"Just before midnight, we awoke to Alison puking up all of the pasta she had eaten just a few hours earlier. We all got dressed in slightly damp clothing (I *had* to put those nasty orange crotchless sweatpants on again -- too cold!) and started trekking to the top! Luckily, I was feeling great. The pain in my left lung had subsided, my rash had gone away completely, and the brisk, thin air made me feel energized. Soon after leaving, Alison started throwing up again. She had tried to drink some tea, but her body disagreed with her, and it came right back up. Alex and Photo decided that we should split up, because Alison was not feeling well and had to take a slower pace.
 
"Almost three hours into our trek, Wally stopped and decided to turn back. He was in a lot of pain due to a lower back problem, and despite a valient effort, could not go on. Alison and Photo were nowhere in sight by this point. Oh -- I should mention that this is all occurring by the light of the moon, which had been full only four days earlier (we missed the lunar eclipse that happened that day, unfortunately!). Anyway, so it was pretty surreal. The ground was snow covered, and it sort of shone with a ghastly illumination. Alex turned back with Wally, and I hitched a ride with a guide named "August", who was leading a woman named Lynn from British Columbia. Her two companions had already turned back due to nausea. She gave me a powerbar, which was a nice gesture. Trying not to break any teeth, I ate half of it (it was frozen like a brick). Alex caught up shortly after (he had led Wally back down to where the path became obvious again, but it took him TWO HOURS to find our tent once he reached the camp site, because we were tucked under the cliff wall on an outcropping... at one point he laid down in the muddy snow and debated going to sleep, before waking someone up and asking them for help), and we continued upwards ahead of August and Lynn. It was really, really amazing to be on the mountain trekking in moonlight. It was completely silent. Nothing is alive at that altitude, and no one was around except for me and Alex. For some reason, I periodically stopped and whispered, "it's so quiet," perhaps to reassure myself that noise other than our rhythmic shuffling was possible. At some point, four large men decked out in North Face gear came careening down the mountain at high velocity. One of them slammed into me and almost knocked me backwards down the slope. I would have been upset, except that I turned around and noticed that he was laying in the snow motionless. His buddies crowded around him as we continued upwards...
 
"At around dawn, we reached Stella point, which sits on the ridge leading to Uhuru peak. Maybe 45 minutes before, Alex had pointed up at it, which had flooded me with relief. After six days of hiking, the end was near! The mountainside up to Stella's point was steep and snow covered. I kept slipping, and it was impossible to move faster than a snail's pace without becoming short of breath. The sun hadn't come up yet, so the unearthly purple glow from the horizon combined with the strong moonlight lit up the snow in the most amazing way. I'd never seen anything like it. The clouds stretched in almost every direction as far as the eye could see, like millions of cottonballs fused together with a warm pink glue. Kilimanjaro's other peak towered above the clouds just a short distance away, along with the ridge I was standing on. The sun rose while I was making my way from Stella point to Uhuru peak (the highest point). At this point the Machame route merges with the Marangu route, so I met up with a few other travellers here who had taken the other, more popular route. It took me a long time to get to Uhuru peak because I kept getting distracted and was shooting lots of photos. By the time I reached the peak at 7:10am, it was completely deserted. We convinced an Argentinian guy decked out in a yellow Northface body suit to turn around and take our photo together (Alex and me), and he was nice enough to comply. At the peak there was a Tanzanian flag, a sign, and some big metal boxes with a summit log in them. The wind was biting here, and it didn't take long for my face and hands to become numb. Oh yeah -- on the way back down, I saw a spider in the snow. It was really strange. What does it eat? Anyway, the peak made me feel like I was standing on top of the world.
 
"After celebrating for a few minutes, we turned around and started back towards Stella point. Level and slightly downhill terrain enabled us to make good time, but as soon as the ground sloped upwards even a little bit, we slowed to a crawl. As we reached Stella point, we ran into Alison and Photo! Alison looked pretty miserable, but she had a good attitude about summitting and was excited to have made it. We all broke out cameras, took some pictures, and parted our separate ways. Oh yeah -- at Uhuru peak, the Argentinian guy's guide congratulated me for finished the whiskey trail. "Japanese usually do not do the whiskey trail." *sigh* It took Alex and me less than 2.5 hours to make it back down to Barafu hut. I was pretty unhappy on the hike back. We were going really fast, it was raining hard, and my knees and ankles were hurting. The sun was beating down on me, and even though it could only get to my eyes through the little crack between my sunglasses and my forehead, it gave me a headache. Alex took a rather nasty spill (spun around twice and hit a rock) that spilled blood, and he didn't figure out that there were sunglasses in Wally's bag until we were half way down already..."
-excerpt from my journal, 10:13am
 
"We're at Mweka hut now, listening to Andrew ("Master Voice") yell: "Billiam!" "Ueh!" (the reply) "Billiam!!" "Ueh!" (the reply). Apparently, Billiam is the whipping boy of the group. He gets nagged to do everything. By now our tent has the mustiest smell I've ever encountered. Yuck. The hike from Barafu was much longer than I had expected, and of course, it rained every minute of it. A few hours into the hike, Alex pointed off to some white specks a few hills and valleys of jungle away and said, "You can see Mweka hut from here. That's where we're going." It was a horrible feeling to look so far off in the distance and to imagine the trek required to get there. Wally took off with Photo early in the descent, and beat us to Mweka hut by almost 45 minutes.
 
"My boots are soaked, as usual. Tomorrow, I sacrifice my pair of dry camp socks for the rain forest trek back to a clean world. I've already safrificed all my dry pants, which is why I'm wearing a wet pair right now to go to bed. The only dry one is the nasty orange one that gives me rashes. It's now being used as a rag. :) This camping area is really, really muddy. I'm sure tomorrow's rain forest trek will be disgusting as well, but the pot of gold (a shower) waiting at the other end may be enough to put us all in good spirits. If our gear isn't at the hotel, I'm going to be pissed. Oh! Also, we met a gang of British Army dudes. They're hilarious. Let's see... there was Richie (30 years in the army, and counting), Kenny (medic -- the guy who almost knocked me off of the mountain while trying to descend. he had severe Acute Mountain Sickness), Andy (weapons specialist), and six others we didn't get to meet. They had funny nicknames for their guides ("Jocko" and "Helmet") and were a blast to meet and have drinks with. Mweka hut actually has huts to sleep in (not for us, but for some of the others). They sell drinks here too. Weird. Everyone's going to sleep now. We're going to leave at 6am tomorrow (yeah, right). Andrew was particularly talkative tonight. He told us what we were being served for dinner, and thanked us for dinner. Tips are near, I guess.
 
"I can't wait to get out of here. The climb was amazing, and I'm glad for the experience. However, right now, I'm cold, wet, dirty, and... I just want a clean shower and a change of clothes! OK -- going to bed now. After I wake up I'll be 4-4.5 hrs from checking out of Kili!"
-excerpt from my journal, night time (lost my watch)