Upon arrival to Mt. Kilimanjaro International Airport you will meet a member of Rare Africa Travel staff who will transfer you to Arusha.

Today will be used to recover from your travel and plan for our Kilimanjaro trek. We will have time to explore Arusha and we’ll meet with the mountains guides for a briefing.

In the morning we’ll transfer to the Machame Park Gate (5,380 ft). After registering with the park authority, we’ll begin our climb through the lush forest. We will hear the many exotic birds in the canopy above, and see black & white colobus monkeys and sykes monkeys as we hike along the knotted roots and mud on the forest floor.

We’ll continue on to some heathland before reaching our overnight camp at Machame Camp (9,350 feet, 5-7 hours of walking), just above the forest zone. The trek is quite long, but not steep.

Today’s segment of the ascent will continue across beautiful heathland and alpine moorland with magnificent views of Kilimanjaro Peak. We begin up the steep track through a savannah of tall grasses, and trees of Giant Heather and Erica. Scramble around large boulders as you enter the moorland zone, marked by lobelia and senecio plants, and volcanic rocks draped with lichen beards, which protect wild alpine flowers growing at their bases. We’ll overnight at Shira Camp (12,500 feet, 5-6 hours of walking).

Today the trek becomes a bit more strenuous as the trail steepens on the approach to the Lava Tower, a 300 foot tall volcanic plug which marks an exposed pass at 15,190 feet. In the afternoon we will descend to the Barranco Camp set on a col (flat area) enclosed on three sides with steep valley walls and the Kibo massif itself. Hanging glaciers glint in the sunshine above, amidst a landscape of plants such as the Giant Groundsels, and the uniquely endemic Giant Lobelia. Then we slowly ascent to our overnight stop at Barranco Camp (13,011 feet, 6-8 hours of walking).

Today we’ll trek up through the Karanga Valley where the trail turns steadily uphill, following the lava ridge to the Barafu camp. The temperature will grow colder and the landscape more sparse as we near Barafu Camp. Barafu Camp is set on a small, exposed flat area of a ridge, acting as a base camp from which you will make your summit attempt at midnight tonight. Barafu camp (15,200 feet, 6-7 hours of walking).

Just after midnight we start our summit and a long day of trekking (8-14 hours). You begin trekking at 12:30-1 am, passing between the Rebmann and Tarzel glaciers to the rim at Stella Point. The temperatures range from just below freezing at midnight, to between 10 deg. F (-12 deg. C) to –10 F. (-23 deg. C) just before dawn at the summit. As dawn nears, we’ll summit at Uhuru Peak, the highest point in Africa at 19,340 feet. Uhuru will be the culmination of and the reward for 6-8 hours of strenuous hiking. We’ll then descend back to Barafu Camp, resting for a while before continuing our descent to Mweka Camp (10,065 feet, 3-4 hours of walking on the descent).

We’ll make our final descent to the park gate, a walk of about 3 or 4 hours. After bidding our farewells to our guide and porters, we’ll drive to Arusha for an overnight stay in Arusha and much needed recovery.

Accommodations: Arusha Planet Lodge

While certainly doable in 6 days, on the Machame route and several other routes, summit success increases with an extra day of acclimatization. If this option is chosen, there will be one additional overnight on the mountain (Karanga Camp), which would be positioned between Barrano Camp and Barafu Camp.