6 DAYs MACHAME ROUTE      

Overview    

Known as the “Whiskey route”, Truly Machame route is the most popular route and has a very high success rate of making it to the top. It offers beautiful and natural features of landscape. It starts with a nice day of walking through the rainforest and has a nice steady altitude increase each day. The accommodation on the way up and down is strictly camping (movable tents) only. The Machame Route takes you high to Lava Tower on day 3 then brings you down for an overnight at Barranco Camp. This intermediate ascent and descent is the secret to a successful acclimatization and is the reason that this route has a high success rate. The Machame route is normally completed in a minimum of 6 days/5nights on the mountain.

ITINERARY  

Arrive in Tanzania

Arrive at the Kilimanjaro International Airport where you will be meet with Boko Explorers representative, picked up there and transfer to hotel in Moshi town. Then you will meet your guide who will brief you on your upcoming trek and do an equipment check to make sure you have all the necessary mountain gear. Gear which is missing can be rented on this day.

Hotel: Bed & Breakfast

Day 1: Machame Gate (1800 m) to Machame Camp (2835 m)    

Hiking time: 7 hours

Distance covered: 11 km

Habitat: Montane Forest

Meal: breakfast, lunch and dinner included    

After breakfast you will be picked up at the hotel around 8:00 am and transferred to Machamegate. On the way you will see coffee and banana plantations grown by Chagga people. After arriving at Machame gate you will go through some park formalities such as registration then you will start your Kilimanjaro climbing at the Machame gate. Your first day hike is through a tropical rain forest up to Machame camp (2835 m). On the route you will have a picnic lunch.  

Day 2: Machame Camp (2835 m) to Shira Cave Camp (3750 m)    

Approx. hiking time: 3 hours    

Distance covered: 5 km    

Habitat: Moorland    

Meal: breakfast, lunch and dinner included    

You start to hike around 8:00 am. You will climb an hour to the top of the forest and then 1 hour at a gentler gradient through the moorland zone. After a short lunch (snacks) and break, you continue up a rocky ridge, the Shira plateau. At this point you will be able to see an eastern direction, the western breach with its stunning glacier. 

Day 3: Shira Cave Camp (3750 m) to BarancoCamp (3900 m)    

Approx. hiking time: 6 hours    

Distance covered: 10 km    

Habitat: Alpine desert    

Meal: breakfast, lunch and dinner included    

To take advantage of acclimatization, we will hike to high altitude and then descend to a lower altitude. The trek will take us into alpine desert up to lava tower (4600 m) before descending to Baranco Camp (3900 m). This descent to Barranco Camp takes about 3 hours and offers great opportunities to take some beautiful pictures of the Western Breach and Barranco wall. The campsite is situated in a valley below the Barranco wall which should provide you a memorable sunset while waiting for dinner.

Day 4:  Barranco Camp (3900 m) to Barafu Camp (4640 m)    

Approx. hiking time: 8 hours    

Distance covered: 8 km    

Habitat: Alpine desert    

Meal: breakfast, lunch and dinner included    

Today our Kilimanjaro trek takes us from Baranco Camp, famous for its giant groundsels. We will ascend the great Barranco wall, which divides us form the southern slopes of Kibo. Climbing the    

Barranco wall it’s a climb over rocks. The route is not technical, but long and tiring and it will take us at Karanga Camp where we will have lunch and our last stop for water before the summit. Afterwards we will continue to walk through the alpine desert towards Barafu Camp (Base Camp, 4640 m). 

Day 5: Barafu Camp (4640 m) to UHURU PEAK (5895m) then down to Millennium Camp (3950 m)    

Approx. hiking time: 12-15 hours    

Distance covered: 15 km

Meal: breakfast, lunch and dinner included    

We will wake up very early, at around 00:00, some light tea with cookies will be ready for you. We will climb scree for 4 to 5 hours but gain incredible height over a short distance. The view is spectacular. We should be on the crater rim at Stella point (5756 m) as the first rays of the sun hit us. Then it will take us 1-hour form Stella point to Uhuru peak (5895 m) were you take some photos for a few minutes before we start descending to Barafu Camp for lunch and some rest, and then walk down to Millennium Camp (3950 m) for dinner and overnight.   Meal: breakfast, lunch and dinner included  

 Day 6: Millennium Camp (3950m) to Mweka Gate (1630m)    

Approx. hiking time: 5 hours    

Distance covered: 14 km

Habitat: Moorland & tropical rain forest.    

Meal: breakfast and lunch included    

After breakfast you continue the final descend, it’s a couple of hours further now from Millennium Campsite to Mweka Gate, where you will collect your certificates. After complete park formalities and receiving the certificates, a private car will take you back to your hotel where you can have a warm shower. It’s definitely time to celebrate!  

End of The Trip