6 Days Marangu route
6 Days Marangu route
Overview
The original route up Kilimanjaro remains a popular choice for many visitors. Accommodation is in shared huts with bunk beds and the ascent is via Gilman’s point on the rim of the Kibo Volcano. This route descends the same way it ascends.
After breakfast you depart by vehicle to Kilimanjaro National Park. At the gate your crew finalise packing and after finishing with formalities you start hiking from Marangu Gate. A picnic lunch is taken on route and in the afternoon, you arrive at Mandara Hut. An option of a short walk can be taken to Maundi Crater in the afternoon if desired.
After breakfast you set out for Horombo Huts. The altitude gain today is significant and so a gentle pace is ideal to slowly gain altitude. By mid afternoon you reach camp and can relax. You have 2 nights here to adjust to the altitude.
Today is essentially an acclimatization day, which can be as long or as short as you want it to be. To improve your acclimatization, we walk to higher altitude towards Mawenzi Volcano. If the weather is good, the views once at the half way point of the saddle between Mawenzi and Kibo are spectacular. Behind you the deeply eroded Mawenzi peak is linked forever by the glacially smoothed saddle to Kibo, the main peak. The younger Mawenzi has been continually eroded for at least 400,000 years whilst Kibo has continued to grow and remains dormant to this day. In the afternoon you return to Horombo Huts to relax.
You start off early to the final hut before the summit attempt. Your crew ensure that water is collected at the last water point whilst you progress slowly up onto the saddle. Here desolate alpine zone stretches out towards the base of Kibo. Progress is slow in this hypoxic (low oxygen) environment but by mid-afternoon you reach Kibo Hut to relax before the evening ascent. A relatively early dinner is taken and then you climb into your sleeping bags for some rest before your night time departure for the summit.
Rising early (normally before midnight) you start out from Kibo Hut towards the peak. At night time the scree sections are normally much firmer and the night time start enables the best chance of a clear summit attempt. It takes around 6 hours to reach Gilman’s Point and then a further 1.5 to 2 hours to reach Uhuru Peak (Alt 19,341ft, 5985m) the top of the highest free standing mountain in the world and the roof of Africa! You then descend the same route before a short stop at Kibo Hut for a refuel and rest. By the evening you descend back down to Horombo Huts for dinner and one last sleep.
The final descent takes you back through the heath zone and forest to Marangu Gate.After saying farewell to your crew, you are picked up and transferred back to your lodge for a well deserved shower! Later that evening you will be visited by a Am Realistic Tour And Safaris Representative to congratulate you, to find out how the trip went and to answer any final questions you may have about your onward journey.
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