Tanzania Day 21 - Kilimanjaro Day 5

The extra 3 hour walk down to Horombo was definitely worth it. The temperature was much more bearable to sleep in and any signs of altitude sickness had completely gone now we were at a more comfortable 3700m.

William also let us decide on a more generous wake up time of 8.30am (well, to an extent, we suggested 11am and he laughed and said no). Breakfast was brought to our room again by our lovely porter Hassain. Unfortunately eating was a struggle (I think our bodies were still in shock) but we picked at what we could.

Everything was taking us so much longer than usual. We kept losing things in the room, packing our bags took forever, we were really like useless, big babies! It got to the point where William was standing at our door practically supervising us.

The 11km downhill hike back to the the Horombo huts was a breeze in comparison to the previous day. It was nice to take in the views again now that we weren't focusing so much on hiking up the mountain.

After Horombo, the final leg through the rainforest was great as we saw lots of colobus monkeys and hyraxes (they look like little guinea pigs). William suggested hopping in a jeep for the final 5km down the mountain and with aching limbs and blistered feet it was an offer that we couldn't refuse.

At the Marangu gate we collected our certificates and tipped the porters & guides. We went to a local bar for some celebratory Kilimanjaro beers and some local food prepared by Augustinos wife Sabina. We were all pretty hungry so wolfed down the food, said our goodbyes and jumped in our taxi back towards Savannah House.

We dropped the William off in Moshi, his home town and met Erastus, Tony's cousin (and guide) who had organised the whole trip for us. The reason he couldn't guide us personally was because his wedding was on the 26th Sep. After congratulating us on our achievement he invited us to his wedding, an offer we couldn't refuse!!Read more