Kilimanjaro - My Journey to the Roof of Africa

Mt. Meru (Day 4):

Miriakamba Hut to Mountain Inn

Thursday, January 10, 2013

I had the best night's sleep since I arrived to Tanzania. I woke up at 5am and I couldn't sleep any more but that ten-hour sleep was very lovely for sure. I woke up as a new person today. I feel much better than yesterday except I have serious muscle sore in my legs. I ate breakfast with the Czechs again. Before leaving, I paid my porters, Wastara and Elihuruma. I was happy to see that they were pleased with the $25 I gave them per person. We also snapped a few pictures together.

The walk down to Momella Gate took 2.75 hours. We took the shorter route which was 7.5 kilometers including a detour to Tululusia Falls. Gideon showed us the skull of a buffalo he had to shoot two years ago because it was charging the group. Luckily, no such thing happened to us. We did see and photographed a buffalo herd on the Meru Plain. It was a beautiful walk today with gorgeous views of Kilimanjaro. Down at Momella Gate, Gideon gave me my certificate and I gave him 30,000 shillings for tip. After that, Faustin, Ambrus, and I boarded the land cruiser and headed back to the Mountain Inn. Back at the hotel, I tipped my guide and cook and they also seemed to be satisfied with the money ($50 and $35 respectively).

I quickly unpacked my luggage and organized my belongings in my new room. The shower felt really good. It's nice to be clean again. I had rice with potatoes and peas for lunch as well as a Serengeti beer to celebrate my Meru climb. I also ordered laundry service. They charge an arm and a leg for laundry so I decided to wash the small things myself and just give them the bigger pieces. I still have to pay $14 for those.

There was no electricity in the afternoon for a while so I couldn't use the Internet. Then when it came back and finally it was my turn to use it, the computer froze after about 15 minutes. I gave up and tried again after two people used it and didn't have the same problem. By the time I was done facebooking it was time for dinner. A group of New Yorkers asked me to join them which I appreciated a lot. They were all very nice people. They spent the last two weeks in Kenya doing voluntary work. I think I'll be hanging out with them a lot because we have the exact same schedule. We were talking until almost 10 o'clock. An Australian couple also joined in the conversation. We asked them about their Kili climb since they just returned from the mountain yesterday. The girl assured us not to worry because it's really doable.