Tanzania: Kilimanjaro by the Machame Route and the Serengeti

Arrive in Moshi

Kilimanjaro International Airport to Moshi

• Repas du soir
• Nuit : Moshi
• Environ 1 h de route

Soir

On a clear morning or evening Kibo's snow cap shows above the town; much of the day it hides in cloud. Check in, rest and walk into the centre for coffee grown on these slopes. At about 5 pm your lead mountain guide and See Sight Tours trip leader hold the briefing: how the climb works, how we watch for altitude sickness, what happens if someone turns back, and how the safari follows. We check your kit piece by piece, hand out sleeping bags and poles, and pack two bags: the duffel the porters carry, and the safari bag that waits at the hotel. Then a welcome dinner and an early night.

Compris

• Pick-up at Kilimanjaro International Airport (JRO)
• Climb briefing and kit check with your lead mountain guide
• Sleeping bag, mat and walking poles handed out
• Welcome dinner

Machame Gate and the rainforest

Moshi to Machame Gate, then on foot to Machame Camp

• Petit-déjeuner, repas du midi et repas du soir
• Nuit : Machame Camp
• Environ 1 h de route

Matin

After breakfast we drive about an hour west through banana and coffee farms to Machame Gate, at about 1,800 metres. Registration takes a while: rangers check passports and permits, and the porters weigh every load so nobody carries more than the park allows. We meet the whole crew here. The trail climbs steadily through montane rainforest under tall trees hung with moss, where blue monkeys and black-and-white colobus are sometimes seen and the path can be muddy after rain.

Après-midi

Lunch is on the trail. The forest thins into giant heather just before Machame Camp, at about 2,835 metres, roughly 11 kilometres and 5 to 7 hours from the gate.

Soir

The tents are up when you arrive, with warm water for washing, tea and popcorn, then dinner in the mess tent.

Compris

• Transfer to Machame Gate
• Kilimanjaro National Park entry, camping and rescue fees
• Machame Gate to Machame Camp with licensed mountain guides, porters and cooks

Up to the Shira Plateau

Machame Camp to Shira Camp

• Petit-déjeuner, repas du midi et repas du soir
• Nuit : Shira Camp

Après-midi

We reach Shira Camp, at about 3,750 metres, around lunchtime, roughly 5 kilometres and 4 to 6 hours from Machame Camp, and lunch is hot at camp. The afternoon is for resting, drinking water and letting the body adjust.

Soir

In the evening the cloud often clears: Kibo stands behind the camp, and Mount Meru, about 70 kilometres west, floats on the cloud as the sun goes down. Your guides take the first evening oxygen and pulse readings here.

Compris

• Machame Camp to Shira Camp
• Oxygen and pulse checks morning and evening from tonight

Lava Tower, then down to Barranco

Shira Camp via Lava Tower to Barranco Camp

• Petit-déjeuner, repas du midi et repas du soir
• Nuit : Barranco Camp

Après-midi

Lunch is here, packed and eaten in the shelter of the rock, and it is normal to feel slow and short of breath. Then the path drops about 700 metres into the Barranco Valley, past stands of giant groundsels, tree-like plants found only on East Africa's high mountains, often in mist by afternoon. Barranco Camp sits at about 3,960 metres under the Barranco Wall and the Breach Wall glaciers.

Soir

Climbing high and sleeping lower is what makes summit night possible. Roughly 10 kilometres and 6 to 8 hours today.

Compris

• Shira Camp to Lava Tower (about 4,630 m)
• Lava Tower to Barranco Camp

The Barranco Wall to Karanga

Barranco Camp over the Barranco Wall to Karanga Camp

• Petit-déjeuner, repas du midi et repas du soir
• Nuit : Karanga Camp

Matin

We start after breakfast and take the wall at an even pace, stepping aside where porters need to pass. The Barranco Wall looks sheer from camp, but it is a scramble on a built path, about 250 metres of height in an hour or two, using your hands on a few rock steps and one narrow ledge known as the Kissing Rock. The guides place you hold by hold. From the top the southern glaciers are close and the plains are far below. The path then rolls up and down across valleys and streams to Karanga Camp, at about 3,995 metres, roughly 5 kilometres and 4 to 5 hours from Barranco. Karanga is where the six-day climb pushes straight on to Barafu; we stop.

