9 Days Climbing Kilimanjaro, Using Machame route

Climbing Kilimanjaro using this route is known as the most scenic climbing route for Mount Kilimanjaro.  Here you follow a trail around the mountain as you enjoy various spectacular views, for instance, Barranco wall and Maasai Mara plains. Passing the Shira Plateau and the Lava Tower, you will also come close to various wildlife species and get to see how they behave in their natural habitat. We have a team of staff not only giving you company up the mountain, but also offering services and assistance in different ways. These include professional climbing guides, cooks and porters.

Your pulse rate will be checked daily for health safety purposes even as you go up. Oxygen saturation is also checked to ensure you don’t harm yourself at the expense of leisure. Once we have your booking confirmed, we will send you a comprehensive Packing List for the climb.

Mount Kilimanjaro National Park provides an amazingly diverse series of habitats as it rises from the pastures and bushlands of the native Maasai people to the boundary of the 1668 sq. kilometer (641 sq. miles) national park at an approximate altitude of 800 meters.

Here, melt-water streams from the summit nourish a lush belt of tropical forest where some of the healthiest elephant herds in the entire continent roam at will, matriarchs with their attendant daughters, granddaughters, and great-grandchildren, accompanied by enormous, lumbering tuskers over 50 years old, their heads dragged almost to the ground by massive ivory tusks. You may be lucky enough to spot the endangered Abbott’s duiker among a supporting cast of antelopes and primates.

It is relished and sought after by herds of zebra, wildebeest, buffalo, and elephant. The arid savannahs stretch away above an underground water table supplied by the glaciers on Mount Kilimanjaro which, at 5895 meters, is the highest mountain in Africa, and also the tallest free-standing mountain in the entire world. In 1995, J M Grimshaw from Oxford University, N J Cordeiro from Moshi, and C A Foley from Princeton University explored the Kilimanjaro wilderness and wrote a journal called “The mammals of Kilimanjaro” that documented a staggering presence of 154 mammal species.

Varied terrestrial fauna is present to be seen on your AfricanMecca game driving tour of the western sector of Kilimanjaro National Park, including warthogs, hippos, impalas, dik-diks, zebras, elephants, buffalos, and giraffes as well as less common elands and gazelles. Cheetahs, lions, and leopards are much in evidence as well as jackals, hyenas, monkeys, baboons, and mongooses. But the ecosystem is fragile and vulnerable to overgrazing.

Where to Stay While Climbing Kilimanjaro Tour

Shu’mata occupies a private concession within the Maasai homelands where no-one can venture except Shu’mata guests, ensuring absolute privacy for your Kilimanjaro safari tour, and undisturbed communion with the natural world, which can be met with on all sides, since animals roam freely through the grounds, although your safety is assured by watchful warrior guards.

Stay at Shumata after climbing Kilimanjaro

Designed to afford Hemingway-style comfort and self-indulgence, there are only 5 opulent permanent guest tents on stone foundations, which combine Colonial elegance with modern practicality, each having an ensuite bathroom where the enamel wash basin and ewer are symbolic of environmental responsibility exemplified by the use of solar power and careful attention to water conservation. Extensive private patios give vistas of the valley as do the central lounge, bar, and restaurant.

11 Day climbing Mount Kilimanjaro is also an option available at Oltumure

Accommodation At Kambi Ya Tembo During Climbing Kilimanjaro

Kambi Ya Tembo has 14 large and airy guest tents set far apart for privacy on a hillside overlooking the plains and mountains of Tanzania and Kenya. All the tented suites have king-size or twin beds, adequate furnishings, a dressing table, and storage space, with fresh, roomy en-suite bathroom areas with solar heated showers (read more on where else to stay in the west of Kilimanjaro National Park).

Each has a viewing patio with cane or safari chairs where looking towards east on a clear morning, you can watch the sunrise over the Amboseli plains and the Shining Mountain, as Kilimanjaro can be rendered in Swahili, or, facing back to Tanzania, enjoy the sunset over the volcanic ranges of the Great African Rift Valley.