When you put the hiking times on the sign altogether like that, it makes it look so easy. One hour between Gilman's and Uhuru? Pfffffft. Nothing. 19 hours total? Ha! I can do that in my sleep. What a load of crap. =)
It's also sobering that even at the park entrance, we are still over a mile high. But that's later.
First, about half way through our climb down, we entered the jungle. An African jungle! Freaking sweet. Fun fact. Jungle climate exists at a higher altitude than farmland. Who knew?
I think this flower was the first time I saw natural yellow unsullied by the red volcanic ash in about a week. Or just black ash. Or dirt from my hands and fingers. Ah, the little things...
Remember that injury sled we had found in the previous post? Well, here was a guy carrying it down the mountain. We wanted to ask him what had happened, but he looked busy.
More signs. I had half a mind to scramble them so that people going by themselves would get lost on the way up (you're supposed to have a guide right?), but those were precious calories I would be expending. And water. Which was really problematic for William.
You see, every other day, Modi had come to our tents to get our Camelbaks and fill them up with recently filtered water. This day, however, he had forgotten (or thought it wouldn't be necessary - or had already gotten his tip (I'm pretty sure it wasn't that - Ronald was pretty surprised when he found out)). Now, William drinks a lot of water (we had the 90 ounce bags), so he drained his pretty much every day of the trek. Particularly the previous day, when we were hiking for 15 hours. I am more of a camel, and rarely went through half my bag on a given day, especially since they gave us a ton of water at meals, as well as tea.
Well, we get to a moving this day, when William goes back for his fluid, realizes he has none, and goes into a mild panic. We think well, maybe there will be some at the lunch stop. So, grumpily, he tries to valiently hold out until then. At lunch, we get out or box lunches, and there is indeed some juice. Unfortunately, its about eight ounces, and William drinks it in about five seconds. Desperate for more, we looks around for some place to buy drinks, as we had heard on this route you could get refreshments, albeit at an exorbitant price. When we left the lunch hut, however, we saw Ronald and Jonas, who asked us what was up? We explained our predicament, and our conversation went like this:
- Ronald: You didn't get water today?
- Me: I think Modi forgot to fill it up.
- Ronald: Oh... that is not good.
- Me: Is there any place we can buy water?
- Ronald: Not at this one. Only at the gate and Horombo (where we had spent the night).
- Me: I see. Do you think Bill can just drink from the faucets?
- Ronald: Do you have iodine pills?
- William: I took them out of this pack when we didn't then because you guys would give us filtered water.
- Ronald: I would not recommend drinking the water without it.
- Me: Really?
- Ronald: Bad things happen in bathroom.
- Resha: We have to share the same room!
Needless to say, William went thirsty. I gave him a few pulls from my Camelbak, but he wanted to be the man, and so was just thirsty until the end. To be fair, it was only about three hours walking to go 12 kilometers.
Anyways, we entered the jungle with really cool moss covering all of the trees.
At Mandara Hut, we saw these colobus monkeys with white tails. They looked like skunks. Pretty much our first wildlife sighting on the mountain, except for the birds. Apparently they are not as handsy as barbary macaques of Gibraltar, but it was suggested we not feed them, and keep all valuables close by. Nuff said.
The Maundi Crater was interesting in that we sort of passed through it without even knowing we were in it. Kifnika Crater was way cooler, although I am told Maundi is much larger. Whatever. If it doesn't look like a mammary gland, I ain't interested.
These were pretty bad-ass. This is the Impatiens Kilimanjari, which only grows on the slopes of Kilimanjaro. Comes in a variety of great colors. They were ubiquitous throughout the forest. I was told not to pick them. Normally that wouldn't stop be, but I did fear Tanzanian prisons.
I got the inspiration for Tarzan a bunch of times. I was trying to find a good vine or something to hang from, or even a good horizontal branch, but of course, it was one of those situations where when I wanted one, I couldn't quite find it. Oh well.
As you can see, the vegetation is awesomely thick at this point. Such a contrast from the rest of the mountain.
A waterfall! Pretty puny by most standards, but it was still cool to see running water that didn't have sediment in it.
The end point for casual day hikers from Marangu gate. AKA, the smart ones.
Anyways, we passed through this gate and thought we were at the end. On the one hand, we were glad to be done, but on the other hand, we thought it would be nicer. At which point we were informed that no, it was not the end of the trail and yes, it would be nicer.
And farther. we still had to walk about a kilometer or so. On the right, we passed some huts, although we were curious who the heck would stay so low on the mountain.
The end gate at last!
Action shot one from William.
Action shot two.
Here, we were officially logged in the big book as having climbed Mount Kilimanjaro all the way to Uhuru Peak. Woohoo!
This was a monument to the first European guy to have climbed all the way to the top. I find it a little ironic that his picture is on the mountain several times, when probably several thousand Tanzanian ancestors almost definitely climbed to the top before him. Shows the interesting interplay between the Europeans and the natives. Ronald was just very non-chalant about it.
At Marangu, we actually sign the book and receive our certificate of completion. A picture of the certificate is in this previous post.
I mentioned William's lack of fluids over the day. Well, even before he signed the book, the first thing he did was order a water, a Coke, and a Coke. Just for him. He also bought me and Resha a Coke, since he is a good guy. With the very American corn syrup flowing through him and giving him strength, he cracks a smile. It's his spinach.
And with that, we get briefly on the road again. And the roads here is another story. Until next week...
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