Start of Descent... Monday, February 15

After many congratulations all around, we headed back down the mountain - no easy feat! Even though it was down and not the continuous up up up, it was still very difficult on the knees. The descent we chose was very slippery on what resembled once again sand-dunes, and often we had to catch ourselves from falling down. It took a lot of concentration which was difficult as we were all really tired and wobbly. Half way through the descent, two of the porters took a look at me and I'm sure were thinking "We're never going to get back to camp with this one..." and thus they took to either side of me and lifted me up and we scampered down the mountainside. How they could not slip and fall I'll never know, but I more or less closed my eyes from the dust they created, and said a prayer thanking God I didn't have to walk all the way by myself!

Finally we all ended up back at Barafu Camp, had a quick lunch, congratulated ourselves a few more times, and packed up and set off for what we THOUGHT was a 3 hour hike to Mweka Camp (Camp #5) at 10,000, where we would spend our final night. The drop in elevation would offer us milder temperatures, increased oxygen and a boost of extra energy, and better sleeping conditions. We were all really beat, but we figured we could go for another 3 hours... and really we didn't have any alternative so off we went.

The beginning of "the long march" was across a wide open bleak plain of dusty dirt and very little vegetation. It was a gentle descent and we trudged along, grateful we were heading down and not up! After a while it turned greener and slowly bushes and flowers appeared in place of the barren landscape. We took a few breaks, but they were short as everyone was eager to get to camp and collapse. After a few hours the dirt turned into a wide path of heavy & uneven rocks - like a creek bed that had dried up. This was a surprise to our guides who had not experienced this terrain before in previous climbs. It had been 3 hours at this point and the last thing any of us wanted was a challenging climb over slippery rocks on the way down. But that's what we had for the next 3 hours - yes 3 additional hours!!! The path wound back & forth and everytime we turned a corner I thought "For sure this is the end" but it never was!!! I will say the scenery by this time was absolutely breathtaking - off to the left of us was the enormous expanse of forest and moorland far as the eye could see. Alongside us were tall grasses, bushes, flowering plants, and small trees. Yes, it was beautiful but we were so tired!!!

After what seemed forever it turned into a jungle and it got very dark. We didn't have our headlamps with us (who knew it would take this long?) and lucky for us, some of our porters who had already been at camp for quite a while awaiting our arrival, climbed up the path to look for us. They had their lights, and we followed them all the way down to Mweka Camp where we walked all over the place looking for our cluster of tents amongst many other groups. It was a crowded camp and the air was moist with humidity. The porters got us our hot water buckets right away and we washed off, changed clothes and headed over to a late dinner...everyone except me that is as I was not hungry just tired! As I drifted off to sleep in my tent, I overhead the head porter saying "Cindy...don't go to sleep...we are serving your favorite dinner tonight...banana soup". I think that's what I heard, but it may have been a nightmare...