KelKo Travels: Hike Day 7 - Millennium Campsite, 12467 feet

Holy crap. We made it. It was tough, but we made it! After having dinner at 5:00 last night, we went to sleep around 6:00, waiting for Henry to wake us up a few hours later. He woke us up at 11:00 so we could eat by 11:30 and start heading for the summit by midnight. I think that was one of the toughest things I’ve done, physically and mentally. It was pretty much 6 hours of uphill hiking in the dark. I wondered so many times what I was doing there, when I could be somewhere warm, clean, and comfortable. I didn’t need to be doing this. But there we were, with about 100 of our closest friends, trudging up a mountain in the dark. It was hard, and cold! I had on 6 layers of clothing to keep warm. The only thing that kept me moving was stopping every so often to watch the “parade of lights” ahead of me (which in a strange surreal way was kind of neat). It wasn’t until day broke that I found a renewed sense of energy to make it the rest of the way. The rising sun cast a gorgeous orange hue across the sky, and I knew it meant we were close. We just kept going. Pretty soon I could see massive glaciers to my left. They were beautiful. Finally, we were at the first stop on the summit, Stella Peak! We had made it. And just in time to watch the sun completely rise over the horizon, clouds, and Mawenzi Peak. It was hard not to get misty-eyed. We all hugged and congratulated each other. Then Henry forced us to drink tea and eat something! After that, we continued hiking over to Uhuru Peak, the highest point in Africa, and stood at 19340 feet. We took pictures, congratulated each other again, and then headed back down.

Oh yeah, we had to get back down! Well, that was a feat in itself. It was basically sliding or “skiing” back down on a ton of loose stones and gravel. Wilfred, one of our guides, was speed racing down, and Dad and I eventually had to slow down because it was getting dangerous. My knees got the workout of their lives today, and I pretty much ache all through my legs. After arriving back at camp (which only took about 2 1/2 hours), we rested for an hour, ate lunch, and headed out again for our next campsite. Now we are at the last camp before hiking out tomorrow.

I’m completely exhausted, filthy, skin-chapped, and anything else you can think of. All I can think about now is a hot shower back at the hotel tomorrow, a comfy bed, and a good night’s rest. But...we made it, and I have to say, I'm pretty damn proud of us.