Kilimanjaro 4 : Descent

Uhuru Peak (5895m) to Kibo Huts (4714m) to Horombo Huts (3705m), 9.6km

Going down was not easy, especially the bit from Gilman's Point to Kibo Huts. Now that we had daylight, we saw what we were getting into. It was a case of “Holy shit! Did I come up this way earlier?!? How am I supposed to get down now?” for me.

Half way through the scree and still a long way to Kibo Huts (circled)

We forgot about the zigzags and simply used ski-style to go vertically down the scree. It was the same method as how we descended on snow in Posets but faster. This time, we also had rocks and potential injuries (from tripping) to content with. Hesbon held on to my arm, I put my trust in him and we ran down. I was breathless by the time I reached the bottom of the hill.

Short break at William's Point

Sweet Ernest trekked up from Kibo Huts and brought us cold mango juice.

Ernest

By the time we reached our tents at Kibo Huts, it was 9.10am. My tent was ready but my bag was not in my tent (I think they were not expecting me to return with the boys). The bag appeared in a jiffy. I changed, took a nap and woke up at 11am for lunch.

After lunch, we walked slowly across the desert to our last camp.

Our last camp in the clouds

Final day

As Anna had described – my feeling on the final day was “you mean I have to walk 20.8km and descend 2000m???”. Descending is my weakness and it did not help that have dodgy knees and an even dodgier left ankle.

The boys were all powered up by the promise of cheese burger and fries for lunch and sped off from the word 'Go' at 7.30am. Guido happily let them lead as I tried to keep up behind. Pole pole? What's that??

Last glimpse of Uhuru Peak

We exited from the Marangu gate and signed out to inform everyone we were still alive. Geoff treated us to cola.

Our exit

Treat from Geoff

There were many visitors at the Marangu Gate. By now, we could clearly differentiate who was going up Kili and who had just descended:

Who has the best beard?

We had our cheeseburger and fries and headed back to our hotels. 

The boys could not decide if they want a nap, a bath or a beer first. Maybe they had all 3 at the same time. For me, I jumped in and out of the shower (because the water was too hot after I finally got it to work), passed everything to laundry, dived into internet connection, posted the summit picture on facebook for Anna and listened to her gush “Oh I love this picture!” 1000 times and exchanged stories with the rest of the 11 people who came back in 1 piece. We had dinner, but it was not very important, wasn't it?