MORNING
YOUR WAKE-UP CALL AND BREAKFAST
Early starts are important, and so is a good breakfast. You will be woken up around 6:30am by a member of the Kili Africa Tours Mountain team. To help you feel awake and ready for the day’s challenge, you can grab a hot drink from the kitchen tent, before breakfast is served around 7 am. You will need to spend time before breakfast carefully packing your daypack and putting the rest of your stuff into your duffel bag for the porters. This is important so that they can take down your tent, ready to transport it to the next camp. Breakfast is served inside the mess tent, or sometimes outdoors if the weather is fine.
DURING THE DAY
DURING THE DAY’S TREK, AND LUNCH
A health check will also be performed on all trekkers each morning, prior to departure.
Walking typically starts around 8am. Your porters remain at the campsite, ensuring that it is tidied up and clean. They also pack up tents and all the equipment.
A typical day on the mountain involves between four and six hours’ of walking, though this can vary. Our mountain guides set the pace, ensuring that careful consideration is given to each trekker’s welfare and physical condition. It is certainly not a race. Pole, pole – remember? Breaks will be taken, when necessary. Although the porters stay behind to clean up the camp, they magically arrive ahead of you and ensure that food is prepared, and that the campsite is all set up ready for your arrival. For lunch, a cooked meal is provided at a suitable point during the day’s trek; occasionally, a picnic lunchbox might take its place.
AT EVENING
ARRIVAL AT THE CAMPSITE, AND YOUR EVENING MEAL
Welcome snacks are waiting for you when you arrive at the campsite. We aim to provide your evening meal about 6pm. Apart from undergoing a further health check and listening to the guides as they outline the following day’s trek, the rest of the evening is for you to do what you want. Read a book, listen to your music, chat with other trekkers of the mountain team members. Or just relax.
TIME FOR SOME SLEEP!
With an early morning both in front of you and behind you, you probably won’t want to stay up too late. Many trekkers will happily be in their tents as early as 8pm, looking to get some vital rest before the next day. Getting good rest is important, but the changes in wake-up times and routine means that it is quite usual for trekkers to wake up in the middle of the night. The good news is that your body will get used to these changes and sleep will improve with each day on Kilimanjaro, despite the increased altitude. But then…along comes ‘summit day,’ which is very different!
SUMMIT DAY
SUMMIT DAY
Today is different, tough but exhilarating. And ‘summit day’ is certainly a long one, somewhere between 11 and 16 hours. Our starting time is early, too, very early, as the objective is to try and get to Uhuru Point to coincide with sunrise. As a result, you will go to sleep even earlier the night before, usually straight after your evening meal. A big breakfast is not advisable on summit day, as it makes your summit ascent more difficult. Instead, when you are woken at midnight, you will have a snack of hot tea and biscuits. Then, you begin the climb in darkness, slowly as usual but testing your physical endurance and mental resilience to the full. At this altitude, it is cold and the wind can be strong.
But you are never alone and our expert mountain team will guide and encourage you, ensuring that you take the appropriate breaks with drinks and snacks to keep you properly hydrated and your energy levels high. Your health will be constantly monitored, and occasionally it may be that the effects of altitude sickness require someone to turn back before the summit. In that case, they will be escorted by one of our expert guides, while the rest of the trekking party continues with the rest of the mountain team. (Our teams are fully prepared for this, so the climb is unaffected)
THE LAST PART
THE ROOF OF AFRICA – AT LAST!
An achievement such as climbing Kilimanjaro needs to be celebrated – and photographed – and that’s exactly what we do when we reach Uhuru Peak, the highest point in Africa. But we have a long descent to make, so we don’t linger too long. We set off to return, our initial destination being either Kibo Hut or Barafu Camp.
THE DESCENT FROM UHURU PEAK
You have a long descent ahead of you, as by the end of the day we will reach either Mweka Camp or Horombo Hut to spend the night. So we have to maintain concentration, on the lookout for loose rocks and making good use of those walking poles to ease the pressure on our knees. As well as your walking poles, you will appreciate wearing your gaiters to keep unwanted stones out of your footwear.
THE FAREWELL DAY AND TIPPING CEREMONY ON MOUNT KILIMANJARO
By the end, you are sure to appreciate the efforts of the mountain team who have looked after you on this truly epic climb. It is customary to reward all the team members: porters, cook, mountain guides. The tipping ceremony takes place before you undertake the final descent down to either Mweka Gate or Marangu Gate. It is here that you will receive a certificate which shows that you made it to either Uhuru Peak, Stella Point or Gilman’s Point, as appropriate. Your journey to conquer Africa’s highest mountain and the world’s highest free-standing mountain may be over…but the memories and sense of pride and achievement will be with you forever. Congratulations!
