Kilimanjaro trek day six – Marangu Gate and back to Moshi

2/9/2018
Kilimanjaro trek day six – Marangu Gate and back to Moshi

I woke at 5:53AM to Joshua bringing me a bucket of hot water. It was so luxurious. We wanted an early start, so the plan was to wake at 6AM, eat breakfast at 6:30AM, and hit the trail as quickly as possible. After breaky, the guys surprised me with singing the Kilimanjaro and Hakuna Matata songs.

“Jambo, jambo bwana. Habari gani? Nzuri sana.

Wegen mwakari bishwa Kilimanjaro. Hakuna matata.”

–>Hello, hello mister. How are you? I am fine. Guest, you are welcome to Kilimanjaro. No worries!

It was pretty adorable actually. And they sounded really beautiful in that talk-singing style. I gave them all thank you cards after that. And then we set off for Marangu Gate. We moved quickly. Urio let me pick my own pace today! It was great to be in the lead. When we reached the forest again, this side of the mountain is considerably wetter than the north side where I started, we saw blue monkeys and black and white colombos! They were not shy at all. We also passed along numerous parasitic cones on the mountain flank.

Marangu Gate
20 km from Horombo Camp

At Marangu Gate, Urio registered my summit. I received an official certificate of completion issued by the Tanzanian government! I also learned that Betos lives just below the gate. He took me to his restaurant for lunch instead of packing me a lunch. It was great! Betos and Godiliza stayed there and the rest of us headed back. Serafin happened to be at the gate, since the large Estonia group that went up the day before on the same route was coming down. They were weird and very antisocial. I was glad I had a separate ride back. In the office, I received a completion shirt, Kilimanjaro beer, and received my certificate. Urio talked to the business next door so I could get it laminated, and then he took me to an electronics store so I could buy a USB outlet plug. All my devices were long dead and I had a whole extra day in Moshi to catch up on life. Urio found out he was heading right back up Kili tomorrow. His fourth continuous trip up the mountain. What a hard life.

I returned to the same hotel as before. Very ready for a shower, repacking, and rest. What an awesome experience this has been. There are not many words to describe something at the end. Accomplished, finished, now we all go home. The journey is the part worth listing, I suppose.