After hiking from the summit down to Barafu, the downhill knee binder began. We continued on the next day to Mweka camp where we were able to take a hot bucket bath. Thank goodness for those Salonpas thingys you put on your knees for arthritis - those helped me continue on the third day of walking/running downhill.
I woke up on the 31st of August feeling good! With a smile on my face infact because I was able to use my lungs to blow up my pillow finally, lol. We ate breakfast and started walking down the long mud-packed trail to Mweka Gate. A long downhill trek through the end of the Heather/Mooreland into the thick, lush rainforest/jungle. I like to move fast downhill so my knees won't hurt. Every once in awhile I would run - just like the porters. It made the time pass quicker (3 hours of walking). I was alone at times; it was peaceful, yet scary. At one point I ran into some little kids who were asking for chocolate, so I gave them my gloves and some shillings instead. They would help the porters if they were having trouble carrying their loads. I mean these little kids (shorter than I) were carrying at least 3 times their little body weight, maybe even 4 times as much. Amazing!
Moving through the jungle we saw Colobus Monkey's again - we starred each other down this time, but they won.
Finally we reach the Mweka Gate! As usual our crew had a hot lunch prepared - thinking back I guess we can be considered a bit posh like the Europeans called us at the beginning of our adventure - no one else had a crew setting up lunch with a lunch table, table cloth, silverware, etc. I guess you could say Vanessa and I were blessed, more than posh, to have had such a wonderful crew. Hey, they helped to keep my spirits up when I was illin and sang me up to the top of Mount Kilimanjaro.
(Pictures to come soon)
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