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Introduction to today's journey

Getting to the top is optional. Getting down is mandatory.

- Ed Vuesturs

Today's trek takes me from Horombo huts back to the start of the track at Marangu. Upon returning to the hotel we celebrate our successful climb and farewell our guides and porters.

Today's Journey

Distance trekked today: 12 kilometres.

Total distance trekked to date: 68 kilometres.

THE MORNING dawned brilliantly fine but frosty outside. It didn’t seem anywhere near as cold as yesterday though thanks to being over two kilometre of altitude lower than where I had been this time yesterday. I was still terribly stiff from yesterday’s forty one kilometre marathon.

The mountain was clearly visible outside in the crisp air. The sun was already up as Jaseri and one of the porters arrived at our hut serving us warm water and tea. Gary told me that he had been up in the very early morning when it was still dark and he had seen tiny flashes of light from head torches along the mountaintop ridge. The glaciers near the top were clearly visible from up here. Mawenzi peak was hazy from being so close to the sun.

The waxing gibbous moon was bright in the sky high over our heads, although nowhere near as bright as it had appeared yesterday morning at the summit.

We went to the dining tent to have pancakes for breakfast. Yum. It was good to have my appetite back being at a sane altitude now and having expended so much energy yesterday.

After breakfast I returned to the hut to do the final packing up (for the last time thankfully). I saw a small group assembled at one of the nearby huts a bit further up the gully. Then I noticed a large boom microphone. I had a closer look and realised there were a couple of people filming one Japanese lady with long black hair wearing a ghastly yellow green coloured jacket.

Then they left the hut in procession. The lady who was being filmed held onto another Japanese lady in front of her. Then I realised she was completely blind. It was then that I realised this mountain was a big challenge for everyone, and she wasn’t going to let her blindness stop her from climbing it. I thought good on you for giving this a go.

It seemed a shame though that she was going to the summit of an amazing mountain with absolutely spectacular views and yet she wasn’t going to see any of it. There were ten people in her group, no doubt all supporting her filming the documentary. They left and started their long climb up the mountain. I’m not sure if she ever made it to the top though.

There was a large Canadian group who had gone up at the same time as us. They were also heading down today. They were camped just below the huts. It turned out that everyone in the group had something “wrong” with them – certainly something that would qualify as a valid medical excuse to not be climbing mountains at all.

One of the men in the group had successfully reached the top of the mountain walking on titanium legs. His real legs ended just below the knee and the rest was just titanium. He had been successful in reaching the top, but was admitting now that his stumps were getting sore.

I recall growing up in school, being the runt of the litter, the one least likely to grow up doing major feats of endurance on major mountains. Born with a crippling bone condition, leaving my legs deformed after several nasty childhood fractures, would have been the perfect excuse never to embark on such a climb.

In my school days I was the last person you would have considered to be climbing huge mountains. Sadly the reality was that I was one of the only ones doing such physical activity at forty whilst most of my classmates were now well and truly past their physical peaks slowing down into middle age. It appeared that their time had come and gone whilst I was a late bloomer living life to the full at aged forty.

My condition wasn’t that bad though. Having seen the blind Japanese woman, the Canadian man with no legs, and all these other disabled people, not to mention a few seventy plus year old women a few minutes ago, I really was more able bodied than any of them.

Then I remembered back to what Sapinggi told me on Mount Kinabalu last year. Climbing a mountain is twenty percent physical, eighty percent mental. It was now that I finally realised that if you do have a strong mind – like the disabled people I had seen today, your disabilities and excuses just don’t stand in the way.

Perhaps it is people who had had hardships and disabilities have not only learnt to overcome them, but through overcoming have developed a will stronger than most other people. That willpower gives people the persistence to climb these mountains.

I discovered there and then that many people do this mountain as a means of overcoming their difficulties, to prove their worth in life. Perhaps subconsciously that is why I felt compelled to conquer this mountain.

Fantasies aside, I had not conquered the mountain yet. There is a common saying amongst mountaineers that you have not conquered a mountain until you reach the bottom. Until then you are still on the mountain and therefore still subject to all its dangers.

