September 21 Leave US.
September 22 Arrive Kilimanjaro International Airport at approximately 8:30pm. You will be met by our lead African guide, Nickson Moshi. Nickson and his staff will help you with your bags. It is about a 1 hour drive to the Arusha Hotel in Arusha where you will be welcome by friendly staff and checked in to your rooms.
September 23 After breakfast you have three options. Either visit two markets where you can do some sight-seeing and shopping, visit Arusha National Park and see some of Africa’s wild animals (additional $50 charge for park fees) or take your own time to rest and relax. We will have lunch together at the Arusha Hotel before our final packing and gear check. Dinner at Arusha Hotel.
September 24 We will leave the hotel at 9:00am and drive to the Machame Gate. You will be able to leave a bag of gear at the hotel. Your duffle bags for the climb should be 30lbs. We will have a scale available to help. The drive to the gate is about 60 minutes. At the gate final preparations will be made, we will sign in the park register and then we are off! This first day is about 4 hours long. You are climbing up through the rainforest so it could be damp. Rain gear is required! We will have lunch on the way to the camp. By mid-afternoon we will arrive at the Machame Camp. Nickson’s staff will have already set up your tents as well as the meal tent and kitchen tent. All you need to do is set up your personal gear in the tent and relax!
September 25 Today we continue to ascent through and out of the rainforest. We start to get amazing views of the mountain so have your cameras ready. We overnight in Shira Plateau Camp.
September 26 We will leave camp and ascend to the Lava Tower camp. We will scramble to the top of the Tower for stunning views of the upper mountain.
September 27 Immediately after breakfast we will climb up to Arrow Camp. This is our high camp and we will not be here long. We will get in to Arrow Camp at about midday. After lunch we will have a final team briefing for the summit push ahead. Everyone will be nervous about the next 24 hours but still try and relax! Get your gear ready, be absolutely sure that you have everything in place and take a nap. It is going to be a long night.
September 28
Summit night! Sometime after midnight we will wake you up – assuming you have slept – and have a light breakfast ready for you. It will be COLD and you will now need all that warm gear you brought We will leave camp and ascend the Western Breach to the crater rim. Just about as we reach the crater rim the sun will be coming up and we will have amazing views all around us. After a brief stop in the crater we will continue the last short section to the summit of Mt Kilimanjaro.
After we have all had a chance to take pictures and enjoy the spectacular views we head back down through Kosovo and Barafu Camps. We don’t stay here though. We will continue on down the mountain to Millennium Camp where we have dinner and a well deserved meal and sleep.
September 29 We will continue our decent through the rainforest to Mweka Gate where we will have a celebration meal before returning to the Arusha Hotel.
September 30
Our last day in Africa unless you are continuing on to a safari. The flight home leaves at about 9:00pm so we have all day to do some final shopping or just relax by the pool and reflect on the adventure you have just had.
If you are going home you will be picked at 5:00pm for the transfer to the airport. Safari folks will also leave Arusha today. Exact time TBD.
October 1 You will arrive at your home destination with a pack full of dirty cloths, a camera full of pictures and a mind full of amazing memories.