Horombo 3700m – Marangu Park Gates 1900m
5 hours
This morning after we have breakfast and pack up our kit for the last time, there is a tip-giving ceremony for our guides and porters – nothing seems enough. These guys have worked so unbelievably hard and there is no question that we couldn’t have done this without them. They have carried the bulk of our kit, purified our drinking water every day, cooked us hot meals, kept our sprits up and practically carried us down the mountain side on summit night. They’ve never shown any kind of fatigue or illness, even if they had suffered, they couldn’t show it.
The collective amount is handed to Onyx, and he will divide it amongst the porters and guides according to their role that week. We are under no illusion that these guys rely on tips and it plays a big part in their income. Take Onyx for example, whilst he was helping Lisa down the mountain side on summit night, he told her he used to be a teacher, but being a guide provides him with a better income to support his family.
With a breathtaking backdrop of the summit behind us, the porters and guides sing the Kilimanjaro song to us one last time and David has the duty of handing over the tips to Onyx with a few words of thanks. Please click on the link below to view David and Onyx's speeches:
Onyx then thanked the group on behalf of his team and we were again treated to more singing and dancing.
After the ceremony is over, we hit the trail for what will be our final day of walking. By this point, everyone is super-keen to get back to the hotel for as, Onyx said, a hot shower, and a cold beer. It's now been 6 days since we last had proper wash and clean clothes so we're all feeling, and probably smelling, rotten.
As we walk the conversations between the group bounce from topic and topic as they always do, and we start randomly talking about Australians’ (not sure how that one started). We talk about how much they swear as normal conversation and Liam says “no one swears as much as my old rugby captain”. Lisa and I look at each other, scared. “What’s his name” we ask. “Duncan Price” he replies. We can’t even climb a mountain in Africa without our old colleague Duncan coming back to haunt us!!
The trail leads us to Marangu Gate where we stop for lunch. The tiredness of yesterday is still apparent and it’s important to eat, even though it’s Fish Bolognese. That recipe can go in the same pile as the potato and banana stew.
During lunch Jenny tells us that she is making a video about the health implications of mountain life; she has spoken to a number of the group who have experienced altitude sickness and other things, but also wants to interview someone who didn’t seem to have any problems, and she wants to interview the fine picture of health that is Steve. We all agree he should do the interview accompanied by a can of beer, a fag and a curry.
After lunch we move off into the rainforest. We can see Blue Monkeys in the tree tops and we start to feel ourselves edging closer to the gate and life beyond the mountain.
As the rain comes down it dawns on us that this is the last time we’ll all be walking together; the end of our adventure is getting closer. Such a shame when we all get on so well and have got so close: I mean never before has a man ever asked me for a tampon, let alone one Ive only known for five days! As we walk back down we are already talking about meeting again and planning another fundraising trip; the painful memories of yesterday already dwindling.
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| Team Blonde - us with Leanne and Emma - already planning the next one and not even off the mountain yet |
We think we speak for the whole group when we say that we started the trek as virtual strangers with a common goal, and ended it as friends for life that have shared an incredible life changing experience.
By early afternoon we are back at the gate, drenched and cold. After quickly finding the energy to buy a quick souvenir t-shirt we climb into our minibuses which are already loaded with our kit. So, just as quickly as we started our trek, we leave the park for the thankfully much shorter drive back to the hotel.
As we previously commented, the guides were incredible and couldn’t show any fatigue even if they wanted to….they were obviously feeling it, they were all asleep in the minibus as soon as we left the park gate.
During the drive we are advised that the travel company have upgraded our hotel; we don’t care where they are sending us as long as it has showers and beds. As we arrive and have to get off the buses, suddenly none of us can move. It’s like watching loads of people learn how to walk again – how are stiff now, we haven’t been stiff all week?
Walking into reception we are greeted with hot towels. I guess they won’t be using them again – they all end up black with a weeks worth of dust and dirt and it soon becomes a competition to see who can get their towel the dirtiest, with each of us proudly holding up our once white, now black towels.
Once we find out or room numbers we rush to our rooms to try remind ourselves what hot running water feels like. The first thing we do is take our boots off for the last time; it feels great.
We can hear shouts of “woohoo” as 30 showers and baths are turned on simultaneously. This obviously has an effect on the ability of the hotels hot water supply and it soon runs out.
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| Not so shiny and clean anymore |
After a shower we think we are clean. No. The white towel you use to dry yourself is now beige – off to the shower again then. It takes three showers and a bath each, some all over body scrubbing with a nail brush and numerous hair washes before we feel clean.
We rediscover make up and normal clothes and we are ready to meet our fellow trekkers for the Gala Dinner for the culmination of our adventure.
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