I was now faced with the pressing issue of a long downhill with very sore legs from the long hike yesterday. My legs were rather badly chafed and my right hip and ankle was starting to get a bit painful. Also my lips had almost no feeling in them having dried out so much in the past couple of days. Perhaps carrying the heavy camera bag wasn’t the best idea for downhill. Maybe in future I should keep the big camera in my main bag during the downhill and use the little camera.

We left the hut and started the long descent. As expected some of the others went rather fast. As there were no longer any requirements to acclimatise, Jaseri was quite happy for us to go at our own pace, so long as we all met up at Mandara.

We went up and down, though mostly down, across the gullies gradually descending towards the small volcanic cone in the distance. Jaseri was right behind me and the others were all ahead gradually gaining distance from me.

There were a lot of porters coming down going past me at their rapid rate. The guide I had met at Masai Mara a week ago was right about the locals here being so good at walking. They just didn’t think anything of walking down the hill at a fast walking pace carrying their heavy loads on their heads and backs.

It was very dry now and as they walked past they kicked up a lot of dust, which mixed in with their body odour, which was terrible now they had been up here for five or six days without washing. It made the journey more painful.

I heard a thumping sound behind me. Looking back I saw Jaseri rolling on the ground. He had fallen over again as he had done twice yesterday. He struggled up, dusted himself off and started walking again. He was very quiet now.

I continued along at my pace, rather slower than I hoped. He didn’t seem to mind though. It seemed to be his pace too. The others were all a good distance now, but still visible on the same section of track.

We reached the section where the track workers were digging up the dusty trail to improve it. It provided soft padding to walk along as I continued walking. Jaseri was talking to his sons in Swahili, though I didn’t understand what he was saying.

We were not far past the workers when he fell over again. I was getting very worried about him. I may have been pacing a little slower than the rest of the group, but at least I wasn’t falling over like Jaseri. Perhaps he was getting a bit too old to do this, but not wanting to admit it.

Finally we reached the forest and a few minutes later the most welcome sights of the Mandara Huts. I was just about ready to drop by now and really struggled up the short steps to the balcony of the dining hut where everyone else was sitting around waiting for a porter who was finalising the preparations for lunch. He had carried lunch up from Marangu this morning.

I asked everyone else how long they had been here. Gary had arrived first about an hour ago - he had run most of the way. Everyone else was slower and apparently arrived around ten minutes before my arrival. I wasn’t that far behind.

We started our nice lunch of fresh sandwiches. As we ate Jaseri approached me and said there was a van taking the track workers back to the start of the track and would I like a lift with them. The idea was very tempting so I said I’d think about it.

Now I really wanted to walk down the rest of the way, as there wasn’t a huge distance to go at all. We had done nearly two thirds of our walk today. However I was worried about Jaseri who had fallen four times since Kibo and was perhaps a bit too old to be doing this. I think he was asking me as he definitely needed a lift down. He said there were a few other people who will be getting a lift down as well.

I thought of Mark and how noble he had been with forgoing the summit to help his son when he got serious altitude sickness at Gilman’s Point. Perhaps I needed to forgo my aim to walk right to the bottom for the sake of Jaseri.

Lunch was over and it was time to leave. Both Jaseri and I were still very tired. He approached me again and I could tell he really needed a lift down the rest of the way. So I agreed. I’d take the smart way down the rest of the mountain.

The others left about ten minutes before Jaseri and I. He negotiated the details of our lift with some of the workers who had been working at Mandara this morning. We walked down through the forest where surprisingly I had more energy than before. I was now tempted to change my mind, but Jaseri had already radioed the vehicle from the warden’s hut so there was no getting out of it now.

We walked through the dense cloud forest about a third of the way back down the track towards the park entrance before reaching the intersection where the porters left the main track to follow a wider road. We walked about fifty metres further through the forest to where a large four wheel drive was waiting. We climbed on board – I had a front seat, though too tired to take out my camera. Jaseri climbed into the back with a group of workers, and a couple of other hikers who had also been offered a lift down.

After quite a fair wait, the driver climbed in next to a young local lady and I, and we started down the bumpy road at about twenty kilometres per hour through the forest. About five minutes later we passed the rest area where we had stopped for lunch on our way up the other day. The dirt road wasn’t steep at all but it was quite muddy indicating quite a bit of rain had fallen here during the climb.

