Mt. Kilimanjaro Series (Final part)

The ensuing.

Millenium camp to Mweka gate.

The morning was bright. We regained all our energy. We desperately needed a sound sleep. Day before yesterday, I woke up at Baranco camp at morning 4 am. From that time, till last night 7pm, total of 39 hrs, I didn't have a proper sleep. The sleep was more important than the food, for the energy we regained.

Robert was as usual with his tray of bed tea, early in the morning. Amani and his team were reluctant to leave early today. They were still sleeping. The morning Mt. Kilimanjaro was fabulous to look at. Just few hours ago I was at the top of it.

There's a lot of difference when you are solo and when you are in group. If you go solo, then you have lot of time. You mingle with different people. You discuss. You plan. You have to be energetic. You cannot be dull and seat idle. In groups, you will be encircled by a virtual rope. In these few days you will be busy understanding your own group. As you are going to stay as a family with the group, you ought to know each other. You will have no time to go outside your group.

Throughout my trek, I didn't have time to write anything. We spoke. We applauded each other. We did PNPC ('Poro ninda Poro chorcha'). In English, would mean' to discuss, gossip and criticize someone or some others in their absence'. But I couldn't write anything. I will write whenever I am alone.

One thing I understand now, while writing, it feels nice to ruminate and recapitulate. It makes you do the same journey a second time. You sway yourself again in the breeze of memories.

We started late around 8am. Today also we have to cover a distance of 13kms. It's downhill, should not be a hard one. But yesterday's downhill running through the pebbles and gravels resulted in black nails in number of toes, in both feet. Today they are paining with shoes on. From this camp it will be rain forest.

Today the path is not dusty. It was cloudy last night. Might have rained. In fact, the path has become very slippery. It was tough task to walk without slipping. Today Jayanth was at good pace. He was walking with me and Maulshree. We were very cautious. I slipped ones. It was a joyous moment. Every one of us waiting to click a photo of the other person fallen. Maulshree was my partner in that sense. We both fell.

In the rain forest Amani spotted an animal, eating grass. It was not very far from us. It's black in color. Looking like deer. Even Amani had never seen it before. Later on, I found out from internet that it was a melanistic deer. Very rare. 1:500000 ratio with the total deer population.

At last, we reached Mweka gate. Our bus was waiting. In this place the porters and guides will give us a farewell celebration. It was a gala celebration. Singing and dancing. Tasty lunch. They gave us certificate of completion. Jayanth and I had some Kilimanjaro beer.

That night we stayed in the same hotel at Moshi.

Early morning the bus to Nairobi picked me up from the hotel. Stayed one night at Nairobi. Next day, my flight to Delhi was at evening 8pm. I called up Zack. He took me to the Giraffe center. It was an awesome experience. Zack was a great host. He took me to a local restaurant. We had ugali with fish. Ugali is a staple food of Africa made from corn flour. Massai market in Nairobi is very famous. It keeps on changing its location every day. I was lucky that today the market was near Mombasa Road on the way to the airport.

Zack dropped me at the airport in the evening.

From there to my Home sweet Home.

A big thankyou to the team.

See you all again, in some other trip.......