DAY 6

Barafu Hut (4 640 m) – Uhuru Peak (5 895 m) – Mweka Hut (3090 m)

The distance between Barafu Camp and Uhuru Peak is 5 kms or about 7-8 hours of walking at night. From Pic Uhuru to Mweka camp, the distance is 12 kms or about 5-6 hours of descent. 

Elevation +: 1 255 m   Elevation – : 2800 m  Distance : 17 kms   Duration: 15h

The info above is the starting plan but it will take another turn. 

22h00: awakening. I put on a T-shirt, 3 long-sleeved sweatshirts, 2 fleeces, 2 leggings, my ski pants, 2 pairs of double-thickness socks, my shoes, my chapka. I put in my backpack 3 liters of water, snacks, toilet paper, wipes, hood, 2 pairs of gloves (one thin and one thick). I embark my poles. I am ready. In the tent, tea, cookies and popcorn (what a funny idea) sit on the table. I stuff myself, wash it all down with 2 cups of tea. I chat, smile, I feel good, I am determined. 

23h00: we begin our march towards the roof of Africa. We walk slowly, like everyone else I would say. The trail is doable but steep with many laces. 1st stop, gentlemen want to pee. We resume walking, at half pace this time, we are now very slow. 2nd stop, pee again. We start again still walking half pace. I looked back regularly at the situation behind and I see that the groups, which left after us, are now blocked just behind us. I'm laughing inside because we managed to create a traffic jam on Kilimanjaro. You will admit that this is not trite. 3rd stop: our guides decide to let pass those blocked behind us. Well then ! By observing the queue, I tell myself that we will arrive up when the cows come home. A 1st group passes, it rings a bell in my head. Neither one nor two, I rush behind and resume my walk. Juma calls me taken aback. Answer: “I'm cold, I'm going up”. He bellows, I ignore him. The group in front of me is fenced off by one of their guides, who talks to me but I don't listen to him. I have a vague idea of ​​the message he wants to convey to me. But it's a waste of time because I can tell you that I went into mule mode “don't think, walk, climb”. This is my mind at that time. Nothing and no one will stop me from getting there. So unless you kill me, I honestly don't see how you would stop me; that tells you my determination. After a fairly short time, a guy popped up beside me declaring himself my guide. I look at him, I don't know him. He explains to me that the other guides send him to accompany me. And yes, that's the rule. They may feel green behind. Good for them, they just had to listen to me. I look at him and I must say that what he exudes does not inspire me. I do not trust him. Nevermind, I only rely on me anyway. He tries to get to know each other. Now is the time! I hallucinate. 3 times, he asks me where I come from and 3 times I answer France. His English is disastrous, I don't understand him and he obviously doesn't hear my answers. Repeating at all costs that I am French in the middle of the night at 5000 m altitude does not excite me a lot. So I cut short the discussion and I lock myself in my bubble. I think of my children, my grandchildren, the friends who participated in my pot. I take you with me to the top. With each step, you are with me, I am not alone. It's almost a full moon, myriads of stars illuminate the path interspersed with multiple rocks. With a constant step, at my own pace, I swallow the distance without worrying about the kilometers remaining to be covered, what time it is, or what altitude we are at. I hear my breathing more and more audible. I know my body, my heart, my personal resources. No worries, it rolls. I take short breaks of 5 seconds when necessary but I continue like this without stopping. My backpack hurts me. I often contort myself to relieve myself so much pain is felt in my back and shoulders. I, who normally adore him, suddenly find myself cursing him. I then think back to my daughter and this famous phrase: “welcome pain”. I laugh inside and I accept. I see my guide in front of me struggling and for once, it's him who worries me. I ask him several times if he is okay. I definitely don't believe in him. Sometimes I even doubt the direction we are taking. We take a first break. Time is running out as my body temperature plummets. He pulls out of his bag a thermos containing ginger tea. Here's a surprise! You have no idea how much comfort this tea gives me. I have little hearts in my eyes looking at it. I gobble it up at high speed, quickly observing what is happening around me. I see this woman pass in front of me, her guide carrying her bag. That moment made me feel bad. I pull myself together immediately. Always this sentence that resounds in my head “nothing and no one will prevent me from reaching the top”. I tell myself that the universe is testing my resistance. My determination is intact. I'm getting up again. The 3 minutes are up. We must go. I'm starting to get cold. "Let's go." My guide is surprised. lets go!!! I try to put my backpack back on my back but disguise as a bibendum is an ordeal in itself. It gets caught in my capuche, gets stuck at the elbows. Super guide watches me struggling with dangling arms. So I have to ask him to please help me. Hello cardboard guide! Brief ! Let's go. I retreat into my bubble. I meditate. I pray. Time flies. I'm not really there. Then we reach Stella point, the 1st summit. My guide asks me the time. Apart from some tea, Moron obviously has nothing on him. I see 5:30 on my phone. I had carefully put it away in a sock so that it wouldn't freeze. 2nd break: another tea. My guide tells me that there is 1 hour left may be only 45 minutes, it depends on our pace. OK, let's go ! Rebelote ! He sees me struggling to put my backpack back on but doesn't move. I lose patience and make him understand that it would be a minimum to help me. He raises his voice. Better and better ! I cut short the discussion by planting it there. I have a summit to climb. I line up behind a group that has just passed. Their guide must have seen what was happening, and greets me kindly, encourages me. Jesus ! It feels good. Finally someone who motivates me, it changes. Like penguins on the ice floe, we advance at the same pace in a single file. I turn around regularly, the landscape behind us is just breathtaking. The day dawns slowly, revealing a reddish, orangeish pool that spreads over the minutes over a sea of ​​clouds. The view is unspeakable. We continue. Then arises the grail, the peak Uhuru, the ultimate point of this nameless epic. With tears in my eyes, a smile on my lips, the pride of accomplishment, ecstasy in all these states, I stick to this panel which materializes my achievement. Super guide rushes to capture the moment. No doubt he wants to have contributed to something? Head in the clouds, concretely and abstractly, I pose to record the moment forever. I just realized a dream (which wasn't even a dream a month before). I grow, I evolve, I realize myself, I discover myself, I explore my limits. To be completely honest, I did not arrive exhausted. Very tired, no doubt. At the edge of my limits, not even. You could have made me walk another 1h, 2h or even more, who knows, than I would have done it. It was simply impossible to stop me for one simple and good reason: I decreed that I would go to the top. I am made like this. At this precise moment, I think back to my Marie who said to me one day: “You built yourself on strengths. Like the tree in the middle of the African savannah, which suffers violent gusts, some branches break, it moves a little up there, but the trunk does not move. It is deeply rooted in the ground.” This image stayed with me and it was at this moment that I began to see myself differently, to believe in myself, in my abilities, in my strengths. I cannot thank you enough for all you have done for me Marie. I grew up thanks to you. You brought me another vision of myself. You guided me, helped me to understand myself, to accept me, to blossom. I have infinite gratitude for you. I do not forget. I love you and will be eternally grateful for all the listening, understanding, indulgence and help you have given me throughout these years. 16 years soon that our paths have crossed. How far I have come, I take advantage of these few lines to tell you. Because as you know, I'm much better at expressing my feelings in writing than orally. Thank you to my children who support me in my choices, in my crazy ideas and who are proud of what their mother can accomplish. I hope they will be inspired by it. Thank you to my friends for being by my side in good and bad times, for supporting me at all times, for believing in me, in my dreams. Thank you to the participants for having contributed to this adventure that fell out of nowhere, which requires a few resources. Posted in front of this sign, I think of you all. Everything is going fast in my head. you know it. Looking at this photo later, my daughter will point out to me that this woman posing in front of this sign looks like the 3-year-old child in this photo from my childhood for the 1st time. The loop is complete, we found ourselves; It's not nothing. Happy as ever, I crisscross the summit up and down and across. It's freezing cold but I don't want to leave. I want to enjoy, we take more photos. Then suddenly, the sun appears exploding with a thousand fires the clouds just below. I have no words to describe this scene, everything is surreal up there. It almost feels like being on another planet. I savor my luck. My guide is worried, he lets me know that we have to go down. You should know that at this altitude, staying too long can damage the body irreversibly. Still, I don't feel like I stayed that long. He's mostly just can't wait to get home I think. We descend slowly. A little before Stella point, I meet my group which finally arrives. Obviously I arrived one hour before them. Good luck guys! I take this opportunity to retrieve my sticks left to Mister J at the start of the night. A blessing for Jacob who did not have any and who was able to use them. Besides, he refuses to give them back to me, explaining to me that they support him and that without them, he won't be able to finish. Yes well without them, I can't go down, I'm stuck there. Since my operations, I have lost stability in my feet. So I fall all the time on the slopes. The guides negotiate with me so that I get only one. I am hallucinating once again. It's not an option as far as I'm concerned, but how could they know that since they've never talked to me the previous days. This agency is frankly a joke. I take them back, period. We resume the descent. Super guide starts to boost and does not calculate me. Me, I need a real break: wee, eat, drink, well everything!!! I force him to stop. During our break, Monsieur dozes sitting on his rock. At this precise moment, I make it my duty to remind him that he works there, that he is supposed to be my guide, therefore accompanying me at every step, that I am paying for this service, in short that I am a client. This time, the motto is “nothing and no one will ruin my day”. and strong in this superb mood, I attack 3 hours of descent, witnessing all kinds of incredible, explosive landscapes that my phone has a hard time capturing. What he transcribed is so below reality. I simply go down at my own pace, taking all my time, multiplying the breaks, the shots, chatting with a French girl who died of laughter watching me go about my life while ignoring Super Guide.  

