Soon the trail transitioned into a very rocky, boulder strewn narrow river bed. These were not your ordinary boulders as they were large, sharp edged with two to three foot high steps. This was soon killing my knees. I was relying heavily on my hiking poles but with the slippery rocks and constant stepping down, I was really, really sore. At one point Amélie slipped above me and – thankfully – wiggled around to avoid falling directly down upon me but she managed to land heavily on the sharp edge of a rock. Good for me – bad for her! She later told me that it cost her a rather large bruise on that hip! After several hours I stopped to relieve myself and was shocked to see a stream of red blood emerge! I quietly went over to speak to Eliakim who was worrying over Stephen and Martin. He was taken aback when I added to that worry load. We eventually arrived at our final campsite where we were to eat lunch and spend our final night on the mountain. Eliakim asked that Malya accompany me to the bushes to observe just how badly I was bleeding. When the stream emerged, Malya’s eyes opened wide in shocked surprise when he saw the same bright red urine. He immediately went over to report to Eliakim who was still worried about Stephen and Martin. I went into the mess tent and Richard brought me a great big mango all sliced up and ready to eat! Eliakim came into the tent and Kevin asked of him, “Why don’t we just go down? We’re all wet. Half of us are sick and we could be sleeping in the hotel tonight.” Eliakim asked the rest of us and the uniform answer was, “Let’s go”.
He turned to me and said, “You have no choice. You’re going down immediately. Come with me.” I went out and found a large group of porters had gathered around one of the “Kilimanjaro Stretchers” waiting for me. My sleeping bag appeared and was laid out upon the stretcher. I was then laid upon it, my outer rain wear Gore-tex pants were removed along with my boots leaving me exposed in my long-johns. Stephen, who must have been feeling better, took great delight in photographing the moment prior to the sleeping bag being wrapped around me. I was tied onto the stretcher with plastic yellow cord and Amélie came and put her le Nordik hat upon my exposed head to protect me from the light rain that was now falling. The crew of six porters, two spares and Malya quickly grabbed the sides of the stretcher and balanced it upon the unicycle wheel and I was whisked towards the jungle canopy. The ride was incredibly rough. I was grateful to have Amélie’s hat as the rain started to fall heavily and once we were under the jungle leaves, huge drops would occasionally plop onto my face. The boys ran at a very quick pace with the stretcher bouncing violently down from step to rock to step. After about an hour they stopped to change around and have some ‘magi’ (Swahili for water). Then, back at it. Soon they came to a very muddy area of the path and they slipped and lost control. I went careening off into the forest and I could only see arms and legs flailing and screaming Swahili voices. As I was strapped securely to the stretcher I could do nothing but hope for the best! When I stopped a sheepish looking porter’s very muddy, wet face appeared above me. “Are you okay?” he asked. “Was I okay? Are you guys okay?” They all were quite a mess as they had all gone for quite a muddy ride yet I was dry and protected by the sides of the stretcher.
Soon I was at the bottom at the exit gate for Kilimanjaro and was freed from my stretcher prison. My clothing was returned to me and I dressed while the porters went off to get cleaned up at a facility that was provided for them at the gate house. I wandered over to the cleanest toilet building I had yet seen in Africa. It was spotless ceramic tile. When I emerged I slipped from my muddy boots on the wet tile and fell, clearing the 3-steps and landing heavily on the ceramic base. I lay there in the rain feeling quite sorry for myself. All my legs and arms were in intense pain and I could barely struggle to get up! I had just successfully climbed Mount Kilimanjaro and I hurt myself at the bottom in the washroom!!
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