Mount Kilimanjaro

After breakfast at your Moshi hotel, our crew will pick you up and transfer you (approx. 1 hour) to Machame Gate, where park formalities and registration take place. This is also where you will meet your mountain crew - guide, assistant guides, cook and porters - who will accompany you throughout the climb. The trail begins in lush montane rainforest, often shrouded in mist, with the trail winding steadily upward through a canopy of giant ferns, mosses and old-growth trees. Keep an eye out for black-and-white colobus monkeys and turacos along the way. You will arrive at Machame Camp in the early evening, in time for a hot dinner and briefing on the day ahead.

Leaving the rainforest behind, the trail climbs a steep rocky ridge and opens into the moorland zone, where giant lobelias and senecios punctuate the landscape. As the vegetation thins you will get your first clear views of Kilimanjaro's Shira Plateau and, on a clear day, Mount Meru rising above the clouds in the distance. This shorter day is deliberately built into the itinerary to aid acclimatisation - we always encourage a slow, steady pace ('pole pole') as the altitude begins to be felt.

Today is a classic 'climb high, sleep low' acclimatisation day. The trail ascends steadily to the Lava Tower (4,630m), an imposing volcanic rock formation, where we stop for lunch. Sleeping at this altitude even briefly, followed by a descent, significantly improves the body's adjustment to thinner air over the following days. From Lava Tower the path drops into the dramatic Barranco Valley, home to giant groundsels, before arriving at Barranco Camp beneath the towering Barranco Wall.

The day opens with the exhilarating scramble up the Barranco Wall - a hands-on climb rather than a technical one, and one of the most memorable sections of the route, rewarding early risers with sweeping views across the valley. From the top, the trail undulates across ridges and valleys to Karanga Camp, the final water point on the mountain. This shorter, lower-altitude day continues the gradual acclimatisation strategy ahead of summit night.

A short, purposeful trek brings you to Barafu Camp, the final base before the summit push. The landscape here is stark, rocky and exposed. On arrival, our crew will guide you through an early dinner and rest period - you'll be woken around midnight to prepare for the summit attempt, so this afternoon is for resting, hydrating, and a final equipment check with your guide.

Shortly after midnight, roped together with headlamps lighting the switchbacks, you'll begin the steep ascent toward Stella Point (5,739m) on the crater rim - typically the most physically and mentally demanding stretch of the climb. From Stella Point, a further hour along the crater rim leads to Uhuru Peak, the highest point in Africa, usually reached around sunrise. After time to celebrate and photograph the summit and glaciers, the long descent begins - first back to