9h30: I'm back at camp. My thighs hurt, I'm worn out. My guide hastens to apologize while informing me that he will be fired if I report what happened. For now, I don't care, I'm high, it's my day. Next! I do a 15-20 min stretching session. Then I will rest. 30 minutes later, I hear my group arrive. Wow! They did not drag at the top and even less on the return. What a blessing that I didn't stay with them !

12h30: lunch. Each relates their adventure. My group is frustrated that I went it alone. Basically, they reproach me without saying so for having had the courage that they did not have. If they are used to suffer, I am not and I do not intend to start today. Above all, I notice that I went up in 7 hours, they in 8 hours, that's it ! I'm pragmatic, that's all. Brief ! The atmosphere is correct but nothing more, which goes over my head. I'm not here to make friends but to fulfill myself. At $2,000 the joke, you might consider me right. 

13h15 : we resume the descent to the next named High Camp (3950 m). The goal is to reach it first and to take stock of the general state of health of the group. Jacob and Aje are exhausted, others are in the same state, they can't go any further. I let them decide what they want to do, I just follow along as I think I've upset them enough already. Final decision: we stop there for the night, we will finish tomorrow. Personally, everything is fine with me. I soar in the stratosphere. I'm just happy so I don't care. Dinner takes place in a more relaxed atmosphere. Head full of stars, I'm going to bed. I'm still up there and I'm going to stay there for a long time. So, I don't know how many kilometers we walked, so I have no idea how far we have to go. Nevermind ! Good night everybody.