Not surprisingly this time I got about 8 1/2 hours of sleep out of 9 hours in the tent. Having walked for 15 hours the previous day the only surprise is probably that there was 30 minutes awake. This is probably because the ground at this campsite is a bit softer and flatter than at any other. It is also a bit dirtier. The dirt at the other campsites was quite dry, so actually didn't really stick to you as much as it could have. This dirt is a lot damper, as we are back down in the forest again, so it sticks to you and makes it harder to clean. I don't care anymore, after 6 days without a shower, the knowledge that a shower will be available by the end of the day is enough to overcome any feelings of dirtiness.
As this is our last morning with the porters we do have to arrange the tricky business of tips. Now our guide has given us a bit of guidance on this matter, basically we all put $150 into a pot and it gets divided up amongst the team. The only problem with this is the guide does the dividing himself. So we can't be sure who gets what. So to supplement this we also are advised to directly tip our personal porters $10. It seems like quite little for carrying the bag up and down the mountain but it seems to be the standard so what can you do. If you were to go higher it would only cause problems.
As well as giving money some people donate equipment, as we have seen with porters wearing all sorts of gear, including some quite old looking Take That t-shirts. One of the most common logos seen on donated gear is the Arsenal badge, we can't figure out if just a higher proportion of Arsenal fans do the climb, or if there have been a lot of people getting rid of their gear over the last 5 trophy less seasons. Anyway I was thinking of leaving something, a t-shirt, some hiking socks for my guide, but he comes over and starts pointing at things and asking for them. This annoys me so he ends up getting nothing. I think what annoyed me most was that the first thing he pointed at were my trekking poles, saying I don't need them any more. Leaving aside the fact that they weren't mine to give away, as the belong to Dorota, he won't need them either, because you can't use them when carrying the loads that the porters carry. So all he would do with them is sell them.
Having said that it is not all like that. Most of the porters have actually been really nice and honest. There is obvious temptation for them with all our western gear given how poor they are, but they really do seem to be happy enough to do the job they are doing. It is a hard job, but it probably pays well above the wages of any alternatives. One case in point on the honesty comes to light. One of the porters from another group took the head torch of ones of the guys to turn it off when the sun was coming up on the ascent the previous day. But due to the monotonous nature of the climb he never stopped, walked on, and then the porter could not find him. So this morning that porter finds him and returns the torch, it took a bit of effort to find the right person. He could have kept it and nobody would have cared. As it happened the guy from our group gave it back to him as a reward for his honesty.
Anyway after breakfast the tips are handed over and then the porters say goodbye to us. This is in the form of them all singing and dancing the Kilimanjaro and Jambo Bwana songs. These are traditional songs that we have heard over the last few days. There are a few speeches, one from our guide, and one from a representative from our group. When the bag of tips is handed over to the guide all the porters eyes are on it. Not surprising as it contains $2,250 dollars, which one of our groups points out is probably a lot of money to them. Actually it still is a lot of money to me, but given that it is about 1.5 times the GDP per head of Tanzania it equates to $50,000 to $60,000 for a westerner.
Now that the singing and dancing are over, it is back to the walking. We still have almost 1500m to drop, and another 9k to walk. It is a measure of how hard the last days were going up, that this doesn't really cause us much concern. We are leaving early so that we can get through the formalities at the exit gate as quickly as possible. As we leave the campsite we have our last good view of the peak of Kilimanjaro, with its magnificent snow covered peak. It is amazing to believe that less that 24 hours ago we were on top of it, and now we are already halfway down, and in 2 1/2 hours we will be all the way down.
The walk down is very similar to the walk up on the first day. There is one big difference, on the way up we were being passed by porters walking twice as fast as us, on the way down, with lighter loads, they are overtaking us at three times the speed. Because of this we are forced to walk in single file which somewhat limits conversations.
On the way down I get talking to Samuel, our guide, and amongst other things I mention that Dorota did the climb a few weeks earlier. He tells me that had we been doing it together he would have had to split us up, otherwise one person might drag the other back. I have to be honest, had she been here I probably would have spent a lot of energy worrying about her, even though she wouldn't have wanted me to, and it might have hurt my chances of making it. Overall I think it is a good idea to do this separately.
After 2 1/2 hours we reach the exit gate to the national park. This is where the final formalities take place, we sign the register for a final time, and our guide goes off to collect our official certificates. While we wait we buy our first cold drinks for a week. Some people go for beer, but given it is only 10am, I go for a Coke, as I would be drinking on at the same time were I back in the office. Its not exactly the same, out here we can only get fat Coke, no Diet. Which is not surprising because I haven't seen any Tanzanian who looks like they need a diet. Eventually our guide appears and we get our certificates in a little ceremony.
We have one last walk, another 15 minutes down the road to a little restaurant owned by the guy who has been our chef for the week. Here we will be having a final lunch before we head back to the lodge. It is a local dish, banana stew. Its a really nice meal, the bananas are cooked and taste a bit like sweet potatoes. Maybe its an Irish thing, but a stew (there was some meat) at this point was about the best thing I could have, so of course I went for seconds.
While we were having our meal we were able to observe a little of the local commerce in the village. The porters get paid and immediately there are little market stalls where they can buy new shoes, socks, bags, and anything else they might need for trips up the mountain. Also we see some of them selling the items they were given as part of the tips, as I thought they might. But it is clear that besides the porters so many people around the mountain do gain from the tourism it provides. I think this area doesn't give a true picture of Africa, this mountain is like a little money oasis amongst the general poverty of the continent.
We finally get onto the minibus to head back to the lodge. This is another 2 hour journey, and we pass through the outskirts of Moshi, the largest town near the mountain. I think we got the leafy suburbs, because I couldn't believe the size of the houses. I'm not sure if they were for locals or ex-pats. We also pass one of the biggest churches I've seen in a while, with probably another 6,000 seats outside it. Then we are back on the familiar airport road. As we have seen this before most people begin to doze off.
Because one or two people need cash we head into the centre of Arusha, the even bigger city near our lodge, to hit an ATM. On the way in we pass the big international convention centre, which is a very modern building where the Rwandan war tribunals are taking place (so naturally there is high security). While this might make Arusha seem like The Hague, it is more like Brussels because it is also the headquarters of the East African Union. This is because of its long diplomatic history, the main reason the city grew to prominence was because it was halfway between Cairo and Cape Town, the two ends of the British Empire in Africa. According to the guidebooks there is a clock tower to mark the spot (although its not really the spot, on a straight line it is in the Congo jungle, but this is halfway on the main road), but we pass it by with barely a glance as it is so unremarkable. I didn't even get a photo of it.
Eventually we get back to the lodge and everyone heads straight to their rooms to unpack and clean. I think cleaning is relative, even after a long shower I don't think I am quite back to clean, but its close enough to head down to the bar/restaurant and begin the post climb celebrations. We have a few beers before dinner, another great dinner, and then a load more beers after dinner. As the night is winding down two of the team, who unlike the rest of us caught some sleep instead of beers before dinner, are looking to go out to a local disco. Even though I would have liked to go see some real local life (nothing to do with more beer) I couldn't stay awake much past 11.30 pm.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moshi
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arusha
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