About fifteen minutes of travelling along the bumpy road we suddenly stopped at the signs marking the start of the track. Jono and Mark had already arrived at the start, probably having run down. Jaseri and I climbed out and we signed out at the large A-framed hut. I then used the loo, and by the time I had come out, all the others in the group had arrived and were signing out too.

We all staggered down the stairs to where our minivan was waiting for us. We quickly piled in and headed down the steep road back towards the hotel. It was great to be travelling along sealed road again after all this time up the mountain.

Now Ashley had arranged a van to take her to the airport tomorrow morning. With the mountain conquered we had to decide the most efficient way to get to the airport given the huge cost of the taxi. Most of the rest of us had organised the same flight – or so I thought. I had organised a taxi, so will need to check. A couple of the group were leaving late tonight to catch very early morning flights, but I could go out early in the morning with the rest of the group.

Finally we arrived in the hotel where our porters had left our packs. Desmond was there and he asked us if we had made it to the top. I said I had reached Uhuru. He warmly congratulated me as I collected my pack and staggered with it back to my room. I had about an hour before we were all going to meet and say our farewells to the guides and the porters.

I unlocked the door to the room I had been allocated - the same room I had stayed in before heading up the mountain – room 12. What a relief to see a bed that was actually off the ground. I dropped my bags on the floor before then returning to the reception where I picked up my storage bag, and my valuables. I returned to my room, locked the door, and then staggered into the bathroom to take a shower.

The power was out, but fortunately the water was still hot. I peeled off my filthy clothes and washed them as I showered. How nice it was to be getting warm water over me again.

Once showered, I put on some fresh clean clothes that had been stored in the storage bag that I had left here. What a relief to be clean again. I hung my wet clothes to dry, which I had washed everything I had worn up the mountain. Then I returned to the outdoor dining area to join everyone else.

I staggered back out to the outdoor dining area where the others were all assembling. We all went into the bar where most of the others bought a beer. I bought a coke. We returned outside and set up a large circle of chairs and sat down to enjoy our drinks.

Then all the guides and porters arrived. Jaseri sat down first to the right. Then his sons the assistant guides Azaan and Imara sat next to him, then the cook Hekima, then my porter, then all the other porters. They were obviously sitting in their pecking order, a tribal thing no doubt.

We had all agreed that Gary would do the speech and hand out the tips which we had organised whilst awaiting the porters. We had nominated Gary as he seemed to be the natural leader of our group, and he was quite obliging. A couple of the others had worked out the division of the tips. We all just paid up and amazingly they had divided it correctly as per Desmond’s suggestion.

Gary stood up and thanked the guides and porters. He made a brief speech, and then he went around our group to each thank the porters and guides. Most of the speeches were pretty brief, but I could remember mine:

About a year ago when I had my thirty ninth birthday, my friends asked me what I was going to do for my fortieth. I jokingly said at the time that I was going to celebrate my fortieth on top of Mount Kilimanjaro, which I considered to be totally impossible. Without your support it would have been impossible. So I’d like to thank you all for making the impossible, possible.”

Then Gary handed out the tips to the porters – starting from the least first. He worked his way up to Jaseri last, and jokingly said he didn’t have any more. They both laughed then Gary pulled out the biggest tip for him. They shook hands and hugged.

Looking around the group, there was the cook Hekima. He had been very quiet throughout the climb, working as the quiet achiever creating all our wonderful meals up the mountain.

Then there was my porter Hasani, the strongest of them all, carrying my heavy pack tripod and all. He had been an amazing support for me carrying up all my gear.

The guides were all from the same family. Jaseri was the head guide, and his sons Azaan and Imara were the assistant guides. I didn’t know until coming back down the mountain that they were all from the same family.

I’m guessing that Jaseri won’t be guiding for much longer as he gets older, so hopefully one of his sons will be succeeding him as head guide pretty soon. There is definitely a tribal protocol here where you have to be an assistant guide for a good fifteen years before you can become a head guide. Given they go up about once a month, that means you need to do at least a hundred and eighty trips to the top as an assistant guide before you can become a head guide. By then you would know every stone and plant on the mountain.

