Hike Day 6: DONE!!

Today's highlight was shoerwing for the first time in 6 days.

The wake-up call was around 6 AM. It took 3 times of the porters trying before Simko and John woke up. Breakfast was corn porridge, pineapple, Eggs, Sausage and toast. After eating breakfast, the porters sang two songs for us to thank us. After the work they had done carting our gear up and down the mountain, we probably should have been singing for them!

Here are the links to the songs on Youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4KxrvEWD4vE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4b2YUZ1XuP0

We started hiking around 7:45 AM. It was all downhill and our knees were hurting from the previous day. We used our poles and all were motivated to get to the exit as soon as possible. We were spread out over the course of the hike, but around 10:30 AM when we could hear the crowds at the gate we all gathered into a group again and walked through the gate together.

The gate was a crazy scene with vans and trucks parked everywhere to pick up the hikers. Additionally, the barrage of people trying to sell souvenirs started as soon as we exited. We went to the final hut where we had to sign in one last time. Azizi also signed at this location and then he received our certificates saying that we had succeeded in making it to the summit. Our bags were already loaded into the van by the time we were done with this so we immediately loaded up and drove back to the Bristol cottages. It felt great to be in a vehicle again and making progress without having to walk!

We arrived back at the cottages around 11:45 AM. The porters unloaded the van and we left the bags on the pavement. Azizi and Godfrey went with us to a table on the outdoor patio where we ordered a round of Kilimanjaro beers. We wrote our names and ages down and Azizi put them on the certificates. He didn't give them to us at this point as he said that he wanted to have them laminated. After this, we could finally go to our rooms and shower! John even took his gaiters and in with because they were so dirty. The rest of the day was spent repacking and doing some essential laundry. At lunch, we all ordered pizza as we couldn't imagine the thought of more fried chicken or pasta and vegetable sauce.

Azizi took us to a local shop to purchase some paintings of Kilimanjaro. We also wanted to try banana beer which we had heard about so he took us to a small local shop where he treated us to a bottle. That evening at 7:00, Azizi came back with his daughter and we went out to eat with them at a local italian restaurant. There were streetlights, but none of them were turned on. To make things more interesting, there were places where there were gaping (i.e. 4 feet) holes into the sewers which were wide open. Fortunately, none of us fell in one. We said bye to Azizi after he walked us back to the cottages and the hiking portion of the trip was complete!