I was passed out in my tent for a few hours, grunting at people when they came to say hi to me. My head was in so much pain. I tried to sip water, but didn't get very far without feeling more sick. I really just wanted to sleep there until the next morning. And it wasn't even noon.
MK tried to help by bringing me some water with rehydration salts or something fancy like that. Meant for severe dehydration, which I figured I probably had or was pretty close to. I took a sip of that disgusting elixir and was immediately dragging myself to the entrance to the tent to throw up more. One of the porters came over when he saw me vomiting outside the tent (all water at this point). He wanted to bring me tea. I wanted to die.
I curled back up in my tent for a while longer and MK came over with special orders for me. I was getting up, taking my things, Peter was going to start walking me down the mountain, and she would finish packing my things. Shockingly, I responded to her instructions by following them.
Peter and I started hiking down the mountain. Before we left camp, I was stopped by 3 forty-something gentlemen who were going to summit the following day. "Did you just summit?" why yes, several hours ago. They asked if I had done so in my shorts and running shoes. Oh, they were woefully unprepared for what was ahead of them. It's freezing on that mountain at night. They were leaving at midnight, like we had, and were starting to get nervous. I fueled their paranoia by telling them about my vomiting, hallucinating, etc. They looked concerned.
Peter and I started the hike and soon Godbless joined us. We made small talk - mainly about hiking, biking, traveling, Africa, etc. We stopped at about 4000M at a camp site and I bought Godbless, Peter and myself cokes. I managed to scrape together enough money - a dollar, some Tanzanian shillings, Kenyan shillings, and a pound. Cokes are highly overpriced at 13,000 feet. Some boys who we had met a few days earlier asked where my crew was. I told them that they let me go early since I couldn't stop throwing up. The coke was amazing. It killed my headache (probably the caffeine - I hadn't had my coffee). Peter and I left Godbless, who decided to wait for the rest, and continued hiking.
Peter and I got to camp around 5PM, so the hike down took us like 4 hours. I felt so much better at 3000M. It was really amazing how the altitude affected me and then decreasing altitude made me feeling immediately better.
About an hour after I made it to camp, MK showed up. She had ditched the group because she was feeling ill from the sun. About an hour after MK showed up, the rest of the group rolled in. Alannah was still hurting - her back injury kept her pace a little slower. Lenore and Kim had felt nauseous on the way down the mountain. Julia was feeling better in the lower altitude. I greeted them - they were pleased to have me acting like a human being again.
We had our tea, peanuts, and popcorn and started figuring out what we were going to tip our crew. Tipping is customary for the trip and it's done in a public ceremony of sorts the final morning. We wanted to make sure we recognized the crew, especially those who had personal impact on us. MK wanted to give extra to the chef for dealing with her Gluten issue. We all had strong connections to the guides and to the porters who set up our tents. So we used the guide that Duma Explorer gave us and tried to allocate tips to all 26 people.
We had our last dinner, which was followed by a "special treat" that was brought up to congratulate us for making the summit. Cake and wine! But the best part was the song that they sang when they presented the cake and wine. 'Cakey-o, cakey-o, cakey-o'. It was probably the funniest thing I had ever heard. It was also surprisingly delicious.
We had cake, wine, and went to bed. I felt so dramatically different than earlier in the day. It was awesome.
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