We break new ground on the slopes of Kilimanjaro and offer three categories of mountain tours, which differ in service and price.

Have you ever ask yourself why a waiter, a dining tent, tables and a 3-course menu is necessary in the mountain? What type of climber are you:

• All-inclusive
• McClimb
• Reinhold Messner Style

All inclusive:

You get luxury: Land Cruisers to drive to the gate, a beautiful lodge, 4-stars-food in the mountain and a waiter and you can give 12 kg to the porters. TIP is included: The payment of the crew: Porter 14USD/day, cook 25USD/day, Guide 35USD/Day and you get our Money back warranty.

 

McClimb:

You get a very good service: Mountain food (Ugali makes the porter strong and the climber also), you drive with mini busses to the gate, you sleep in a nice hotel with Kilimanjaro view, you can give 10kg to the porter.

 

Reinhold Messner Style (show):

Messner did it without porters but you get them! All is the same like McClimb except there is no dining tent, no table and no waiter! You sit on a stool in front of your mountain tent for eating or inside the tent. And cold water is also good for washing…

 

But by all kinds of operation, you get:

• an experienced and funny crew with good equipment
• a day for preparation before
• VAUDE Mountain tents Mark III
• VAUDE waterproofed bags
• Transfer, National park fee
• For every two climbers a guide with licence is joining the group

Because of this new operating we can go down with the price by McClimb and Messner Style and not on the backs of the crew.

Umbwe

This route over 6 or 7 days is steeper than all other routes, requires good physical condition but no climbing equipment. It starts with a sometimes slippery path through the rain forest with many fallen trees. Then the route goes over a scenic ridge with a striking view on the Great Barranco Valley.

In the middle section the route joins the Machame route up to the Barafu Hut. You can spend an additional night in the crater before the ascent to Uhuru Peak. The way back is the traditional to Mweka.

Close to Heaven - the Camp in the Crater
 
We have now included the ascent with overnight stay in the crater in our program. We will not be following the Western Breach route, which is still closed following the death of three hikers from a rock fall in January. We start the ascent via the Machame or Umbwe route. The Umbewe route runs through the rain forest parallel to the Machame route.

The trail has not been developed like the Machame route in recent years and often involves a far from easy scramble over tree roots. As a result, the Umbewe route is used by few hikers. At the end of the second day you meet up at the Barranco camp with hikers arriving via the Machame route. In the following two days you slowly gain height. Stations are the Karanga valley and the Barafu camp. Normally, you would start the ascent from the Barufu camp to the summit at midnight or 01.00 hours and descend to the Mweka camp the same day. The overnight stay in the crater makes it possible to start the ascent to the crater the next morning. The reward is a completely new view of the Mawenzi and the surrounding lowland and inside the crater.

The glaciers, which are unfortunately melting, can be intensively explored. After a night at an altitude of over 5,700 metres we climb the last remaining elevation, the Uhuru Peak, also in the morning and then make a relaxed descent via the Mweka route to the Mweka camp. On the last day we arrive at the Mweka Gate at about 14.00 hours. The trip lasts 7 days. If the Machame route is chosen for the ascent the Shira camp is used as additional camp en route to the Barranco camp instead of the camp in Karanga valley. A detailed tour report from Jutta Deters here.
 

It does not always have to be the top (Summit Circuit)
 
Who does not want to climb the Uhuru Peak for various reasons can still get close to it. There is a trail at an altitude of between 3,000 and 4,700 m around Kilimanjaro (Southern Circuit; Northern Circuit). The hike, with overnight camping, transverses all landscapes, except the glaciers, is demanding and meditative as it is used by few hikers. We hike 8 days through a grandiose landscape, in a clockwork direction and lastly, who decides to ascend has the opportunity to do so on the last day. The summit go-getters are accompanied by part of the team, while the remaining group descends to the last camp in the morning.
 
