"Raut camp is another 5-6 miles from here." Or was it 5-6 hours? After summiting and then practically running the down mountain we assembled for a brief lunch. We came we saw, we kicked butt. But we weren't out the proverbial woods yet. Word around lunch was, "There's $2 beer and soda at the Raut camp." Hmmm 5 miles to beer, or was it 5 hours?!"

Eh, it seemed like no big deal. With no rest for the weary, we marched on. Few of us looked back at the mountain. Obviously, we had seen enough of it. Talk on the way down became more common as the altitude got lower. Through the glacier fields and into the clouds. Clouds? We hadn't been at cloud level for days. With the clouds came trees, vegetation, mist and cool air. With clouds also came drizzle. We weren't the only one's at Raut. There were plenty of other people and there was something else we hadn't seen in a while. No, not beer. Dirt.

Yeah, Raut in the drizzle was a sight for sore eyes, legs, thighs, and pigpen from Charlie Brown. Most people slept through dinner. If you did, you didn't miss much. The conversation was low, we were tired. We climbed 3000 feet up in 7 hours, we climbed 3000 feet down in 3 1/2. We hiked 5 miles (or was it 5 hours?) right after that. 15 hours of hiking and climbing had taken its toll on us. With wet-naps at an all time low, toilet paper rations running out and exhaustion setting in it was apparent Raut was the last stop before exited Kilimanjaro. Did I just hear someone hear someone say, "bummer?" Yeah, it was true. We were climbing down the mountain after 5 days of climbing straight up.