Kilimanjaro Expedition - Day 6

1. Mweka Hut Camp

6:30
I woke up at 6:15 to encounter a large mosquito (I call it Zanzibar wrong) and a gorgeous white collared crow.
We went out, had breakfast, took a few more pictures including the nearby humidity measuring station. To say we leave the Moorland area and cross the mountain forest to Mweka Gate. We'll be descending 1,500 meters difference in elevation.
The Mweka camp is also home to a hut, the home of the porters.
Down in the valley you can see the sea white and fluffy with clouds. I wonder what the weather will be like there. It looks like another flawless sunny day, in fact, let's say for the whole expedition we had sunny, very good and stable weather, no precipitation, very little wind, even though at 5,000 meters altitude it was negative temperatures.

2. Jambo Bwana

Time 8:10
Before hitting the road, I had the great joy of attending and actually participating in the song and dance performance to the famous local song "Jambo Bwana". The whole team danced, sang, and this moment happened in pretty much all the groups present in the campsite.

3. Descent through the equatorial forest to Mweka Gate

Time 8:10
Ready! Here we go. It's so beautiful the drive through the equatorial forest after the dryness of the desert and alpine zone. I'm thinking that in only a few hours the wonderful experience of life in Tanzania is over. We see similar images to the first day, the color green is the queen of the place.
8:45
In a small luminis, Kilimanjaro is visible once again! To admire and respect the marvelous Kilimanjaro!
The path is wide and protected from easy destruction. This descent route is a busy one, as several different ascent routes join to descend to Mweka Gate. The other colors of the flowers of the trees or plants also appear: red, yellow, purple, portico, white, blue. A feerie!
The porters pass by us at high speed, running with weights on their backs or on their heads. On this route we also saw female porters, who we learned are allowed to carry up to 10 kg. Tourists descend forming an endless queue. I joke with Azizi that the correct direction is the other way around, for the sake of the mountain I lived on for 6 days, for the sake of Kilimanjaro.
Ferns are abundant in this climate.
Several of the metal vehicles (stretchers on wheels) seen the day before are a reminder that the Kilimanjaro expedition is no joke.
Impatiens kilimajari in red and yellow, parochaetus communis in purple and white are my favorite flowers here.
Towards the end of the trail, where the trail becomes flatter, we enjoy the joy of several monkeys able to jump from branch to branch.
To further strengthen the cult of keeping the natural park clean we also meet a truck in which were loaded the garbage and non-degradable debris brought down from the mountain by porters in garbage bags.
It's becoming more and more obvious that it's not long to the end point of this last easy day of hiking. We have also found toilets and a picnic area.

4. Mweka Gate

Time 11:10
We arrived at Mweka Gate after 3 hours of descent, even though the starting camp marker indicated 4.
Here, before exiting the park, you go again to a large registration desk where you write the names of those who have descended and of course those of the guide. Those who have conquered Uhuru Peak, 5,895 meters, receive diplomas. Well done to them! Congratulations!

5. Hakuna matata!

Not long after the organizer came with the car that took me to Moshi, we had lunch provided by the organizer, except Kilimanajaro beer. In the place where we stopped for lunch you could buy souvenirs, magnets, t-shirts, paintings, hats, and much more, including jewelry made of tanzanite, a beautiful blue gemstone. Tanzanite is the blue-violet variant of zoisite. It was discovered in 1967 in northern Tanzania, near Arusha and Mount Kilimanjaro.
The route followed was Mweka Gate - Mweka - New Hope - Moshi via Lema Road. Distance 24 km, duration 1 hour.
After a shower in the place where we slept the first night we were driven by Paul, the tour organizer to Kilimanjaro International Airport, 41 km 1 hour via A23, from where we flew to Bucharest via Amsterdam with KLM.

Hakuna matata!