Then Jaseri handed out the certificates. Firstly Mark and Jono got green certificates to say they made it up to Gilman’s Point. Then the rest of us were presented with white certificates saying that we reached Uhuru.

Once all the certificates were handed out, Jaseri led the guides and porters clapping. Then they sang the Kilimanjaro song:

Jaseri – “Kilimanjaro,”

Chorus – “Kilimanjaro, Kilimanjaro… Kilimanjaro mlima mrefu sana,” (Kilimanjaro, long mountain journey)

Jaseri – “Na Mawenzi,” (and Mawenzi)

Chorus – “Na Mawenzi, Na Mawenzi, Na Mawenzi mlima mrefu sana,” (Mawenzi, long mountain journey)

Jaseri – “Ewe Nyoka,” (as a snake)

Chorus – “Ewe Nyoka, Ewe Nyoka, Ewe Nyoka, Ewe Nyoka mbona wanizunguka.”
(as a snake it winds all around).

With the ceremony finished, it was time for the porters and guides to return home to their families. Before doing so, we had some group shots taken. I had a nice photo with Jaseri, and a big group shot. I had a good shot with my porter Hasani, who had worked so hard behind the scenes and I didn’t get much of a chance to talk to at all until now.

With that we headed into the bar for another drink. I noticed some very nice African decoration in the room. Near the ceiling was a row of black silhouette animals with lights behind them. This gave the illusion of a beautiful sunset which I had yet to see in Africa. The ceiling was bamboo and there was a very interesting lampshade with palm trees and rhinoceroses.

We entered the dining hall and had the nicest meal of our lives, starting with vegetable soup. We then had an entrée, followed by a very nice main of fresh meat and vegetables. Then we had a lemon meringue pie slice for dessert.

After dinner, we all said good bye to each other. The receptionist had told me that my flight wasn’t for another day, so I will be here with Gary and Dawn all of tomorrow. Everyone else was either flying out later tonight, or early tomorrow morning. Ashley had to leave now, whilst everyone else was leaving at about five o’clock tomorrow morning.

With goodbyes said, I staggered back to my room, and took a long hot bath before crawling into bed. I had absolutely no intention of getting up any earlier than needed, even if it means missing the end of breakfast at 10:00. Breakfast will be until ten o’clock tomorrow morning, so there won’t be any hurry to get up at all.

It is good to have goals and deadlines. It is good to rise and shine bright and early for a brand new day to conquer the world. There are some days though when you need to completely zone away from it all. This was one of those mornings. It was nine o’clock when I woke up. Looking out the window, the hotel was enveloped in thick cloud. Obviously there won’t be any view of the mountain today.

I arrived at the dining hall at nine thirty for breakfast. I really wasn’t hungry, but managed to get some food into me – a small bowl of cereal, some watermelon pieces and some orange juice. Being so late, I didn’t want to be paying for lunch, so decided to eat as much as I could. I was alone in the dining hall. Everyone else in our group apart from Gary and Dawn would have left hours ago to catch their planes back to their respective homes in Canada, the United States, or Australia. I didn’t look for Gary or Dawn as I figured they would have had breakfast earlier.

It seemed a bit sad that I spent such a short amount of time with these wonderful people. In other tours, I had spent two or three weeks in the same group. Five days just wasn’t enough time to spend with a small tour group.

After my cereal, I felt hungry, so I also had scrambled eggs on toast and some sausages.

Following breakfast, I went onto the Internet hoping to be able to post an update on Facebook. Given how unreliable the electricity was here, and noticing the Internet here was slower than dial-up. It wasn’t good, but it was perfectly fine for what I needed.

I had the usual drama with logging onto Facebook. It didn’t like my location (new country yet again) so asked me all these dumb security questions regarding which friend was in five different collections of photos. Thankfully I have good face recognition, so I got them all right. This allowed me back into my account.

Without looking at anyone else’s status updates, I posted an update advising I had successfully reached the summit. It felt surreal writing it. Although it had happened just two days ago it just didn't seem real - it hadn't sunken in properly that I had conquered such a high mountain.

I was still typing when I saw Gary and Dawn out the window. I wasn’t sure whether they were looking for me, or if they were just exploring. They did seem to be looking for something or someone though. I’ll find them later – none of us were going anywhere today. The fog had by now lifted into an overcast sky.