Après-midi

Lunch is hot at camp, and the afternoon is rest.

Compris

• The Barranco Wall scramble with your guides
• Barranco Camp to Karanga Camp

Up to Barafu, rest before the summit

Karanga Camp to Barafu Camp

• Petit-déjeuner, repas du midi et repas du soir
• Nuit : Barafu Camp

Soir

Starting from Karanga, we arrive by lunchtime after roughly 4 kilometres and 3 to 4 hours, which is the point of the extra night: you have the afternoon to lie down, eat and drink, instead of arriving tired at dusk. Lunch is hot in camp. Your guides walk you through summit night in the mess tent, check your oxygen and pulse, and help you lay out every layer, your headtorch and your water so you can dress in the dark. Dinner is early, around 5 pm, and you try to sleep until the wake-up call around 11 pm.

Compris

• Karanga Camp to Barafu Camp
• Summit night briefing and kit check

Summit night: Stella Point and Uhuru Peak

Barafu Camp to Stella Point and Uhuru Peak, then down to Mweka Camp

• Petit-déjeuner, repas du midi et repas du soir
• Nuit : Mweka Camp

Matin

Around sunrise, after 6 to 7 hours, we reach Stella Point on the crater rim, at about 5,756 metres, as the sun comes up behind Mawenzi. From there it is about an hour along the rim, past the glaciers, to Uhuru Peak at 5,895 metres, the highest point in Africa. We stay only a few minutes. Then the long descent: back to Barafu for a rest and a hot meal, and on down to Mweka Camp at about 3,100 metres.

Compris

• Summit attempt via Stella Point to Uhuru Peak with licensed mountain guides
• Descent to Barafu and Mweka Camp

Down through the forest to Moshi

Mweka Camp to Mweka Gate, then Moshi

• Petit-déjeuner, repas du midi et repas du soir
• Nuit : Moshi
• Environ 30 min de route

Matin

A slow breakfast, then the last walk: about 10 kilometres and 3 to 4 hours down a stepped path through giant heather and back into the rainforest, steep and often slippery, so poles help your knees. At Mweka Gate, at about 1,640 metres, the rangers record your climb and issue certificates for Stella Point or Uhuru Peak. Here we thank the crew together, with the tips already paid from the pool in your price, so the goodbye is about the people, not the envelope.

Après-midi

Lunch is at the gate or back in town, then about half an hour's drive to the same Moshi hotel, where your safari bag, a hot shower and a real bed are waiting.

Soir

The afternoon is yours, and the group meets for a celebration dinner in the evening.

Compris

• Mweka Camp to Mweka Gate
• Summit certificates from the park
• Thank-you with the crew, tips paid from the pool
• Transfer to Moshi
• Celebration dinner

A slow morning, then Tarangire

Moshi to Arusha, then Tarangire National Park

• Petit-déjeuner, repas du midi et repas du soir
• Nuit : Tarangire
• Environ 3.5 h de route

Matin

Sleep in, have a long breakfast and let your legs recover; the mountain kit goes back to the outfitter and your safari bag comes out.

Après-midi

At about half past nine the two 4x4 Land Cruisers collect you at the hotel, at most six guests in each, and we drive about an hour and a half west to Arusha, the safari town under Mount Meru, for a sit-down lunch. Then about two hours south-west on tarmac through Maasai grazing country to Tarangire National Park.

Soir

We reach the gate in the middle of the afternoon, lift the pop-up roofs and game drive slowly to our lodge, in or beside the park, until sunset. Elephants gather along the Tarangire River, especially in the dry months from June to October, under huge baobabs scarred where they have stripped the bark.

