8 DAYS LEMOSHO ROUTE

After an early breakfast (07.00), you leave the hotel one hour later to arrive at the Londorosi Gate for registration around 11.00, and in time to have your picnic lunch. After Londorosi, you have a short drive to the start point of today’s walk. Today your walk is a distance of 7 km, with an expected 3.5 to 4 hours of walking time. Your starting altitude is some 2,100 metres and you finish at 2,650 metres. Your approach to the mountain is from the west and some people say this provides the best views of Kilimanjaro. At the start of your walk, you may be lucky enough to spy on some colobus or blue monkeys, though an encounter with buffalo, elephant, or leopard would be rare nowadays. Your walk, steadily upwards, is a wonderful experience, with a fantastic forest and some colorful flowers. Mti Mkubwa Camp (‘Big Tree Camp’) is normally reached by 18.00 and dinner is served at 19.30.

• Accommodation: Mti Mkubwa Camp
• Hiking time and Elevation: 4 hours, from Starting Point (2,100 m) to Mti Mkubwa (2,650 m)

You will soon become used to the early, 07.00 breakfast and your departure time is at 08.00. Although your walking distance is similar to yesterday, today you will be ascending from 2,650 metres to 3,610 metres and you expect a longer walking time of between 4.5 and 5 hours. Today, the trees of your first day thin out, you eventually leave the forest environment behind as you move onto the moorland and are able to get your first view of both the Shira Plateau and Kibo itself. As ever, you should concentrate on walking pole pole (slowly) to reduce the chances of feeling unwell. Your direction is largely eastwards, picnic lunch is taken around 13.00. Walking is steep at first after lunch, but then flattens and with the snow-topped Kibo ahead of you, you descend slightly to the Shira 1 Camp. Arriving at around 16.00, your dinner will be ready at 18.30.

• Accommodation: Shira 1 Camp
• Hiking time and Elevation: 5 hours, from Mti Mkubwa (2,650 m) to Shira 1 Camp (3,610 m)

Compared to yesterday, your climbing today is less (240 metres of ascent) and takes you up to an altitude of 3,850 metres. The distance you cover will be similar, at approximately 7 km. It is a steady, uphill climb and you should expect about 3.5 to 4 hours of walk time in total. Your breakfast today is at the civilized hour of 08.00 and your departure one hour later. You set off in a south-eastern direction across the moor and heathland of the Shira Plateau. Buffalo, dik-dik and klipspringer graze here and can occasionally be seen. You intend to reach Shira 2 Camp – which is also known as Shira Huts – by 13.00, in time to be served a hot lunch. Dinner tonight will be at 18.00.

• Accommodation: Shira 2 Camp
• Hiking time and Elevation: 4 hours, from Shira 1 Camp (3,610 m) to Shira 2 Camp (3,850 m)

Today you are back to your early, 07.00 breakfast time, ready for 08.30 departure. You have around 10 km to cover, but although you will finish your day only 50 metres higher than you started it, in between you have to climb to the foot of the Lava Tower (4,600 metres) before you then descend once more, down to Baranco for your overnight stop. You can expect around 6.5 to 7 hours of walking, during which time you leave the Shira Ridge and the Lemosho Route joins up with the more popular Machame trail. The scenery today changes to predominantly Alpine desert. Your picnic lunch will be at 13.00, arrival at Baranco around 16.00 and dinner at about 19.00.

• Accommodation: Baranco Camp
• Hiking time and Elevation: 7 hours, Shira 2 Camp (3,850 m) – Lava Tower – (4,600) – Baranco Camp (3,900 m)

Today you breakfast slightly later (07.30) and your walk is short, being only 4 km but still taking between 3.5 and 4 hours of walking time. Your departure time today will be 08.30 and you will enjoy a hot lunch at 13.00 at Karanga and have the afternoon to enjoy the views before dinner at 18.00. Your altitude gain today is only 95 metres. At the beginning, you encounter the hardest part of today’s stage as you have to scramble up the near-vertical face of the Baranco Wall (also commonly referred to as the ‘Breakfast Wall’ as you tackle it right after your breakfast!). At the top of this climb, you will be rewarded with views of the Heim Glacier. After this, the rest of today’s walk becomes a bit easier as you first descend to the gully below, and into the cold but beautiful Karanga Valley. You then continue and finally climb up a steep series of zig-zags until reaching the Karanga Camp.

• Accommodation: Karanga Camp
• Hiking time and Elevation: 4 hours, from Baranco Camp (3,900 m) to Karanga Camp (3,995 m)

Another short day -in terms of distance – begins with your breakfast at the camp at 07.30 and another 08.30 departure. Today you will ascend about 670 metres in a distance of around 5 km and walking time once again is between 3.5 and 4 hours. You will be aiming to arrive the Barafu Camp by 13.00, when you will be rewarded with a hot lunch. (With tomorrow being the summit day, it will be important to relax and prepare for the hard work ahead.) Dinner tonight is served at 17.30, giving you time to get to bed early. After leaving Karanga, today’s stage climbs steadily, passing through barren, rocky landscape, with the Decken and Kersten glaciers visible away to your left. At the top of the climb, the landscape remains bleak as you descend into a valley and you get your first sight of another glacier, Rebmann. At the end of this valley is today’s goal, the Barafu Camp, at which you arrive after a short, steep scramble and a walk.

• Accommodation: Barafu Camp
• Hiking time and Elevation: 4 hours, from Karanga Camp (3,995 m) to Barafu Camp (4,673 m)

Today is the most challenging day, but hopefully with the great sense of achievement of reaching your goal – the summit of Kilimanjaro! Your schedule for your ‘Summit Day’ is of course very different. Rising at 23.00, you take your tea and biscuits (23.30) before a midnight departure. The day starts with the long, tough climb from Barafu at 4,673 metres to Stella Point at 5,756 metres; for some of this you will be walking on scree, making your trek more difficult. From there it is another 139 metres of ascent and 45 minutes’ walk to the summit. Your goal is to reach the summit by around 07.00 then celebrate reaching the top, take your precious photos and enjoy this once-in-a-lifetime experience. After the summit, you return to Barafu, where you rest for a couple of hours, take a hot lunch and then leave again at 13.30 to continue to descend to Mweka Camp (3,100 metres) where you spend the night. You would expect to arrive at 17.00 and take your dinner at 19.00. (In total, you cover around 17 km today with about 13 hours of walking.)

• Accommodation: Mweka Camp
• Hiking time and Elevation: 13 hours, Barafu Camp (4,673 m) – Uhuru Peak (5,895 m) to Mweka Camp (3,100 m)

Still thrilled by your achievement, breakfast is taken at 07.00 and at 08.00 you can take the chance to reward your trekking team at the ‘Tipping Celebration.’ Departure is at 09.00 and you descend down to Mweka Gate at an altitude of 1,640 metres, where you will be served a hot lunch at midday and be presented with your hard-earned certificate. Your transport will be waiting to bring you back to your hotel in Moshi, where you can choose to relax – or celebrate!

• Hiking time and Elevation: 3 hours, from Mweka Camp (3,100 m) to Mweka Gate (1,640 m)

After a good night’s rest at your hotel, you will take breakfast ready for the scheduled check-out by 11.00. (In case you need a late check-out because of an evening flight, please advise us of this when you book your trip and we will inform you of the cost for the day room which ends at 18:00hrs, and then make the booking on your behalf.) As a transfer to the airport is included on this trip, you will be collected from your hotel and dropped off at the airport. For those travelers who have booked to go on safari, our guide will be meeting you in the evening to provide you with a briefing.