Lemosho 6-Day Route

After clearing immigration at Kilimanjaro Airport and collecting your luggage, our friendly Kilimanjaro team will meet you for our transfer to Moshi, based at the foothills of Mt. Kilimanjaro. Once checked in at the hotel, you’ll have the day at leisure before starting your Lemosho route itinerary.

Stay: Springlands Hotel

Meals: Breakfast

2,100m (6,890ft) – 2,650m (8,695ft) 

Average hiking time: 4 hours

Enjoy an early breakfast at your hotel and then transfer to the national park – an average 3-hour drive.  After completing the necessary registration formalities drive to the Lemosho trailhead where you will start your hike. It’s an easy day of walking from the Lemosho road heading up a small path through the beautiful and lush forest.  Enjoy lunch in the glades before continuing to the camp. 

Stay: Mti Mkubwa Camp

Meals: Lunch, dinner & breakfast

2,650m (8,695ft) – 3,480m (11,417ft) 

Average hiking time: 8 hours

We leave the forest behind and enter the moorland zone of giant heather.  The trail climbs steadily with extensive views to reach the rim of the Shira Plateau.  There is a tangible sense of wilderness, especially when the afternoon mists come in!  We might walk to the summit of Shira Cathedral, a huge buttress of rock flanked by steep pinnacles, before reaching the next camp near Shira Cave. This campsite has some of the most stunning views of Kilimanjaro, close to the glaciated dome of Kibo and the jagged rim of the Shira Plateau.  From here the views of Mount Meru floating on the clouds are simply unforgettable.  

Stay: Shira Camp 1 

Meals: Lunch, dinner & breakfast

3,480m (11,417ft) – 3,985m (13,071ft) 

Average hiking time: 8 hours

A morning of gentle ascends and panoramic views, leaving the moorland plateau behind to walk on lava ridges beneath the glaciers of the western breach.  After lunch near the Lava Tower junction, we descend to the bottom of the Great Barranco valley, sheltered by towering cliffs, with extensive views of the plains far below.    

Stay: Barranco Camp 

Meals: Lunch, dinner & breakfast

3,985m (13,071ft) – 4,681m (15,358ft) 

Average hiking time: 7 hours

From Barranco Camp, you’ll start ascending the Barranco Wall (100m – very steep) and continue hiking to Karanga Valley. Enjoy your packed lunch and refill your water bottles as this is your last water point. The vast and barren moonscape of the alpine desert is a very harsh and rugged environment. Only tussock grasses and a few tiny flowers can survive at this altitude.  Uhuru Peak sometime hauls itself through the clouds, and it seems very close.   

Stay: Barafu Camp 

Meals: Lunch, dinner & breakfast

4,681m (15,358ft) – 5,895m (19,341ft) 

Average time to the summit: 7 hours

An early start is required (+/- 11h30pm) for the summit attempt and Uhuru Peak the highest point in Africa at 5,895m. The trail is tougher than anything that you’ve experienced on your ascend with a sustained switchback climb through steep scree. Slowly and with regular stops is the best way to do it. After Stella Point on the crater rim, it is a very short but very long walk to Uhuru Peak. SUMMIT!!!!! the highest peak in Africa. 

Uhuru Peak – Mweka Camp (descend)

5,895m (19,341ft) – 3,090m (10,138ft) 

Average descending time: 3 hours

After the summit, you will return to Barafu camp, before continuing to where you will spend your final night on the mountain.

Stay: Mweka Camp 

Meals: Lunch, dinner & breakfast

3,090m (10,138ft) – 1,641m (5,384ft) 

Average hiking time: 4 hours

The day is spent descending through open moorlands and the rain forest to the Park Gate. Transfer to a heavenly shower and a real bed at the RIGHT altitude. 

Stay: Springlands Hotel 

Meals: Lunch & breakfast

Transfer from Springlands Hotel to Kilimanjaro Airport for your flight home.

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