7 Days Machame Route

On this day will wake up at 06:00am and have breakfast from 06:30am to 07:30am. Then you will check out at the hotel and get ready your belongings and board to the shuttle bus and get transferred to the starting point of Entrance gate and ready to start the hike. Your drive will be approximately 50-minute drive from Moshi to the Machame Village (1,490 m/4,890 ft) where you will meet your Guides and porters prepare and pack your equipment and supplies. You will receive a lunch pack, and you can also buy mineral bottled water at the hotel or supermarket before you aboard the shuttle for transfer to the entrance gate where you will start the hike. After registering at the park office, you start your ascent and enter the rain forest immediately. Heavy rains on this side of the mountain often transform the trail into a soggy, slippery experience, so good footgear, trekking poles, and gaiters are useful. You will enjoy a welcome lunch stop halfway up and will reach the Machame camping area in the late afternoon. Your porters will arrive at camp before you and will create your tent before you arrive. In the evening, the porters boil drinking and washing water while the cook prepares your dinner. Night temperatures can drop to freezing at the Machame Camp. You will have Dinner and Overnight at Machame Camp.  This will be your first day at the altitude, so it is strongly recommended you heed the following instructions from this point. Abstain from consuming alcohol and caffeine. Drink over 4-liters of bottled water daily (little by little, frequently).

You rise early at Machame camp at around 06:30am, and after breakfast, you will start the hike at around 07:30am, climb for an hour to the top of the forest, then for 2 to 3 hours through a gentle moorland. After a short lunch and rest, you continue up a rocky ridge onto the Shira Plateau where you will be able to see Kilimanjaro great Western Breach with its stunning glaciers. Sometimes, the walls of the Western Breach are draped with extensive ice curtains. You are now west of Kibo on the opposite side of the mountain from the Marangu Route. After a short hike west, you reach the Shira campsite. The porters will boil drinking and washing water before serving dinner. The night at this exposed camp will be colder, with temperatures dropping below freezing. In the evening you will have Dinner and overnight at Shira Camp.  Note: The acclimatization hike is an easy trek with a slight gain in altitude done in order to speed up the acclimatization process. You should take the acclimatization hikes very seriously since they help increase your chances of successfully summiting Kilimanjaro and save you from the consequences of altitude sickness.

Wake up at 06:30 am, start preparing gears and get ready for breakfast at 07:00 am. This day is a very sensitive day, you will hike east up a steepening path above the highest vegetation toward Kilimanjaro looming mass. After several hours, you walk through a rocky landscape to reach the prominent landmark called Lava Tower at 4,630 m/15,190 ft. This chunky remnant of Kilimanjaro earlier volcanic activity is several hundred feet high, and the trail passes right below it. For extra credit, the sure-footed can scramble to the top of the tower. After a lunch stop near Lava Tower, descend for 2 hours below the lower cliffs of the Western Breach and Breach Wall to Barranco Camp at 3,950 m/12,960 ft. There are numerous photo opportunities on this hike, especially if the walls are festooned with ice. Barranco Camp is in a valley below the Breach and Great Barranco Walls, which should provide you with a memorable sunset while you wait for your dinner. On this day, be careful to notice any signs of altitude sickness. You will have dinner and overnight at Barranco Camp. Note: If one participant feels sick, the group may refrain from passing the lava tower and adjust the route, following instead the road for porters. In this case, you will not reach the altitude of 4,630 meters, getting up only to a maximum of 4,400meters. 

After spending a night under the imposing Great Barranco Wall, you climb this awesome obstacle, which turns out to be easier than it looks. Topping out just below the Heim Glacier, you can now appreciate just how beautiful Kilimanjaro really is. The route then heads down through the Karanga Valley and goes over intervening ridges and valleys to join the Mweka Route, which will be your descent route. You have now completed the South Circuit, which offers views of the summit from many different angles. For now, all eyes are still on the summit, so turn left and hike up the ridge for another hour to the Barafu Hut. The last water on the route is in the Karanga Valley; there is no water at Barafu Camp, even though Barafu is the Swahili word for “ice.” The famous snows of Kilimanjaro are far above Barafu Camp near the summit of the mountain. Your tent will be pitched on a narrow, stony, wind-swept ridge, so make sure that you familiarize yourself with the terrain before dark to avoid any accidents. Prepare your equipment and warm clothing for your summit climb. This should include replacing your headlamp and camera batteries, and to prevent freezing, consider carrying your water in a thermal flask. Go to bed by 07:00 PM and try to get a few hours of precious sleep. You will rise around 10:30 PM, and after some steaming tea and biscuits, you shuffle off into the night. You will start the summit hike walk at around 11:00pm from Baranko Camp to Summit.

Your 6-hour climb northwest up through heavy scree between the Rebmann and Ratzel glaciers to Stella Point on the crater rim is the most challenging part of the route for most climbers. You will reach Stella Point (5,685 m/18,650 ft) at around 05:30am and you will stop for a short rest and a chance to see a supremely sanguine sunrise. At Stella Point you join the top part of the Marangu Route, but do not stop here too long, as it will be extremely difficult to start again due to cold and fatigue. Depending on the season and recent storms, you may encounter snow on your remaining hike along the rim to Uhuru Peak. On the summit, you can enjoy your accomplishments and know that you are creating a day that you will remember for the rest of your life. After your 3-hours descent from the summit back to Barafu Camp, you will have a well-earned but short rest, collect your gears, and hike down a rock and scree path into the moorland and eventually into the forest to Mweka Camp (3,100 m/10,170 ft). This camp is in the upper forest, so you can expect mist or rain in the late afternoon or evening. Dinner and washing water will be prepared, and the camp office sells drinking water, soft drinks, and chocolates! After Dinner, you will overnight at Mweka Camp. 

After a well-deserved breakfast, it is a short, scenic, 3-hours hike back to the park gate. Don’t give your porters any tips until you and all your gear have reached the gate safely, but do remember to tip your staff at the gate. At Mweka Gate, you can sign your name and add details in a register. This is also where successful climbers receive their summit certificates. Some climbers like to get their Certificates at the Hotel or where they will be staying and have a celebration dinner and drinks with their Porters and Guides and get Certificates with photos of a Give presenting the Certificates to each member of the Group for Good Memory after accomplishing the DREAM. Climbers who reached Stella Point are issued green certificates and those who reached Uhuru Peak receive Gold with Green colors certificate. From the Mweka Gate, you will continue down to the Mweka Village, possibly a muddy, 3 km, 1-hour hike if the road is too muddy for vehicles. In the Mweka Village, you will be served a delicious hot lunch after which you are driven back to Moshi for an overdue hot shower and comfortable night in a Hotel or similar lodging.

Depart for the airport or other destinations in Tanzania or Kenya or other parts of East Africa and South Africa countries. A trip to the beaches at Zanzibar is a good way to recuperate.