The round trip begins and ends in the rain forest, proceeds across the moor, through valleys, on past glaciers glowing in the sun above us, and from the northern side of the Kibo offers a good view of the Amboseli National Park in Kenya and as far as Mt. Kenya in clear weather. We especially recommend the tour to nature lovers and photographers and offer two levels of difficulty, which vary in steepness and length of the daily stages. The mountain hike can be rounded-off lastly with a safari or a bathing holiday in Zanzibar.
 
Variant 1:
Day 1: Arrival
Day 2: Preparation and briefing
Day 3: Machame Gate (1800m) – Machame Camp (3000m); 5 hours
Day 4: Machame Camp – Shira Camp (3900m); 4 – 5 hours; site step to Shira Cathedral
Day 5: Shira Camp – Amboseli View Camp (4100); 7 –9 hours
Day 6: Amboseli View Camp – Third Cave (3800m); 5 – 6 hours
Day 7: Third Cave – Kibo Hut Camp (4700m); 5 – 6 hours
Day 8: Kibo Hut Camp – Barafu (4550m); 3 hours
Day 9: Barafu – Mweka Camp (2800m); 7 hours)
Alternative Day 9: Barafu – Uhuru Peak – Mweka Camp; 16-18 hours
Day 10: Mweka Camp – Mweka Gate (1700m); 5 hours
Day 11: Reserve or rest
Day 12: Departure
 
Variant 2 (More challenging, because steeper and longer daily walk)
Tag 3: Umbwe Gate – Umbwe Camp (2900m); 6 – 7 hours
Tag 4: Umbwe Camp – Barranco Camp (3900m); 5 – 6 hours
Tag 5: Barranco Camp – Shira Camp (3800m); 6 – 7 hours
Tag 6: Shira Camp – Amboseli View Camp (4100m); 7 – 9 hours
Tag 7: Amboseli View Camp – School Hut Camp (4800m); 9 – 11 hours
Tag 8: School Hut – Barafu (4550m); 4 – 5 hours
 

Lemosho

The Lemosho route is the route with the most probability to reach the Uhuru Peak because the route takes 7 to 8 days. On the end of day three the Machame route is joined up to Shira Plateau. In the days before, you walk through rain forest rich in game, like elephants or white and black colubus, which are a kind of monkey.

For ambitious climbers who want to decrease the rate of failing to reach the top we recommend the Lemosho Route. You should take into account, that climbers at the Mount Everest get accustomed with the height many weeks before they try to reach the top. The Lemosho route is not taken as often as the Marangu or Machame route by climbers, since it requires more time and therefore also higher fees (paying the crew etc. additional days). Ambitious climbers, who are keen on taking home a picture from the top of Kilimanjaro, should consider the Lemosho route.

The ascension to the volcano Mt. Meru is a perfect preparation for the conquest of Kilimanjaro. You can get used to the heights (around 15.000 feet) and it is possible to test out the equipment, so that you will be able to correct and improve it at the rest day that lies between the climbing of Kilimanjaro. But the most important thing is to practice ascending at night, since it is not very pleasant to do this in the almost dark, when it is quite cold.

We recommend a three day tour. You will spend the nights in so called "Swiss" huts, which nobody would expect to find in Africa. Even to the top of the volcano animals roam, especially buffalo. At the foot of Mt. Meru you often meet with giraffes, elephants, wild hogs, antelopes, baboons and a great variety of birds. To ensure your safety the group is accompanied by an armed ranger. On the tour you will cross many different vegetation zones, as there is open grassland, mountain forest, swamp, giant heather and penurious rocks, therefore you have the chance to experience a combination of a walking safari with the conquest of a mountain.


Hike:

If any delays occur while ascending to the top or if you should find, that you need more time downhill (having for example problems with your knees) we recommend you to spend an additional night at the Saddle Hut.

Ol Doinyo Lengai – The Sacred »Hill«
 
Ol Doinyo Lengai is Tanzania’s only active volcano although on a tour of Kilimanjaro and a sightseeing trip to the crater we saw some smoke there.

