Tour overview
“Come touch the sky” at Uhuru Peak the highest summit on Kibo’s crater rim. Mt. Kilimanjaro is the highest mountain in Africa and the highest single free-standing mountain in the world, with its summit of 5,895 metres (19,341 ft) above sea level and at about 4,900 metres (16,100 ft) high from its plateau base. Kilimanjaro is also the fourth most topographically prominent peak on Earth. Our certified and professional guides will walk with you and ensure of your successful challenge to the summit.
Day 1: Arrival (Kilimanjaro International Airport) - Moshi
Arrive at the Kilimanjaro International Airport. Meet greet by our representative and transfer to Moshi hotel for your stay. Dinner and overnight at the hotel
Day 2: Moshi - Machame Gate (1800m) to Machame Camp (3010m), distance is about 11 km. Hiking time 6 hours
After breakfast, pick up from Moshi city hotel and proceed to Machame gate (45 mins drive). The Machame route, well known as the “Whiskey Route”. After registering at the gate office, you start your ascent and enter the rain forest. From the Machame Park gate is a gentle climb up through the original montane forest, carpeted with unique -busy lizzie- flowers, begonias and ferns arrive at machame hut camp (3000m) in the evening. In the evening the porters will boil drinking and washing water and the cook will prepare dinner before you retire to your tent for the night. Night temperatures already dropping at this point. Ascent of 1,200m and 5 to 6 hours walking.
Day 3: Machame Camp (3010) to Shira Camp (3840), distance is about 5 kms, Hiking time: 4–5 hours
Ascent 840m and 4 to 5 hours walking. After breakfast, emerge from the giant heather zone and hike through fine open moorland to camp by the Shira Cave at 3,840m. After lunch and a short rest, you continue up a rocky ridge onto the Shira plateau.Herds of elands up here and there are fascinating geological features in the old volcanic caldera which can be viewed during a half-hour optional walk in the afternoon. The night at this exposed camp will even be colder than the previous night, with temperatures dropping to well below freezing.Dinner and overnight at shira camp. Duration: 5 hours
Day 4: Shira Camp (3840) to Barranco Camp (3960), distance is about 15 km.
The route now turns east into a semi desert and rocky landscape surrounding Lava Tower, where you reach an altitude of 4630m after about a 5 hours walk. Lunch is served in a designated area before ascending the rocky scree path to Lava Tower (4630m). Definitely the toughest day so far. It is normally around this point, where for the first time, some climbers will start to feel symptoms of breathlessness, irritability and headaches. After lunch, you descent again by almost 680m to the Barranco camping area and after reaching the high altitude of 4600m at Lava Tower, the true acclimatization benefit of this day becomes clear. This descent to Barranco camp takes about 2 hours and offers great opportunities to take some beautiful photographs of the Western Breach and Breach Wall. The camp is situated in a valley below the Breach and Great Barranco Wall, which should provide you with a memorable sunset while you wait for the preparation of your dinner and overnight at Barranco Camp. Duration: 7 hours
Day 5: Barranco Camp (3960m) to Barafu Camp (4035m), 7- 8hrs
Up the steep Barranco wall with some sections of very easy scrambling and drop down again to the Karanga Valley where you take a break for lunch. After lunch hike on to Barafu Hut 4600m, having hiked a total of 7 to 8 hours and ascended 650m. You have fantastic views across to Mawenzi peak from the camp after having completed a longer day of hiking which now requires you to adequately relax in preparation of the challenging summit hike early the following morning. Dinner and overnight at the Campp
Day 6: Barafu Camp (4640m) to Uhuru Peak (5895m) - 3090m, distance is about 17 km.
A bracing 1am start to climb the steep frozen scree with quit cold weather, reach Stella Point on the crater rim for sunrise, proceed another 45 minutes and you are at the highest point on the continent (Uhuru peak 5985m), usually in warm sunshine. After a photo session, return to barafu hut for breakfast and later descend down to mweka camp(3100m) for dinner and overnight. This is a long hard day but you feel absolutely ecstatic when you have done it!
Day 7: Mweka Camp /Mweka Park Gate /Moshi
After breakfast, From Mweka campsite it is a 4 to 5 hours descent through the forest to Mweka gate. This is also where successful climbers receive the summit certificates. Later transfer to Moshi hotel for lunch and Overnight stay at the hotel. Duration: 5 hours
Day 8: Moshi - Airport (Kilimanjaro International Airport)
On this day you may embark on your safari to the amazing parks in Tanzania like Serengeti National Park, Ngorongoro crater, Lake Manyara among other destinations or a transfer to your outbound flight back home.
