Waking up in muggy Mweka Camp, I am grateful that this will be my last night camping out. May the record show I am a hotel/motel kinda girl, and this camping out in tents with no showers and crude bathroom facilities (literally a hole in the ground...is that too much information?)is really not "my thing"...but in the infamous words of Griffy Simon whose mother signed him up a few years back for an outdoor wilderness program in Massachusetts in July "I'm glad I did it, but I'm never doing it again".
We packed up all our gear for the last time in our duffle bags, and stuffed the sleeping bags into their little pouches. There was a heavy mist in the air as we began our final hike down to the entrance of the park. We were walking through thick jungle and it was not long before we were all excitedly pointing out to each other the many monkeys jumping back & forth high up in the trees. Where last week we seen a few, here they were everywhere we looked! We pulled out our long lenses and hopefully got a few good photos.
After 4 hours, the Mweka Gate stood before us like a shining star - we had made it round trip! While Kurt went to the little hut to sign us out, the rest of us lugged ourselves into the waiting van. There were many locals trying to sell us all kinds of souvenirs - I haggled for a wooden giraffe and then haggled again for a baby version. I also bought a Kilimanjaro hat to wear on my Will Roger hikes! We took off our heavy boots and sank into our cushy seats for the hour ride back to the Springlands Hotel - this is the same hotel we started at. We had stored our additional suitcases at the hotel during the climb, and I for one was looking forward to some clean clothes. When we arrived at the hotel there was a stampede to the showers which felt like heaven on earth. To the delight of everyone, including myself, I washed my hair and did not put my bandana back on my head but instead waved my clean hair in the sunshine (truth be told no one cared about my dirty hair the whole climb but naturally I obsessed about it...) Turns out for $10.00 we could have all our dirty clothes laundered, so off they went and an hour later reappeared all smelling lemony fresh (some a different color but no matter).
We spent the afternoon sitting by the pool, and then strolled over to the outdoor dining room for the buffet lunch of which pizza was the most popular item. We ordered up a bunch of bottles of Coke and Orange Fanta (my favorite) and Kurt led a presentation of the AWARDS. We each got a much appreciated congratulatory speech from our fearless leader, and then were presented with our very own official certificate of completion for summiting Kilimanjaro. Some of us got teary eyed as we thanked each other for their help in accomplishing this feat. Bill remarked "I feel so blessed that I've been able to experience this incredible opportunity of climbing Kilimanjaro with all of you - I'd like to go into town and find a church to say a few prayers of gratitude." to which I added "Lovey can you stop by the ATM on the way to get some cash for the souvenir shopping tomorrow?" For some reason this brought on a few chuckles...
Soon we had to bid good-bye to Frank, Jim, and Sara who were heading home that afternoon to the States. The rest of us were staying on for a 2 day safari. It was sad to see part of our group go...we had really enjoyed each other's company! Following their departure Kurt brought out a map and showed us where we were heading the next day for the first part of our safari. Bill was determined that we get an early start and so we agreed to meet for breakfast at 6:30am. Off to bed we all went. I had a fitful night as somewhere between arriving back at the hotel and dinnertime I had abandoned my socks & boots and was wearing my flip flops AND lo & behold I got a million mosquito bites (at least I think that's what they were) on my feet and ankles. Oh scratch scratch scratch...surely they would all go away by tomorrow...Good thing I had been taking my malaria pills.
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