Altitude: 3100m – 1980m

(Apologies for the very long hiatus!)

After an emotional day, the next morning was very routine. I think by this day they had run out of eggs, because breakfast was just porridge and the pancakes. The descent was relatively short and easy, and I actually took the time to enjoy our surroundings. We were well into the rainforest at this point and we were surrounded by greenery, trees, and flowers. At one point Filbert stopped us and pointed through the trees at our last glimpse of the peak:

In no time, we were at Mweka Gate, which would be our exit. We had to sign out, and this is where you put your highest point reached, and they give you your summit certificates. It was a little disheartening to see that everyone who had signed out before us in the day had reached the summit; I was hoping we’d see at least one other person who didn’t make it. We waited around a bit at the gate, and there was a brief debacle about not having brought enough trash down the mountain (there’s some weird system of weighing your stuff when you come in and out), so a few of the porters had to go back up the trail to collect some trash. When they got back we snapped a few pictures with them, and Richard, Filbert, Amanda and I were driven back to the Springlands.

When we arrived we had to tell all the staff that we hadn’t made it to the summit, but most of them had a very ‘hakuna matata’ attitude about it, which was nice. We sat down with Richard and Filbert and worked out tips (we ended up giving $120 to Richard, $90 to Filbert, $70 to the cook, and $60 to each porter.) I got Richard and Filbert’s email addresses because if/when I climb Kili again, I’d really like to go with them. Richard was nice enough to give us Zara certificates even though we didn’t summit. We finally got back to our room and took a final Bad Hair Picture, which I think may be the worst pictures ever taken of me. It’s pretty amazing.

After a beautiful hot shower, we sat by the pool and read some more Little Stranger. Around that time, another group came back from the trek, and most of them had summitted, so the staff had a little ceremony where they sang songs and handed out the summit certificates.

At lunch, we met a really nice Canadian police officer named Brenda, who had just finished the Shira route. We later learned that Brenda’s late husband’s ashes were scattered at the peak of Kili by her Godmother, so it was an extremely emotional moment for her to summit. She said she burst into tears when she finally made it. I didn’t think it so strange at the time, but looking back on it, it’s amazing how doing something like climbing Kilimanjaro can really bring people together to the point that she would share something so personal with complete strangers like us. (As an aside, she laughed at me when I asked if police officers in Canada carry guns. Apparently it’s a strange question.)

We were also sitting next to an older Swedish gentleman who turned out to be Mr. Zara himself, i.e. co-owner of Zara tours. It turns out he’s summitted Kili 6 times! He was also full of crazy stories, so it was fun to chat with him. We ended up sitting with him again at dinner and briefly his wife, the other co-owner. I talked up Richard to her, so hopefully she’ll remember how well he treated us.

Before dinner we had our safari briefing, and when we were headed back to our rooms, we saw Brenda sitting and waiting for her airport ride, so we sat and kept her company. I regret not getting her contact info, but I do remember her saying she’d also like to do Machu Picchu like I would, so maybe we’ll meet again someday.

That night we finally finished The Little Stranger, which had a really stupid ending. Do not recommend.