day 7 – our last morning on kili….

July 21: Our day per our itinerary: Mweka forest camp to Mweka Gate (1,650 m); A sustained descent through lovely forest with lush undergrowth takes us to Mweka National Park gate. From here will be transferred to our hotel in Arusha where we’ll spend the afternoon resting poolside! Commentary: Truth be told – the pool is too cold and it is not hot enough go in this trip. [ (3-4 hours walking throughout the day)

The last camp – Mweka Camp.

We were all up early this morning. This particular camp wakes up early as people are eager to finish their teak and head to the final time we will check in/out – the Mweka Gate – making it hard to sleep in late – despite how tired we all are. Becky and one of our guides – Hussein – are up much earlier to get a head start on the 3-hour plus hike down to the Mweka Gate.

We begin gathering in the mess tent for coffee, tea and breakfast. For breakfast we have Uji – which I think Adam is the only one who partakes in it, hard-boiled eggs, chapati and fruit. Soon after we have breakfast – we have the tipping ceremony. For the team that worked tirelessly on getting us to the summit and back – this is the key source of their income. Julius stands next to me with the list of the support team, and the rest of the kili climbers, line up next to us. Julius begins by calling each porters name one by one, I hand them their tip, thank them, and then each member of our team thanks them. Many of the team have also contributed some additional gratuities for those members who went above and beyond to make sure we had a safe and comfortable experience. We continue with our cook, Omari; our waiter, Muhammad; two of our assistant guides – Omari and Elias – and then finally our head guide – and the person that made sure we were all safe – Julius. The ceremony concludes with the team sing songs in gratitude and happiness. It’s such a special way to end such a physical and emotional journey. If we didn’t need to get down to the Mweka gate, I think we would have stayed there longer – well maybe just 5-minutes more as we were all dreaming of being able to shower back at our hotel in Arusha.

Julius and I.

The porters had packed up all the tents, well almost all the tents, our tent was still up as we waited for Peter to finish packing and having breakfast. Peter and I are like Oscar and Felix in some sense – I’m fast and always haver everything ready to go, and we are always waiting on Peter. I think the second most thing said on the trip – second to “Porters passing” (as the porters would pass us on the way up or down) is “Where’s Peter?” (as we were always looking for him as we were set to go.

We then began what seemed like and endless descent to the Mweka Gate. The group traveled down together for the most part – spending much of the time sharing life stories and continuing to get to know each other better. An experience like this creates a bond between people – you go through so much mentally and physically that it becomes easy to open up share life experiences with others. For me, it was how much I miss my Dad.

The long trail to Mweka Gate.

Lynn and Deb sharing some life stories.

Shortly into the walk, we reach a spot and get to see Kili for the last time through the trees. As you look at how far away the mountain is, it’s hard to believe that we were on top of it just a day ago!

Our last view of Kili

We continue through the lush forest where we see a variety of monkeys, lush vegetation and streams. And as tired as I am feeling, we walk somewhat slowly and enjoy this beautiful place.

One of the many monkeys we see along the trail.

The lush forest and a stream.

As we get closer to Mweka Gate, were here more singing – more Tipping Ceremonies. We know this portion of our journey will end.

Our journey on Kili comes to an end.

When we reach the gate, we are reunited with Becky. Our final task – to check out at the gate so they know that all 9 of us have made it down safely. Then after checking out, we take time for one last group photo on Kili.

Mweka Gate.

Our last group photo on Kili.

Soon we are on the bus. We head out and stop at a place that has souvenirs and art from the local porter community. When we arrive, we first sit and eat our boxed lunch – Chapati, Mango Juice, a muffin, a fried Sweet Potato Wedge, Chocolate and Orange Wedges. Then we do a little shopping to support these hard working people. But we still bargain as this is the custom in East Africa.

With our stomachs full and our wallets a little lighter, we begin to head out – well not before someone saying “Where’s Peter!” As we are backing out, we see him walking from the restroom. Now that we are all on board, we make the final trek back to Arusha – about 1 1/2 hours on the bus.

The bus ride is somewhat quite as we are all a little tired. We finally arrive at our hotel – L’Oasis Lodge. We pull in and the bus is unloaded – I check in and I debrief the team on a few details – the hotel is retrieving our stored bags, the items we left in the safe, I address the lack of hot water on our last stay, and we coordinate the time for dinner with Julius and some of his team. And a note on the hot water – the hotel was out of power for a bit that day and unfortunately we didn’t have a ton of hot water. I do know that everyone had a chance to shower, but we all probably cut our showers short to conserve hot water for our roommates.

At 7:00 pm Julius pulls in with three cabs to take us to dinner in downtown Arusha. We all didn’t recognize him – the tall Massai man we had seen for the last 7-days in hiking gear and with a backpack, was all dressed up, complete with a leather jacket. We met the rest of his team at the restaurant – his three assistant guides, Hussein, Omari and Elias – our waiter, Muhammad – our cook, Omari – and the assistant cook – Chimbe. It was a great night, we all got to know the team in a more intimate way – learning more about their lives and families.

Before you knew it, it was time to leave, we called our cabs back and headed to the hotel. We said on last goodbye to everyone at the restaurant and to Julius at the hotel. A few of us had a night cap in the hotel lounge – Becky, Deb, Adam, Peter and I – however we did not stay up late as we all were looking forward to sleeping in a bed for the first time in a week. It’s amazing how the smallest things in life can be the best things in life!

Tomorrow we head back to Nairobi!