The original plan was for the climb team to
stay overnight at Horombo Camp, then hike the 6 plus hours down to the bottom
of the mountain for pickup back to Marangu Hotel. However, it was decided to
speed up the return by calling for a truck pickup at Horombo Camp instead. Spencer,
Salim and Safiya arrived late into the evening of Day 7, one day ahead of
schedule and had a truly restful night in a comfortable bed in from the cold mountain
night.
The following
pictures and videos show the next day's celebration of a successful Kilimanjaro
Challenge!
The Kilimanjaro guides are a
different breed of people. They take on physical and mental challenges of
tackling a mountain and Elias (senior guide), Winfred, Mongol and Tall have
taken our team to where few have gone before. If not for their tenacity we
would not have been able to challenge our own physical and mental limitations to
summit Kilimanjaro, The Rooftop of Africa. As they "polepole" (slow
step) up the mountain they have shown us how to be “one” with the mountain.
The specially carved
Alzheimer Society’s staff has travelled from Vancouver to the bottom of
Kilimanjaro, all the way to the top and now back down to Marangu Hotel ready to
return home to Vancouver. A wonderful physical round trip and a symbolic one given
Lana’s carved name on the staff. She is returning home after a fantastic Kili
Challenge with Spencer, Salim, Safiya and I forever changed by Kilimanjaro and
the Kili Challenge.
All of
us receiving our Kilimanjaro certificates of accomplishment confirming that we
actually did climb Kilimanjaro. The certificate is an outward symbol of an
inner expression of achievement that will forever be carried in our hearts into
the future forever changing us to challenge any symbolic mountains in our lives
that we feel are hard to climb. If we can do Kili we can tackle any mountain in
our lives and summit! However high that summit is.
Showing appreciation to our
entire support crew, guides, cook, assistant cook and waiter and all the
porters
A picture of myself and the
four (Winfred, my guide and Christopher and Israel. I cannot recall the third
porters name) crew members who hiked down the mountain with me when I had to descend
from Kibo Hut (15,000 plus feet) and we did it with them carrying all my gear.
I was too weak to carry my own day pack. It was all I could do to just take one
slow step at a time from Kibo Hut to Horombo camp where a rescue truck took
Winfred and me down to the bottom of the mountain.
The truck only had room for
Winfred and me as space was needed to bring another rescued climber to the
bottom. The three porters took another transport to the bottom. They stayed and
made sure I was fine all the way until they had to return a separate way. They
were a phenomenal support Team!
Another picture of the
fantastic guides and us, now Kilimanjaro Alumni.
Here is the famous Kilimanjaro celebration song sung by the entire support crew! A fitting conclusion to our Kili Challenge!
Until the next time! Happy climbing! (What?
Are you crazy...climbing Kili again? Never say never!)
Blogging off for now.
Bill Der (The Blind Guy with a Vision and
followed it!)
P.S. I hope this has encouraged you to
follow your vision too!
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