After a very good night's sleep, I imagine, and after a well deserved breakfast we will make the final descent to Mweka Park gate. This is an approximate 4 hours downhill walk.
This is where we will receive our summit certificates for making it to the top.
From here we will return Arusha for a celebratory dinner and overnight in our first real bed for a week.
Oh - and before dinner, there will be a lot of cleaning - it'll be our first bath / shower for over a week too (eeeuuww!)
THAT'S WHAT THE BROCHURE SAID AND THIS IS WHAT REALLY HAPPENED:
We had dinner at around 5:30pm the previous day and went straight to sleep. It had been a long day and although the camp was pretty noisy late into the night, we managed to sleep soundly.
In the morning we woke up early and enjoyed our last breakfast together in the mess tent.
We packed up our gear, gave the tips we had brought with to our head guide.
**A word of advice: it would have been better to give each porter his own tip, however we didn't have the required change to do so, so left everything with our head guide who assured us that the tips would be split out accordingly.
We also gave away anything we thought they could use and we could do without. Our water bottles, my camp boots, Marco's thermal outer gloves, spare trail food, water purification tablets etc. The porters are very grateful for anything you can spare.
We started our final decent to Mweka Park gate. Arriving is a little surreal. After nearly a full week away from civilisation, we walk back into an area that is full of noise, trucks, cars, locals trying desperately to sell you curious, clean your shoes, just about anything to get money from you.
Below - this is me after 7 days of not bathing or showering and sumiting Kilimanjaro... Which is to say, filthy dirty... blagh!
We made our way over to the office to sign the book (for the final time - yipppeee!!) We collected our Gold Certificates and headed over to the now familiar Leopard Tours van.
The hopped in and together with Ali went to Moshi. On the way, we stopped and had lunch. The company paid for the food and we paid for the drinks (I say 'we'; actually Ali did - thanks for the beer dude!)
After that we dropped Ali at his fancy hotel in Moshi and then made the 1h30 min drive back to Arusha.
We drive right past the Outpost Lodge and get dropped off at the Arusha Resort (or some such place). This place (no offence to them) is an absolute dive. On arrival, I protested, saying that this isn't right. They show me my reservation and assure me, this is correct.
Of course it isn't! My 2 bags from Day One of our climb had been taken back to Outpost Lodge as that is where we were supposed to stay.
So, after 7 days of no bath, I am now stranded at a hotel with none of my clean clothes, non of my cleaning products (shampoos etc). I have been informed that Leopard Tours cancelled my reservation at Outpost Lodge and re booked me into this shitty hotel.
I'm dirty and tired and really, really not in the mood. So I get onto the phone to Leopard Tours. Many, many arguments and phone calls etc later I finally get LT to agree to move us. Myself and Marco as well as Andy & Deon, two other climbers who also got bumped down.
According to Arusha Resort, this happens ALL THE TIME...
It pisses me off because after all we had just been through, I now have to go to Outpost Lodge to collect my bags and then be transferred to another the hotel on the back of many phone calls and arguments.
We were (eventually) taken to the The Impala Hotel in Arusha. The hotel itself was very nice (and quite expensive, I think). Try as they might LT couldn't get us back into the Outpost Lodge so they had to fork out for something better in the end.
After much debate and messing around we eventually made it to a clean shower; there was soap, shavers, sponges, clean clothes!
You simply would not have recognised us between the time of arrival to dinner time. We met Deon and Andy in the hotel lobby for drinks and a celebratory dinner afterwards.
The rate, initially paid to our operator, Destination Africa Tours, included a celebratory dinner on the last night. Once we were moved over to this new hotel, LT decided it was expensive enough for accommodation only so did not want to pay for dinner. They told me that if they paid "it would come out of their pocket". Oh shame. This has ALREADY come out of my pocket!!
But, (diligently) there I was on the phone again disagreeing and insisting that dinner was included.
In the end we agreed that they would pay for dinner and we took care of the tips and drinks.
And so finally, we had a wonderful celebration - rehashing stories of the mountain and talking nonsense and drinking beer.
It turned out to be a Wonderful Evening!!
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