Luxury Kilimanjaro Machame Climb

On touching down at Kilimanjaro International Airport, you will be collected and transferred to Legendary Lodge in Arusha. Set in mature gardens on a working coffee farm, the lodge is good place to unwind after a long-haul flight and prepare for your exciting adventure: summiting the world’s highest free-standing mountain and the tallest peak in Africa.

All rooms at Legendary Lodge have Internet connections and you can choose between walking, mountain biking, tennis, squash or running if you want to work up a bit of a sweat. If you prefer to relax, book a treatment in the spa or use the steam room. Legendary Lodge has excellent cuisine and, of course, top-notch, freshly ground coffee.

Today is the one you have been waiting for: you take your first steps in a week-long journey to conquer the continent’s highest mountain. After a delicious breakfast, you will be driven to the Machame gate where you will be fully briefed, meet your dedicated crew that consists of guides, cooks and porters, and have all your vital health checks done (your health will be monitored every step of the way to ensure you are acclimatizing correctly to the thinning air). Your porters will carry every item needed to set up comfortable camp, including your overnight rucksack – all you carry is your daypack.

Today’s hike takes you through the lush afromontane forest to Machame camp, with a picnic lunch en route. Your accommodation will be a spacious 3-person pup tent for every two guests with a 3-inch mattress, pillow and extra-thermal sleeping bag.

From the Afromontane forest of yesterday, you will move into the heather zone – look out for massive lobelia plants along the way. The Shira Plateau is a fascinating place of geographical features like lava tubes and glacial valleys. The first part of your day is relatively steep and you gain altitude rapidly but you will be able to recover over a picnic lunch.

One of the best-proven ways to acclimatize to increasing altitude is to ‘walk high, sleep low’, which means hiking to a point above your campsite and then returning to camp to rest.

Today you will ascend into a seemingly barren alpine desert, head up to Lava Tower and then back down to Barranco Camp. Although it is a long day of walking, you will reap the benefits of walking high and sleeping low over the next few days. Barranco is famous for its giant groundsel plants (Dendrosenecio).

After breakfast, ascend Barranco’s glacial wall and hike through its glacial valley to Karanga Camp. Because the route is relatively short, you will enjoy lunch at Karanga. In the afternoon, rest in your tent or take a scenic walk to the southern walls of Kibo Cone and the surrounding deep glacial valleys.

This is another short or half day as you ascend to Barafu Camp, where you can have lunch and relax with a book in your tent. In the evening, treacherous Mawenzi Peak, which is considered much more dangerous than Kilimanjaro to climb, is bathed in the glow of sunset.

Tonight you will have an early supper so that you can rest as much as possible before you tackle the summit. You may experience a combination of nerves and excitement but it is worth trying to sleep as you have a long night ahead of you in very cold conditions.

Most attempts to summit Kili begin at about midnight. There are different reasons for this: some say the loose shale is more stable and easier to walk on the colder it is; others say there is a psychological benefit to not seeing how much further you have to go so you can concentrate totally on putting one foot in front of another, others want to summit at sunrise so you can greet a new day at the highest point on the continent. Your guides will have taught you to walk slowly (‘pole, pole’) and to drink as much as possible because dehydration exacerbates altitude sickness. Patience and persistence will get you to Stella Point, from where it is a relatively short trek to the world-famous Uhuru Peak, where all those iconic photos are taken.

Pack snacks in your daypack to enjoy in case you have to wait for your ‘photo op’. After reaching Uhuru Peak and bagging the bragging rights photo, you make your way to Mweka Camp by daylight. The higher oxygen levels will make you feel more energetic and exhilarated that you have conquered Kili.

After your last night in a tent on the mountain and an emotional farewell to your hard-working crew, you will be driven back to Legendary Lodge for a soft bed, electrical lighting and – often best of all – a hot shower!

After a blissful night at Legendary Lodge and perhaps a massage to ease your weary muscles, you will be transferred to Kilimanjaro International Airport for your journey home, although Arusha is also a great starting point to a Tanzanian safari as it has excellent proximity to the Serengeti, Ngorongoro Crater and Tarangire National Park. Whichever you choose – home or safari – you will have memories of your Kili climb forever.