowing how everyone was doing, so were forced to wait for people to trickle in in small groups, all exhausted and thrilled to be done for the day. We spent our last night in camp playing cards and chatting, getting ready for our upcoming returns to the "real world."
After the best night's sleep I'd had in days and a late wake up, it was time to get off the mountain. Before the porters took off, we all gathered together. We all sang and danced, and Lema translated our sincere and gigantic thanks to them in Kiswahili. Our group picture was a bit chaotic, with over 100 people in a not-so-wide clearing in the woods (trees!!! yay!!!!), but turned out great. 2 of our members got "limo rides" down in a three wheeled stretcher, so we saw them off before putting on our packs and heading down. The trail wound through the woods before reaching a dirt road. Ok, dirt road may be a bit generous. The ruts in the mud were as deep as my knees and the road isn't safe for cars to drive on. But anyways, I ended up behind one group and ahead of another, and got some time to walk and think to myself for a bit, which was nice. The world felt very quiet.
After a couple of hours of hiking, we reached the parking lot and the park gate. The gate was an immediate reentry into the chaotic world of people trying to sell you stuff, porters running around unpacking their bags and showering so they could go home to their families, safari trucks and busses rushing around picking people up and dropping them off, groups of climbers waiting for the rest of their group and to be picked up and taken back to Arusha.... Jesse traded his hat for a beer (bad trade. For that hat, he definitely could have gotten a couple more beers to share with the rest of us!) and we spent a while shopping for tshirts and other random Tanzania souvenirs and marveled at flush toilets, running water, and our first look in a mirror in over a week. I did some hard bargaining on a couple of Kilimanjaro patches. Well, maybe not so hard bargaining. Skills from negotiation class only go so far when bargaining for teeny tiny souvenirs in rural Tanzania. We also got our boots and gaiters washed for us! (I don't think I realized I had blue gaiters...) Once everyone in our group arrived at the base, we sat down for lunch--with cold sodas!--behind one of the buildings and got to meet Lema's sisters, who do a lot of work with SPS. Just as we finished lunch, it began to rain, and it was time to go to the bus to get back to Arusha. For reasons I can't remember, we had to walk a ways down the road to the nearby town to pick up our bus. Despite some grumblings, it was a nice walk. At one point, incredibly surreally, I heard some latin-tinged American hip-hop that had been on the radio all summer (I can't remember who it was) blasting out of one of the huts. Finally, we got on the bus back to the Usa River Lodge in Arusha.
The first order of business, of course, was showering. After 8 days of hiking, we were all pretty gross. However, the water system at Usa was having some difficulties, and managed to crap out on us just after I got shampoo into the tangled disaster on top of my head. Sophie, who'd I'd beaten into the shower and who was not happy about it, was less than supportive of my soapy and waterless plight. But oh well, the water came back on and we all emerged for dinner entirely new people. I barely recognized us as a group when everyone was clean and wearing non-hiking clothes! We had a lovely evening celebrating our climb and enjoying our last night together as a whole group. The next day my family and I said goodbye and got on a plane back to the states while almost everyone else stayed in Tanzania for a 4-day safari. It was hard to say goodbye, but also has been great to see Kili people back in the states!
Leaving Tanzania after almost a month there was strange. I knew I hadn't been there long enough to get a real sense of the place or to consider myself very knowledgeable about the country, it's people, or even it's ecosystems, but also felt a real connection. I really, really hope to go back someday!
