Okay, I'm two weeks away from taking off for a return visit to Asia and this blog is still stuck on top of Africa. Time to get a move on. In reality we could not get out of the Horombo Huts campsite fast enough. There was no breakfast tea on our final morning, and I believe everyone had pretty much ditched personal hygiene by day three, so we rolled up the sleeping bags, packed the back packs one last time and convened in the dining tent for one last sentimental meal together. Alright, it wasn't really all that sentimental. We were ready to get off the mountain fast. Our need for speed did not, however, prevent us from having one last ridiculous meal time conversation about poop schedules, diamox tingles and residual altitude-induced headaches. But, the crown jewel of the morning belonged to Howard. This man who began the week as our "proper" germophobe (refusing to touch the zipper of the shared toilet tent) threw caution to the wind and stripped down to his whitey tighties just outside the dining tent. We all expressed appropriate shock and dismay at this risque behavior, and then we headed out for our final 20 km downhill sprint to the finish - Marangu Gate.
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| Chris, Howard and Kelly hit the trail. |
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| Lisa and John strike a pose. |
And a near sprint it was. I enjoyed the company of Lisa and Jeff for most of the day and was rewarded with entertaining stories of marathon disasters, relationships gone awry, and travel fiascos. At some point along the way, Jeff's pretty pink camera ran out of battery power, so he began videoing (and narrating) everything along the path...mongoose poo, safari ants, slugs, moss, vines. Things that have never moved and will never move were recorded for posterity. Jeff was desperate to find the blue monkeys which were supposed to live along the trail, but I refused to let him ask Guide John where to look. I feared that our pace would suffer a serious setback if we had to patiently endure John's answer..."They may be high. Or they may be low. If they are not high or low, they may be in the middle." Painful.
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| A long week without a razor for Lisa |
Thank goodness we did eventually find the monkeys on our own, and Jeff had something video-worthy to record. After a brisk five hours, we crossed the finish line at the Marangu Gate and paused for a few photos before checking out the amenities (which included a very exciting bathroom with flush toilets). Once everyone had emerged from the trail, Guide John collected out "finisher certificates" from the park office, and the rain began. We sprinted to the bus in a downpour - the first rain we had hiked in all week (thank goodness we had packed our rain gears).
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| Jeff hunts for elusive monkeys. |
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| Success! |
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| Mission Accomplished |
The stench of the nine of us and the more than twenty porters and guides that filled the bus was hideous. The rain poured down and the windows stayed up as we wallowed in our own grime as the bus rolled down the mountain.
Kilimanjaro was gorgeous - covered in snow from the halfway point up. It had snowed overnight. John explained that the snow meant that it was warmer at the summit today. Ah well.
We rolled into a town and stopped for our last meal together at Chris Burger - the "famous" burger joint that was, yep, out of burgers. We enjoyed everything but burgers under the "condoms for sale" sign on the wall, and Guide John handed out our finisher certificates to the background drone of pomp and circumstance being hummed by slap-happy hikers. It was actually kind of sad.
Next stop was the lodge near Kilimanjaro International Airport where we were to deposit Jeff and Howard and say our goodbyes to Gail who was waiting there. Along the way we were hailed by a man with a suitcase at a dusty intersection in the road. The bus door was opened. The suitcase got tossed in. Jeff shook his head - not bothering to question how his luggage had ended up at this dusty corner in the desert and reflecting on that fact that this meant Gayle had spent two days at the hotel without clothes. Sometimes it doesn't pay to ask questions - just go with the flow. Hakuna Matata.
When we arrived at the hotel, we discovered that Gayle and all of her wet laundry had just endured a sandstorm. A scantily clad Gayle surfaced for a final, emotional group photo, and we hugged our beloved Ohio contingent goodbye.
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| Good Bye Ohio Friends |
Hot showers and slow food were on the menu at the Outpost Lodge when we finally arrived back in Arusha at 7:30 p.m. We said late night good byes to Lisa, Eva and Sue as we were all headed off for different adventures in the morning. It was a wistful end to a wonderful week of challenges and dreams come true.
Okay, I'm two weeks away from taking off for a return visit to Asia and this blog is still stuck on top of Africa. Time to get a move on. In reality we could not get out of the Horombo Huts campsite fast enough. There was no breakfast tea on our final morning, and I believe everyone had pretty much ditched personal hygiene by day three, so we rolled up the sleeping bags, packed the back packs one last time and convened in the dining tent for one last sentimental meal together. Alright, it wasn't really all that sentimental. We were ready to get off the mountain fast. Our need for speed did not, however, prevent us from having one last ridiculous meal time conversation about poop schedules, diamox tingles and residual altitude-induced headaches. But, the crown jewel of the morning belonged to Howard. This man who began the week as our "proper" germophobe (refusing to touch the zipper of the shared toilet tent) threw caution to the wind and stripped down to his whitey tighties just outside the dining tent. We all expressed appropriate shock and dismay at this risque behavior, and then we headed out for our final 20 km downhill sprint to the finish - Marangu Gate.
Next stop was the lodge near Kilimanjaro International Airport where we were to deposit Jeff and Howard and say our goodbyes to Gail who was waiting there. Along the way we were hailed by a man with a suitcase at a dusty intersection in the road. The bus door was opened. The suitcase got tossed in. Jeff shook his head - not bothering to question how his luggage had ended up at this dusty corner in the desert and reflecting on that fact that this meant Gayle had spent two days at the hotel without clothes. Sometimes it doesn't pay to ask questions - just go with the flow. Hakuna Matata.
