Down Kilimanjaro

Monday, September 5, 2000

The hike going down Kilimanjaro from Mandara was much easier than the ascent. It was almost too easy as we were sometimes almost jogging down the incline and you really had to watch your footing with all the roots and stones and gullies.

We walked down most of the way with Sarah and Jeff's mom. Two of the guides walked with us, and one of them turned out to be quite nice.

He hadn't seem involved in the fee disagreements this morning, for one thing. And also he was quite knowledgeable about the mountain and answered many of our questions about the wildlife and plants.

His name was Rogath Ephrem Mtuy (he handed me a business card in case I should have any friends who needed a guide on Kili) and told us about his claim to mountain-climbing fame. Mr. Mtuy claimed that he held the speed record for an African ascending Mt. Kilimanjaro and returning to the bottom again. He did it, he said, in only fourteen hours and fifty minutes.

I was impressed.

I researched his name on the internet after returning home and found out that, indeed, Mtuy holds the African record for fastest return ascent.

According to the article I found, our friend Rogath, a member of Team Kilimanjaro, started out from Marangu Park Gate at 4 am on the morning of March 27th 2000. He reached the true summit of the mountain in only eleven hours and thirty minutes, and then leaped down the mountain again, arriving at the park gate again only three hours and twenty minutes later.

I'm really impressed.

And I notice that Mtuy and our other guides are wearing casual leather loafers for their climb today with us. No special hiking boots for them. Maybe they don't need them.

We were soon back down at the base of the mountain and chatted with the other hikers and browsed the books in the horrendously over-priced souvenir shop while we waited for our group to reassemble.

Lizzie was one of the last ones of course, but just thinking about exerting myself like that with a bad knee makes me almost as impressed with her as Mtuy.

As we had foreseen might happen this morning, the drivers were not happy about waiting to get paid. And in an accidental bad move, Andy had given the money for the drivers to our guides telling them to please distribute it fairly. Sorting out the money again was a royal pain.

Wayne sorted it out later at the campground this evening. I heard him berating the head guide: "You can't bloody well charge folks double what you said before!"

Wayne says Exodus will not use those same people again.

Despite the frustration over paying guides, it was a very satisfying day. And one that my lungs and calf muscles were sure not to soon forget.