I had a good cry right then as I was very disappointed that I was not seeing how happy my best friend was to be reaching the peak - little did I know what was really going on - that knowledge came a bit later!
My cough is much better - I can go downhill without issue - climbing back up is a bit of a problem and I had to stop 3 times to rest while walking up from the breakfast hut - its about the same steepness but not as long as the Skunk Hollow hill we trained on in Edmonton.
I have been trying to understand the popular look of the trekker shorts (pants with the legs zipped off) over top of long underwear. It seems to me if its cold enough for long undies then add them under your whole trekking pants. Today however, I became privy to the secret. When its only cold enough for only a base layer you need to a) cover the crotchal area if you're a guy and your undies don't look like running tights and b) wear the shorts for the pockets - otherwise where do you carry your toilet paper, hand sanitizer and camera (different pockets BTW)?
I got a basin of warm water to wash the morning and the privacy of my hut to do so. It was fantastic! I stripped to skin - in sections only because it was 4ºC in the cabin and scrubbed with soap and water - heaven! Of course that only lasts for about 10 seconds until I had to put my dirty clothes back on but for those 10 glorious seconds each part of my body in turn DIDN'T STINK! Smelling stinky is a bit of an obsession with all of us. I performed an ultimate act of kindness when I leaned in very close, sniffed deeply and then was able to inform that person, in fact, I couldn't smell them. I think we are so overwhelmed with our own body odor we can't smell each others - OR I am the only one who actually stinks!
People who are ascending the mountain by this route we are using to go down, sleep in the huts and have their meals served in community dining halls.
I ate my delicious breakfast there but all by myself when all the large groups were finished - its not like I don't have anything but time on my hands but there weren't any people in the dining hall who spoke English to join. After breakfast I packed my gear since I will be rejoining my group in the tent tonight but I also had the luxury of airing out some clothing and my sleeping bag in the sunlight. Or at least I did for the half an hour the sun shone. It feels "warm" in the sun although its only 8ºC. I am sitting in front of the cabin with my winter jacket on and considering adding some layers as with the sun behind the clouds and the wind gusts, its definitely not sun tanning weather.
Here is a picture of the guys who rescued me yesterday. Mike is missing as he left very early to take the oxygen cylinder back up to Kibo Huts. One of these guys will be paid by the ranger to single handedly push the stretcher back up. This is a very hard job and takes an extreme amount of effort. The rest of the guys need to go back faster so they can be back in time to carry everyone's gear down. In essence they will make a quick trip up, pack up our group's gear and then come back down again with their 20 kg bags.
Yusef told me my group would probably start arriving around 1330h, so I donned my bright orange/pink (opinion varies on what color they really are but consensus is I will never get lost in them and people seem to find them a bit cheery) pants so my people could see someone was waiting for them when they crested the ridge coming into camp and settled myself on a convenient rock.
Unknown to me, two of our group had already descended and were waiting down at our new campsite. Unable to find me, they assumed I had been medivaced all the way to the town of Moshi.
Our first group of people came in at 1622h. They were a small group who had decided not to attempt to summit, feeling they needed all the time available just to make it down to Horombo. The "3-4" hour descent (that I made in 1 hour courtesy of my taxi crew) took them 7 hours to complete. Even after such a long hike they were all smiles to see I was alive and well. Hugs all around!
The first group that summited and made it down to the camp arrived at around 5 pm.
The group continued to trickle in in groups of twos and threes. Everyone looked shattered and about 10 years older than they had the day before. Everyone had a story of what the summit was like for them and what they observed happening to the people around them.
There was a dating couple in our group and we all had discussed the possibility that he might propose at the summit - how romantic (this can only be thought by someone who's not been to the summit I think). He did not propose as if he had, it would have sounded like, "Will you (insert vomiting noises here) me? Sadly vomiting copiously is a sign of acute mountain sickness and although his girlfriend was fine with no complaints (at least according to the eyewitness reports I received) he succumbed to copious "tossing of his cookies" as the guides call it.
My BF came down a few minutes before sunset. I had heard of her adventures already. The elation I imagined her experiencing at the summit was in fact not what happened and she had experienced quite profound cerebral edema. I was so happy to see her "safe and sort of sound" at "home".
Others of our group continued to trickle in long past sunset. Supper was a strange affair with some people deliriously happy and others too tired to do much but chew. A few people, exhausted or suffering diarrhea, managed only dry toast that was delivered to them in bed. Not exactly the celebratory supper most had imagined.
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