Mt. Kilimanjaro Trek – Rongai Route 7 Days

Day 0: Arrival – Moshi- Pre-trek Briefing

If you have chosen to use our airport transfer service, we will collect you from Kilimanjaro Airport and take you to your hotel in Moshi or Arusha. Your guide will meet you at the hotel for a pre-trek briefing, which is scheduled for the day after your arrival. We recommend that you arrive at least one day before the trek begins. During the briefing, we will discuss the trek and review your equipment. If you require any additional equipment, we can arrange for it to be rented from our store.

Day 1: Moshi to Rongai gate to Simba Camp

• Elevation: 1,387/915 m to 1,950 m to 2,750 m
• Distance: 7km.
• Hiking Time: 3 hours
• Habitat: Montane Forest

You will have an early breakfast. Transfer by our vehicles through many villages and coffee and plantations for 2-3-hour drive to Rongai gate (1,950 m/6,398 ft). After signing in and preparing the porters, you will start hiking on a wide path winding through fields of maize and potatoes, and then enter into montane forest. You will then start to climb gently but consistently through attractive forest that shelters a variety of wildlife. The forest begins to thin as you arrive at Simba Camp (2,600 m/8,530ft) with fantastic views over the Kenyan plains.

Day 2: Simba Camp to Kikelewa Camp

• Elevation: 2,750 m to 3,600 m
• Distance: 18km.
• Hiking Time: 8-9 hours
• Habitat: Moorland

After an early breakfast you will have a steady ascent to the second cave where you will stop for lunch. You leave the direct trail at this point and strike out across the moorland on a smaller path toward Mawenzi side peak.to Kikelewa Camp in a sheltered valley. At the Kikelewa Camp you will settle for your dinner and overnight rest.

Day 3: Kikelewa camp to Mawenzi turn hut

• Elevation: 3,600m to 4,330m
• Distance: 7km.
• Hiking Time: 4 hours
• Habitat: Semi-Desert

After breakfast you will face a short, steep climb up grassy slopes; rewarded by superb all-round views, immersed in the vast surrounding wilderness. Soon after, you leave the vegetation behind and arrive at the Mawenzi Tarn Camp, which is situated in a spectacular cirque directly beneath the towering spires of Mawenzi Peak. After this hike, you will reach to the Mawenzi turn hut camp where you will also see the amazing undried Lake with no inlat as well as outlet here you will have lunch and rest then dinner and overnight at this camp.

Day 4: Acclimatization day (6-day itinerary skips this day) 

This is your extra day on the mountain, and you will spend two nights at Mawenzi Tarn. You will hike up towards Mawenzi for a splendid acclimatization hike. Then after return back to the camp for lunch the dinner and overnight.

Day 5: Mawenzi Tarn hut to Kibo Huts Camp

• Elevation: 4,330m to 4,695m
• Distance: 8km.
• Hiking Time: 5 hours
• Habitat: Alpine Desert

After an early breakfast you will cross the lunar desert of the saddle between Kibo peak and Mawenzi peak to Kibo Huts at the bottom of Kibo’s crater wall. You should spend the remainder of the day resting and preparing for your summit climb.

Day 6: Summit Day! Kibo Huts camp to Uhuru Peak to Horombo Huts camp.

• Elevation:4,695 m to 5,895m to 3,690m
• Distance:4km up, 14km down.
• Hiking Time:10-15 hours
• Habitat:Alpine Desert

Wake at midnight to a light breakfast and then prepare for your summit ascent. The goal is to climb before dawn so that you can reach Uhuru Peak shortly before or after sunrise. Leave to the peak at 12; 00AM, switchback up steep scree or possibly snow, and reach Gilman’s Point on the crater rim at 5,861 m/18,640 ft between 4 and 6 AM. At this point, you will have views of the fabled crater and its icecaps facing you. Then after 2 hours of hiking along the Kibo crater rim near the celebrated snows takes you to Kilimanjaro’s true summit, Uhuru Peak here you will spend some times for taking photo’s but it will depend on how you feel. After your summit activities done, descend back to the Kibo Huts, have lunch, rest, collect your equipment, and continue on down, re-crossing the saddle to the Horombo Huts. Have dinner and overnight at Horombo camp.

Day 7: Horombo Huts camp to Marangu Gate to Moshi

• Elevation:3,690 m to 1,830m to 1,387m
• Distance:
• Hiking Time: 5-7 hours

After a long and enjoyable sleep, you will be awaked for breakfast and pack up, start descend through the moorland to Mandara Huts. Here you will have lunch then proceed with your triumphant recessional down through lush forest to Marangu park gate. Here you will sign out then after a vehicle will take you to back to the hotel where it is definitely time for certificate presentation and celebration!

Day 8: Departure – Tanzania

The day is left free to wind down after the trek before your flight home. After a good night’s rest at your hotel, you will take breakfast ready for the scheduled check-out by 10.00. (If you wish to remain in the hotel during the day, please advise us of this when you book your trip and we will inform you of the cost for day room which ends at 18:00hrs, and then make the booking on your behalf.)

If you have booked a transfer to the airport, you will be collected from your hotel and dropped off at the airport. For those travelers who have booked to go on safari, our Kilele Climb guide will be meeting you in the evening to provide you with a pre-safari briefing.

*Safari, Zanzibar and other add-ons are available if you wish to continue exploring Tanzania.