And Back Again

Day 5: 12,336 ft- 6,102

We were awoken at 5:00 that morning by Emmanuel. We dressed, packed, and ate breakfast (in my case) and looked mournfully at some fruit and a “sausage” (My dad, who did actually manage to eat some fruit and a “sausage”). By 6:00 we were on our way. It took us about 5 hours to negotiate the trail down to Marangu gate. We passed a few clean people on the way up.

We would beat Tory, our Swedish friend to the gate, which is the first time we should beat Tory on the entire trip. He had made it to the top nearly 2 hours ahead of us and always roared past us during some part during the day. He is a beast. Andrew also beat us to the top although by only about an hour. He has a bum knee of some sort so what took us only 50 minutes to descend would take him almost 4 hours.

Stephan told us something interesting. He told us about how at Horombo huts they have guards with guns full of “bullets and fire” who went on duty at 8:00 pm and were very aggressive so we shouldn’t walk around at night without a headlamp, if we needed to see and monkey we should go strait, and we should not wander around and say look at Moshi at night. Thanks Stephan, sounds like good advice although a little late.

Upon arriving at the gate we met a thoroughly clean Calvin who had gone ahead to get our certificates ready. We filled out the registration book and then went to see Calvin’s shop and then to eat some lunch. My dad who still wasn’t feeling well didn’t eat anything. After lunch we were ceremoniously given our certificates which my dad and I refused to touch since we were incredibly dirty. Then our guides said thank you, they and the porters sang for us, and then I thanked them. The my dad thanked them and gave them their tips. We piled into the van with Stephan, another pastor (presumably the owner) his son, wife, and some other undistinguished people and drove to Moshi.

My father and sorted our incredibly dirty gear and then showered. For dinner we went to a little coffee shop and had some decent milkshakes and burger and fries. Thant night we crashed and I slept for 12 hours.