My 2006 Kilimanjaro route.

726
DAY 1: Machame Gate – Machame camp
Altitude range: 1500 m – 3100 m
Hiking time: 7- 8 hours
Habitat: Rain forest
After you have registered at the gate office you will begin your Kilimanjaro climb.
First, you will enter the rain forest so you can fully expect to take a wet and soggy hike along a muddy trail until you hit the halfway point to the Machame camp. Here you will stop for lunch before heading off for the Machame camp.
By the time you arrive at Machame Camp later in the afternoon your porters will already have arrived and will have started preparing everything for your arrival, your tents will be pitched and water will be on the boil. You will be given a supply of water to wash with and later on your cook will prepare dinner for you.
DAY 2: Machame camp – Shira camp
Altitude range: 2980 m – 3850 m
Hiking time: 6 –7 hours
Habitat: Rain forest and Moorland
After an early start you will be served breakfast at Machame Camp, then you climb an hour or so before you leave the glades of the forest. The gradient eases off a bit as you hike through moorlands for a further 2 hours until it’s time for lunch.
After a quick lunch and a short rest you will continue your ascent up a rocky ridge leading onto the Shira plateau. On a clear day you will see from here the Western Breach with its awesome glaciers in the east.
A short hike from here will bring you to the Shira campsite, where you will be spending the night. Again, the porters will have your tents pitched before you arrive and will boil drinking and washing water, before your cook prepares your dinner.
At 3850 m
DAY 3: Shira Camp – Barranco camp
Altitude range: 3850 m – 3950 m
Hiking time: 7-8 hours
Habitat: Semi desert and rocky terrain
From Shira camp the route turns east towards Kibo and you will find yourself hiking through semi desert conditions and fairly rocky conditions surrounding Lava Tower – to get here you will have hiked for about 5 hours and you will have attained an altitude of over 4450 m. You will have lunch before beginning your ascent towards Lava Tower at 4600 m.
After lunch you descend again by approximately 650 m down to the Barranco camp
The camp is located in a valley just below the impressive Great Barranco Wall. Enjoy the magnificent sunset
DAY 4: Barranco camp – Karanga (acclimatization)
Altitude range: 3950 m – 4200 m
Hiking time: 7 hours
Habitat: Alpine desert
After breakfast you will leave Barranco camp and make your way up the Great Barranco Wall – this part of the climb looks far worse than it really is – remember this when you start this climb! From the Great Barranco Wall you will then descend through the Karanga Valley over intervening ridges and valleys, to the junction that connects with the Mweka route.
From this junction it will take you almost another hour to reach Barafu Hut. At an altitude of 4560 m, your tents are pitched on a narrow, stony ridge and are exposed to all the elements
You will also need to spend some time preparing your equipment for your summit attempt. Ensure that headlamp and camera batteries are in order and make sure you have spare sets of batteries available as well.
DAY 5: Karanga-Barafu camp
Altitude range: 4200 m – 4600 m
Hiking time: 3-4 hours
Habitat: Stoney scree
DAY 6:Summit day: Barafu camp- Stella Point and Uhuru Peak! Millennium camp
Altitude range: 4600 m – 5895 m
Hiking time: To the summit; 8 hours.returns
Today will by far be your toughest day of climb, you will rise around 23h30.
The walk to Stella point is for many climbers probably the most mentally and physically challenging part of the entire route. You will be hiking about 7 hours to get to Stella Point – here you will stop for a rest and a truly magnificent African sunrise. Departing from Stella Point, hour, when you will finally reach the summit of Uhuru Peak at 5895 meters.
Don’t get too relaxed and spend too much time on the summit, Cold and fatigue will set in quickly and you may find it very difficult to get started again. enjoy the fact that you have Kilimanjaro
The first part of your descent to Barafu will take almost 3 hours. Here you will stop for a short rest before heading down to Mweka hut – it takes an average of 5 hours to work your way down the rock and scree path to the moorland and eventually back into the rain forest. Millennium camp is situated in the upper forest and mist or rain can be expected in the late afternoon. As usual your tents, dinner, and washing water will be prepared
DAY 7: Millenium camp – Mweka Gate
Altitude range:3700m-1500m
Average walking time 3-4 hours
Habitat: Rain Forest
After an early and well-deserved breakfast, it is a short 3-hour and scenic hike back to the Mweka Park gate, where you sign your name and enter your details in a register. To make your achievement official, you will receive a summit certificate. If you reached Stella Point you will be presented with a green certificate, and if you made it all the way to Uhuru Peak you will have earned yourself a gold certificate.

It’s not over yet though – you still have to walk from the Mweka Gate down into the Mweka village, normally a muddy 3 km hike that will take an hour or so.

David Batzofin
Johannesburg
February 2007/December 2011/January 2014
This is the company that I climbed with.
Highly recommended!
www.wildfrontiers.com

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