Compris

• Transfer from Moshi in our own safari vehicles
• Lunch in Arusha
• Tarangire National Park fees
• Late-afternoon game drive to the lodge

Tarangire at first light, into the Serengeti

Tarangire to Mto wa Mbu and over the Ngorongoro highlands, via Olduvai Gorge and Naabi Hill, to the central Serengeti

• Petit-déjeuner, repas du midi et repas du soir
• Nuit : Serengeti
• Environ 6 h de route

Matin

We leave the lodge at first light, about half past six, with breakfast packed, and game drive out of Tarangire while the park is cool and the cats are still moving. Then north on tarmac to Mto wa Mbu, where the road runs past banana groves and rice fields under the Rift Valley wall, and up through Karatu and the forest of the Ngorongoro Conservation Area to the crater rim viewpoint. The road drops on gravel past Maasai herders to Olduvai Gorge, where Mary Leakey found a hominin skull about 1.75 million years old in 1959; the museum takes about an hour.

Après-midi

Picnic lunch at Naabi Hill, the Serengeti gate. This is the longest day, about six hours of driving and well over our four-hour cap, because there is no shorter road into the Serengeti; the rim, Olduvai, lunch and a slow last 50 km game drive to camp near Seronera break it up.

Compris

• Game drive out of Tarangire at first light
• Ngorongoro Crater rim viewpoint
• Olduvai Gorge museum and viewpoint
• Picnic lunch at Naabi Hill
• Game drive from Naabi Hill to camp

A full day in the Serengeti

Dawn and late-afternoon game drives around Seronera

• Petit-déjeuner, repas du midi et repas du soir
• Nuit : Serengeti

Matin

The vehicles leave camp before sunrise, which this close to the equator comes at about half past six all year, with coffee in a flask and breakfast packed for the plains. The first hours are when lions and cheetahs hunt and the light is low and warm. The Seronera valley at the centre of the park holds resident predators in every season: lions rest on the granite outcrops called kopjes, and leopards often lie up in the sausage trees along the river. If you have booked the optional balloon flight, you lift off at dawn instead and rejoin us after a bush breakfast.

Après-midi

Back at camp for lunch, the hot middle hours are for a nap or a book in the shade, which after the mountain most people welcome. About four, we drive out again until sundown, with time to wait at a good sighting.

Compris

• Dawn game drive with packed breakfast
• Lunch at camp
• Late-afternoon game drive to sunset

Activités en option

• Hot-air balloon flight at dawn. Booked in advance.

Serengeti at dawn, up to the Ngorongoro rim

Seronera to Naabi Hill, then up to the Ngorongoro Crater rim

• Petit-déjeuner, repas du midi et repas du soir
• Nuit : Ngorongoro
• Environ 5 h de route

Matin

A last dawn drive around Seronera, then breakfast at camp and we start back east. The run to Naabi Hill, about 50 km, is another game drive, and your guide plans the route around the morning's sightings.

Après-midi

From the gate it is about three hours on gravel across the plains and up the western slopes of the highlands to the Ngorongoro crater rim, with a picnic lunch on the way. That makes about five hours of driving, over our usual four, because the Serengeti has no shorter way out; the game drive and lunch break it up. We reach the lodge on the rim in the middle of the afternoon, at about 2,200 metres, and the rest of the day is yours: watch the light move across the crater floor from the terrace, or rest. Evenings up here are cold. Sleeping on the rim puts us minutes from the descent road when it opens.

Compris

• Dawn game drive in the Serengeti
• Game drive out to Naabi Hill
• Picnic lunch on the way to the rim

Ngorongoro Crater at opening, then home

Ngorongoro Crater floor, then Arusha and Kilimanjaro International Airport

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Environ 4.5 h de route

Matin

We leave the lodge at about six with a packed breakfast and drive down the descent road as it opens, among the first vehicles of the day, while mist still lies on the floor. Ngorongoro is a collapsed volcano about 600 metres deep, with some 260 square kilometres of grassland, swamp and soda lake below its walls. Lions, hyenas, buffalo, zebra and wildebeest live here all year, and it is the best chance on this trip of a black rhino, though they are few and usually distant. Breakfast is at a picnic site by a hippo pool, and we climb out late in the morning as the floor gets busy.

Après-midi

Then the road home: about three and a half hours to Arusha, broken by lunch on the way, then about an hour to Kilimanjaro airport; a long day because it is the way home. Book a flight leaving after about 7:30 pm.

Compris

• Ngorongoro Crater game drive from the opening of the descent road
• Picnic breakfast on the crater floor
• Lunch on the way to Arusha
• Drop-off at Kilimanjaro International Airport (JRO) or your Arusha hotel