If you've got sore muscles from climbing to 5895m, get on a bus from Moshi to Mombassa...

Well lucy's given you a pretty accurate description of our little jaunt up the highest mountain in Africa and the world's largest free-standing mountain!!! I have to admit standing at the summit i did not feel any euphoria at having reached the highest point in Africa, it was dammed cold and Fataeli, our main guide, was eager to get us down asap, so we got cursory hugs all round, superficial grin as we posed for pictures and then headed of down the mountain. Which would have felt great but I somehow hurt my achilles heel and getting down the scree slope back to kibo hut was by far the worst part of the whole thing for me. In fact I was marched down by Fataeli who i think probably thought i'd never get off the mountain otherwise and he was right, i was taking forever. Never mind, a quick checkup by doctor chris and some good anti-inflamatories and i was nearly on the mend. I swear that climb is the hardest thing i've ever put my body through by a long long way. i pretty much spent the 6 hours on the way up in the dark thinking of all the things that would be worse than being right there at that time, most of which involved serious illness or death of myself or close family members. ironic really, cos on the way down i was in so much pain i couldn't even think of that. So it wasn't so bad. And i'd do it again in a shot i think, although this time I would pray for a 'run-free' trip and i'd camp on the crater rim so as to appreciate the top.
Luce and I were so lucky to find the Marangu hotel and the group that we climbed the mountain with. We very much appreciated the advice and confidence from the hotel owners and staff and the guides they employ and we were so lucky to join such a fantastic and diverse group of people. in particular, it was so useful to have jim's past experience of climbing kili, and it was so nice to be able to ask chris any medical questions and have him tell you to not blow your nose when you have a nose-bleed at altitude and that it is ok to take 6 immodium in 26 hours. (seriously!)
We miss the giggles and chris', er, 'good' jokes! Yeah, Kili is on sale for 120Tsh...so no need to climb it eh?
Anyway, from marangu to mombassa. We got on a bus that is meant to take 4 hours to get to Mombassa, and instead it took about 14! What fun, the whole thing jarred up and down so much it completely cured mu sore calf muscles, but didn't do anything for my back. No bother, after several roadblocks and one break down (thus a couple of lung-fulls of fumes) we made it to Mombassa, where, extremely tired, wet and dirty we quickly picked the Diani marine village as the next stop on our little adventure and arrived there at 7am just as the reception was opening. In about half an hour we were sitting outside having a very relaxing breakfast with the sun shining and a nice cool breeze. And that, apart from one day of solid rain, is how the next 5 days were spent. Sunning oursleves on the coast with the idyllic indian ocean as a backdrop. Nice. I am not a beach person, never have been, but I could just stay there and do nothing forever it was so peaceful. We ventured out for a couple of meals, one of which was in a candle-lit limstone cave...not bad...and spont most evenings listening to Tristan (from UK (Bangor) on a diving holiday) Barney (kenyan...friend of Tristans from uni), and Alex (expat knows Barney) tell us about horror stories about snakes, mobbing and the conspiracy stories of the world...(there's so much we don't know!). Great fun...could happily stay there forever and was very sad to leave. Maybe we'll get back there at the end of september and if not, planning on making it a rendezvous every year for the rest of my life.
Onwards and upwards (kinda)...we're in Mombassa for one night before heading to Nairobi for our 3 week safari which starts on sunday 13th. And very much looking forward to seeing more of East Africa...there seems to be surprises around every corner on this continent...makes you feel alive.