The last day was billed at an 18 - 20 km (depending who you asked) walk, mostly downhill. No mention of the word gradual today. I was doing the math during the night - my usual walking speed of 3km/h means a 7 hour walk, but that's on flat pavement. I'm way slower downhill and on rocky terrain so that's about 11 hours for me! I've never walked 20 km or 11 hours - I was starting to panic. Then I redid the math (apparently the part of my brain that can do math has been badly affected by my visit to altitude) - I actually walk at 3 miles an hour which makes 4 hours plus 2 hours for downhill. So now only maybe 6 hours - which if I had thought of first probably still would have made me panic but now seemed so much more reasonable after the faulty math scared me!
I started off pretty slow but large portions of the trail were actually gradual down hill paths and didn't make me scared I would slip, so eventually I did get a bit faster - sort of.
When we reached a bathroom point the guide told me we were "halfway". As this was only 90 minutes into our walk I was a bit confused. I decided he meant halfway to the lunch point.
It took me 5 hours to walk to the lunch site. On the positive side I walked most of it by myself and listened to my summit playlist. I had asked my friends to submit a good song and promised I would think about them while listening to their song while summiting. Instead I spent time with them while descending. Probably none of them will complain that I was going down instead of up.
I was developing huge blisters on my big toes - so when I got to the lunch point I immediately asked all my group who were already there for Tylenol, Advil and blister stuff, all of which was produced almost immediately! Its good to have well prepared friends. I doctored up my feet, slurped down a bowl full of vegetable broth and one potato.
My BF was waiting for me and as soon as I was finished lunch we started walking down together. It took us 3 hours and 45 minutes to do the last 8 km. It was wonderful to spend the time together with just one guide (Damian) and reflect back on what climbing the mountain meant to us - good and bad parts. All in all I walked for almost 9 hours.
Finally the mountain was over - what a sense of elation. But in typical African fashion it took over 3 hours for the rest of the people to come down or be driven out from the last contact point, to pay off the porters and have our baggage loaded. We sat around on the grass by the park gate and drank numerous pop or beer (depending on your taste), ate the most delicious Pringles ever and generally looked shattered, elated or both.
The after party, which seemed like such a good idea months ago when we booked it, was not quite as appealing now. After the BEST shower in my life and dealing with an episode of chest pain in one of our group members, I finally made it to the supper. As is usual so far in Africa - vegetarians get short changed on the protein - no one seems to think beyond meat or eggs. Sauteed vegetable, fried rice and cold french fries were all that were on offer for me. I ended up with a bowl of ice cream for supper and went off in search of a good night's sleep - on a level bed - what a fantastic idea. AND - the bathroom could be reached in my pajamas!
The mountain was over and it did change me.
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