The power suddenly went off again, but fortunately I had a camera battery charged up enough to use for the day. I returned outside and found a seat in the outdoor dining area.

There I photographed some of the amazing flowers and the small birds. It was a very tranquil garden, having been lovingly tendered for decades here in the rich volcanic soil and heavy rainfall around here.

Then Gary and Dawn arrived, so we sat around chatting. They had been looking for me earlier, so I explained that I had slept in and had been on Facebook posting an update.

They were pretty relaxed this morning. We ordered drinks – mainly coke. Their taste for soft drink seemed to have been returned to normal now they were no longer on Diamox.

Gary mentioned the pace going uphill had been too slow for him. No wonder he had come down so quickly. I was still very stiff particularly having chafed legs and my lips were still hard with no feeling. Fortunately I wasn’t going to be doing much walking for a few days until the next tour starts in Uganda. Gary and Dawn had talked about how much they had spent coming over here – around ten thousand dollars for the two of them. It had been Dawn’s idea just a few weeks ago, and they were only here to do the mountain, which they had done now. Their two sons were staying with grandparents in New Zealand. Once back in Brisbane they were looking at moving down to Melbourne to start anew as arborists.

We continued relaxing. Eventually it was lunch time, so we all ordered large hamburgers and chips. It was very much western style food. It was great to not be walking any more.

I had remained outside almost the entire day, with the sun very weakly shining through the thin haze overhead. Gary and Dawn came back out to join me in the late afternoon. We were wondering how Levi and Rachel had coped up the mountain.

Then we suddenly saw them. They had just returned and had freshened up. They were waiting for their porters and guides to do a similar ritual to what we had done yesterday. They were amazed that all three of us had managed to get to the top.

After leaving them at Horombo, they had spent the day doing an acclimatisation trek to the Mawenzi Hut junction an hour or two after we had passed through there. They had stayed another night at Horombo before heading up to Kibo the following day.

They had climbed up the scree slope the night after we had gone up. Rachel had been very sick though vomiting all over the scree. She managed to make it up to the start of the boulders when she decided she had to turn back. Levi had continued and reached Gilman’s Point. By then he was so exhausted that he thought, “What the hell is the point of me going any further”, so he turned back with his guide to catch up with Rachel and her guide near the bottom of the scree - he had been influenced by the Jamaican Rocks perhaps. They had done a tremendous effort though given they were totally inexperienced.

We said goodbye to them as they went a bit further up the hill to where their guides and porters were arranging chairs for their farewells.

I was very tired again and needed to have an early night in readiness for my taxi tomorrow morning. We said our goodbyes and agreed to catch up again in Brisbane when we get back. I returned to the room, took a bath and collapsed into bed.

Flying out from Kilimanjaro Airport the following morning, the mountain mysteriously revealed itself through the top of the cloud in its glory to the right, and I had a clear, though hazy view of it towering high above us. The plane ascended to 16,000 feet, a full kilometre below the altitude of the summit. Much of the mountain was obscured into a blue colour in the haze apart from the bright patches of glacier above us. The cloud below was a brilliant white.

Strange how the view out of a tiny aircraft porthole pales so much into insignificance compared to having the complete freedom of a total vista when you are standing on the summit of a high mountain. The dirt and reflections on the portholes further reduces the experience. That being said though it was nice to now be in a comfortable seat in a pressurized cabin.

Having been on the mountain I had a much greater appreciation for it. Uhuru Peak stood out as a large dome attached to the edge of the otherwise almost perfect crater. A long range extended past the peak towards us, no doubt being an extension of the long fissure that had opened up in the rift valley to create this compound volcano. There was another obvious peak that had been worn down to a large round dome. Even Kibo had been worn down significantly from a maximum height of perhaps close to seven thousand metres above sea level after the last major eruption around three hundred thousand years ago.

Cloud was suddenly appearing and hugging the side of Kibo. No doubt within the hour the cloud will be enveloping the entire summit area. By now the large plane propeller was blocking much of the view, and the mountain was starting to fade away into the distance as one chapter of my adventures closed and other one was about to open.

I had conquered it - the world’s tallest free standing mountain.