Hike - Days 8 & 9
Oct 18th - day 8
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After such a long previous day, surprisingly we were up early the next day again to a beautiful sunrise above the clouds. Today was the start of the descent down the mountain and we had 5,000 feet to come down. We left camp by 8AM down a gradual windy path that went through large open spaces of land. It was in all terms a very easy trek down as some semblances of vegetation started to crop up in patches. As we started to get below the clouds, there were more bushes and with every foot down they got just a bit taller. Our first break was at Mweka Millennium camp.
We broke out into 2 groups, and I joined the faster one down. There was a thick layer of mist part of the way down, that created a dark and earie atmosphere as we trudged along between old burnt and leafless branches trying to reach out to the sky. It was all downhill on a path that was extremely rocky. After an hour or so of hiking, the greenery started to come back in full force. Our campsite for the day was Mweka Camp. At 10,170 feet it felt quite warm in the Sun, but once it set it got cold again.
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Today being the penultimate day, the porters and the entire staff gathered to celebrate what we had just done with a few songs. It was quickly followed by a tipping ceremony where we handed out our pre-filled envelopes of cash to everyone.​
Dinner was served at 6:30PM before we hit our sleeping bags
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Vitals check (O2 – 95; Heartrate – 78)
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We started at 15,100 feet and were down to 10,170 feet.
Oct 18th - day 9
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We had an early start today with washy-washy at 4:45AM and departing camp for the last time by 6AM. A lot of us had requested an early start since some of us had a flight out the same day.
It was all downhill again. Just as we left camp, we entered the rainforest and just as we had experienced it on day-1 during the hike up, it was green and dense. The difference this time was it was misty as we were expecting, and got rain. Apparently it’s raining most of the time at this level during this time of the season. It was wet and slippery, so it was slow moving for the first 2 hours.
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After that we split out into 2 groups
again and being in the faster group we started to pick up the pace. It started to rain now, but all of us were so exhausted and just wanted to get down that we did not bother stopping to put on our rain covers. We just kept going, but the rain added a bit of mystery to our surroundings. The combination of rain and mist in between all these tall and dense overgrowth lent itself to a mystical setting here in the rainforest.
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After a while the path opened into a wide muddy path. The rain was now coming down a bit harder. Our pace quickened and some of us broke out into a fast jog. My knees were killing me now and the faster pace down hill was relieving a lot of the pressure more than a steady hike down, so I kept at it. All of us were running on fumes now and with no more gas in the tank, the end seemed to never come as the path kept on.
And out of nowhere there was the Mweka gate. We had done it!
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We started at 10,170 feet and were down to 5,499 feet.
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All that was left now was to sign out at the official park registry, collect our certificates of achievement, wait to get picked up and head out for our final meal (lunch) with this magnificent set of staff and porters that made all this possible for us, before heading to our lodge for a quick 30 minute shower and to the airport to catch my flight back to the US.
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And just like that it was over. We went from about 6,900 feet all the way up to 19,341 feet and then back down to 5,500 feet. We crossed through 5 very different climate, terrain and vegetation zones on our way to the top of Africa! Its an experience that I will never forget