Ol Doinyo Lengai is also the sacred mountain of the Masai and the mountain guide always comes from a small Masai village close to the mountain. The Masai do not climb the mountain but allow tourists to do so. With a height of 2,788 m Ol Doinyo Lengai is a hill compared to Kilimanjaro. Nevertheless, the climb is quite something as it takes place in one stage at an altitude of about 800m.

The ascent starts at 01.00 in the morning, which is sensible, as it would be extremely difficult in the blazing sun. The summit of the volcano is covered by solidified, light-grey lava - like an over-filled cone of melting vanilla ice-cream - and this steep part is especially tiring during the ascent and descent. In order to experience two natural spectacles the summit of the volcano is reached at a normal pace at about 05.30 hours.

Overall in Tanzania sunrise takes place at about 06.00 hours, but here it occurs behind Kilimanjaro. We would be interested to know whether those star-observers could tell us whether this is so every day of the year. As Chagga Tour representatives were there to test the tour for you the sun rose behind Kilimanjaro and Mike Nelson, our tour guide, was impressed. When the sun rose behind Kilimanjaro it shone on the crater landscape of Ol Doinyo Lengai, which is not only composed of one crater but many- sugarloaves, which rise from the solidified lava filled, active, northern, main crater. It steams, and muddy lava (carbonate) is suspected of being in the fissures.

We can organize an overnight stay for pyromaniacs at the summit to observe nightly eruptions at a distance or the play of colours, at least, of an ‘almost’ eruption. All at your own risk, of course; there is no rescue team here like on Kilimanjaro. The camp costs extra. The normal tour takes 3-4 days starting at Moshi. The 8 hour journey is already a part of the adventure because it includes travelling along the African fault and straight across the savanna. The Ol Doinyo Lengai lies near Lake Natron and who still has ‘Out of Africa’ in his or her ears knows that this area was not a place for the white man.

Today it is, as the Masai are also interested in making a profit from tourism. As a result, the overnight stay takes place in a Masai-run camp, the situation of which, on a canyon with a wild flowing stream, no one travelling several hours across the totally dry savanna and getting out of the Land Cruiser would expect. Tents, catering and cook are naturally provided from Moshi as well as an artist of a driver, who also speaks Masai. It was only through him that it was made clear to us how thirsty the Masai were during the time that we travelled across the steppes. At the beginning of 2006, a drought of unusual proportion existed in the savanna before the big rainy season. We filled all available bottles in the camp with water to share out on the return trip. There was no water shortage at the camp at the canyon however, completely the opposite.

On the second day, a guided hike is undertaken upstream through the canyon to the Engaresero Falls, partly in water, which is very pleasant. Then after lunch, a trip is made to Lake Natron. No beach exists; instead the muddy bank area is a brooding place for numerous flamingos (incubation August-October). As is the case on every safari, you will be surprised at the different types of animals, which, apart from flamingos, can be observed. Hyenas, zebras, buffaloes and also giraffes live within the area of the fresh water inlet of the lake.

Dinner is punctual to allow for a few hours of sleep before the ascent. After the descent you return to camp for an early lunch on the third day and after that you either return to Moshi or change camp in order to be closer to Lake Natron. On the four day tour you undertake further walking safaris at Lake Natron in the afternoon of the third day and the morning of the fourth day before travelling back to Moshi. The landscape around Lake Natron with the steep rising Ol Doinyo Lengai is a must for landscape photographers. The ascent of Ol Doinyo Lengai can be combined with a safari in the south west situated Ngorongoro crater.

A final appraisal from Mike, who as Kilimanjaro guide had originally a contemptuous attitude towards the hill: “That was an adventure. I love this mountain”

In 2007/2008 there were some big eruptions and the volcano looks now different. We climbed again in June 2008 mostly to the top but we will do it NOT again in the next time. It's too dangerous!