After waking from a sleep of the dead, we feel refreshed, strong and impatient. The prospect, or lack of it, of any real excitement for the day has me pacing up and down to get going. We've achieved our goal and the end is in sight. I'm impatient, but my awe and respect for what we have just achieved, keeps me civil.

By the time we get going, it's two hours after our planned departure time and I urge the porters to go "Haraka Haraka !" We set off at a stiff pace and it feels good to be able to walk normally again after days of climbing. As we clear the first hill, the Teleki Valley unfolds below us. It's an exhilirating sight as thousands of Scenecios are in full bloom. We're witnessing an event which only happens every 20-odd years! I pump the guide for information on what we're seeing and he confirms that we are indeed very, very fortunate. It's out with our digital camera, SLR and also the video. Some people might just never believe us!

Soon we leave the Scenecios to bloom in peace and enter the moorland, a stretch of bog lower down. Sometimes also referred to as vertical bog, we literally wade through sections of mud and it's scuelchingly forward and downward for a further hour. We meet very friendly South Africans along the way and I quietly wonder if there's some South African connection with the mountain. There's more of us than any other nation this week! I make a mental note to investigate later.

We make good progress and an hour or so later, we arrive at the MET- station. The local weather information system is situated quite high in the rainforest and a walk down would be long and arduous. However, with the benefit of satellite communication, we were able to let our groundstaff in Nairobi know that we'd really prefer a lift from the MET station. The plan works like a charm and within the hour, our Land Rover is bumping down the track and off the mountain.

We arrive in Nairobi with an itching desire to wash and get clean. The prospect of clean clothes and a night on the town gets us through the formalities and in record time, we meet our friends Raphael, Susan, Jackie and Micheal for dinner. For anyone in Nairobi, to miss out on the Carnivore Restaurant would be akin to the worst sin. Specialists in meat of almost every variety found in Africa, the Carnivore rounds off our expedition perfectly. We enjoy the celebrations to the full and it's early morning when we finally get back to the hotel.

The gravity of the previous week's achievement starts sinking in as we start packing to leave for Amboseli. I sit watching television until early morning, driven by an excited little voice inside me. We've made it. We're leaving in the morning and we're ready to go!