• Day 1

  Transfer from Moshi town to Machame Gate (1490m) - Machame camp (2980m)

  Hiking time: 7 hours. Distance: About 18 kms. Habitat: Montane forest. Elevation change: + 1490 m Early morning after breakfast at 8:30 am you will be transferred from your hotel/lodge to Mount Kilimanjaro - Machame gate with your picnic lunch. After registration at the entrace gate, you will start your ascent and enter the rain forest almost immediately. There is a strong possibility of rain in the forest, which will transform the trail into a very soggy, muddy and slippery experience.

  You will have a welcome lunch stop about half way and will reach the Machame camping area in the late afternoon. Tents and other belonging will be take care by porters and climbing Mount Kilimanjaro guide. Most of the time porters and cook happens to reach to the camping site before you for preparation of meals as well as erection of tents for your accommodation. Sometime weather condition in the night temperatures can already drop to freezing point at Machame campsite.

• Day 2

  Machame camp (2980m) - Shira campsite (3840m)

  Hiking time: 6 hours. Distance: About 9 kms. Habitat: Moorland. Elevation change: + 860 m. Early in the morning after breakfast, the day is spent to reach Shira campsite (3840 m) with our picnic lunch. The night at this bare camp will even be colder than the previous night, with temperatures dropping to well below freezing. The trail take us for an hour or so to the top of the forest and then for about two hours at a gentler gradient through the moorland zone.

  After a picnic lunch and rest, you continue up a rocky ridge onto the Shira plateau. Hiking to this point you will be able to see in an easterly direction, the Western Breach with its spectacular glaciers. You are now due west of Kibo and after a short hike you will reach the Shira campsite.

• Day 3

  Shira (3840m) - Lava Tower (4630m) - Barranco camp (3950 m)

  Hiking time: 6hours. Distance: About 15 kms. Habitat: Semi desert. Elevation change: + 790 m, - 680 m. Final Elevation: 3950 m. 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 four 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 two 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.

• Day 4

  Barranco camp (3950m) - Barafu camp (4550m)

  Hiking time: 6 hours. Distance: About 13 kms. Habitat: Alpine desert. Elevation change: + 600 m. Early in the morning after breakfast at the Great Barranco Wall you will appreciate how beautiful climbing Mount Kilimanjaro via Machame route really is. The route then heads down through the Karanga Valley over intervening ridges and valleys, and then joins up with the Mweka route.

  After spending a night at the Great Barranco Wall (a very imposing sight at first), you make your way up this awesome looking obstacle, which in the end normally turns out easier than what you anticipated. Topping out just below the. Heim Glacier, you now appreciate just how beautiful Kilimanjaro really is. The route then heads down through the Karanga Valley over intervening ridges and valleys, and then joins up with the Mweka route. This is the preferred route down from the summit, so remember it. Turn left up the ridge and after another hour or so, you reach Barafu Hut.

• Day 5

  Barafu camp (4550m) - Uhuru Peak (5895m) - Mweka (3100m)

  Hiking time: 6 hours to reach Uhuru Peak. 5 - 7 hours to descend to Mweka. Distance: About 7 kms ascent - 23 kms descent. Habitat: Stone scree and ice-capped summit. Elevation change: + 1345 m, - 2795 m. Final Elevation: 3100 m. You will wake up around 2330hrs, and after some tea and biscuits you start climbing to Uhuru peak into the night. You will head in a northwesterly direction and ascend through heavy scree towards Stella Point on the crater rim.

  This 6-hour walks to Stella point is for many climbers, mentally and physically the most challenging on the route. Take picture for 15 to 20 minutes then the descend down for 2:30/3hours to Barafu Camp, then sleep for 1:30 to 2 hours. Then wakeup have breakfast or lunch, after descend down to Mweka camp for dinner and over night 3 up to 4 hours.

• Day 6

  Mweka camp (3100m) - Mweka Gate (1980m)

  Hiking time: 4 hours. Distance: About 15 kms. Habitat: Forest. Elevation change: - 1120 m. After an early and well-deserved breakfast, it is a short 3-hour and scenic hike back to the Park gate. At Mweka gate you sign your name and details in a register. This is also where successful climbers receive their summit certificates.

  Those climbers who reached Stella Point (5685m) are issued with green certificates and those who reached Uhuru Peak (5895m) receive gold certificates. From the Mweka Gate you will continue down into the Mweka village, normally a muddy 3 km (1 hour) hike. At the Mweka Gate, meet Mount Kilimanjaro National Park Officials gives you the Certificate of Achievement. You now drive back to Moshi for a long over due hot shower.

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