Mount Kilimanjaro Climb

Kilimanjaro, the highest and most famous mountain in Africa. A massive dormant volcano rising isolated over the African savanna. No other mountain in the world rises so high so alone, with no range of other peaks for support. Kilimanjaro would be an easy hike if the atmosphere wasn't so thin up high. Altitude sickness is the main issue on the mountain. The Tanzanian government requires visitors hire a guide. Usually this includes a cook and porters if you don�t want to carry all your own gear. Just our group of four had 17 porters, a cook, a lead guide and an assistant guide. That is a total of 20 people to get 4 people comfortably up the mountain. But this program provides jobs to the area and they are some of the best paying jobs in Tanzania.

Breakfast at the hotel, then pick-up at 8 a.m. A few blocks away was the guide service where we picked up our porters and guides. They loaded the two vans full, carring most of the gear on the roof. We drove for around an hour from Moshi to the Machame gate. We signed in, got a box lunch to carry, watched the porters split the gear, then we begin hiking to Machame camp. This takes about 4-5 hours due to lots of elevation gain and going slow to acclimate. The jungle was interesting, warm and wet. We were rained on for about 2 hours. Just before camp, we transitioned from the jungle to the Moorland vegetation zone. Arriving at our first nights camp, with the tents already set up and a meal prepared in a dinner tent was a real treat. Since it got dark at 7 or so, we went to bed early each night.