Itinerary · 8 days · 39 places
8 Days on Kilimanjaro
Seven trekking days on the Machame Route — from the rainforest at Machame Gate across the Shira Plateau and the Barranco Wall to Uhuru Peak, preceded by a night in Moshi to settle in and check your gear.
Open in the appThere you can adjust the plan to your dates, your pace and your interests.
Photo: Kilinge Adventures · Pexels
The route on the map
The plan, day by day
Day 1Arrival in Moshi & trek briefing
Arrival in Kilimanjaro
Hotel check-in
A room in central Moshi around the clock tower, where the trekking jeeps leave in the morning and the gear-hire shops are within walking distance.
Trek briefing and gear check
Your guide weighs the duffel bag to 15 kg, goes through your documents and rescue insurance, and checks your layers, headtorch and poles item by item.
Day 2Machame Gate & rainforest
Machame Gate — registration
At the park gate at 1,800 m you sign the Kilimanjaro National Park register while the porters have their loads weighed.
Rainforest trail along the Weru Weru valley
A muddy path beneath tree ferns and old man's beard, where you can hear colobus monkeys and turacos in the canopy.
Into the giant heather zone
At around 2,800 m the forest ends abruptly and the trail leads between head-high tree heather, with the first clear view back down to the plains.
Machame Camp (3,010 m)
The first tented camp in a clearing at the forest edge, where the crew pitches the tents and you sign in again at the ranger post.
Evening: starry sky over Machame Camp
Above the treeline the southern sky is free of light pollution, with the Southern Cross right above the tents.
Day 3Climbing onto the Shira Plateau
Ascent to the Shira Ridge
A steep rocky ridge with short scrambling sections, where the heather gives way to cushions of moss and lichen.
Edge of the Shira Plateau
At the top of the ridge, the ancient caldera of the Shira volcano suddenly opens up — a barren high plain at 3,800 m.
Shira Cave Camp (3,850 m)
A tented camp beside the rock cave it is named after, once used for overnight stays; Kibo's western flank stands in full view.
Acclimatisation walk with views of Mount Meru
A short walk west across the plateau; when it's clear, the cone of Mount Meru rises above the sea of cloud.
Evening: sunset on the Shira Plateau
The plateau sits above the cloud layer, the sun sinks behind Mount Meru and the temperature drops below zero within minutes.
Day 4Lava Tower & Barranco
Shira 2 Camp (3,900 m)
The last campsite on the plateau, where the trail turns east towards Kibo.
High plain towards the Lava Tower
A gently rising desert of scree with no vegetation, where you feel the altitude with every breath.
Lava Tower (4,630 m)
A 90 m lava plug at the day's highest point — here you only acclimatise; you sleep lower down.
Senecio valley below the Lava Tower
The descent leads through a stand of tree-sized giant groundsels and lobelias found only on the high mountains of East Africa.
Barranco Camp (3,960 m)
A tented camp in a hollow right below the Barranco Wall, with the icefalls of Kibo's south face behind you.
Evening: Barranco Wall in the last light
The 250 m rock wall you'll climb in the morning turns rust-red at sunset.
Day 5Barranco Wall & Karanga Valley
Barranco Wall (Breakfast Wall)
An exposed scramble with hands on the rock, including the notorious Kissing Rock, where you press yourself against the wall.
Karanga Valley
A deeply cut valley with the last water source on the route, which drops steeply down and climbs just as steeply back up.
Karanga Camp (3,995 m)
A campsite on a ridge above the valley, where the porters haul up the water for the last two days.
Acclimatisation walk to the Karanga ridge
A short walk 150 metres up and back down again, so your body can cope with tomorrow's jump to 4,600 m.
Evening: Mawenzi in the afterglow
In clear weather the jagged secondary summit of Mawenzi stands to the east above the saddle and lights up just before sunset.
Day 6To Barafu base camp
Ascent via the Karanga ramp
A steadily rising scree ridge through the alpine desert zone, where nothing but lichen grows any more.
Barafu Camp (4,673 m)
The base camp on a windswept rocky ridge — barafu means ice in Swahili, and the tents stand on bare lava rock.
Gear check for the summit night
Your guide checks your down jacket, gloves, headtorch with spare batteries and the vacuum flask, the only thing that won't freeze at minus 15 degrees.
Viewpoint rocks above the Barafu ridge
From the rocks behind the camp you see the zigzags of the night route and the Rebmann Glacier on the crater rim.
Evening: lights of Moshi from the Barafu ridge
Some 3,800 metres below the camp, on clear nights Moshi glows as a sea of lights through gaps in the clouds — then it's into your sleeping bag very early.
Day 7Summit night to Uhuru Peak
Night ascent to the crater rim
From midnight you climb by headtorch in tight zigzags over frozen scree, step by step and with no break longer than five minutes.
Stella Point (5,756 m)
The point on the crater rim where the ascent ends and the crater's glacier walls light up at sunrise.
Uhuru Peak (5,895 m)
The green summit sign at the highest point in Africa, with the remains of the Northern Icefield beside it; stay only briefly because of the thin air.
Descent via the Rebmann scree field
In the loose scree you slide down in long strides along the night route that took six hours to climb.
Rest at Barafu camp
Back at base camp you pack up and sleep for an hour before the descent continues into warmer air.
Millennium Camp (3,790 m)
On the way down, the first vegetation in three days reappears at this campsite.
Mweka Camp (3,100 m)
The last tented camp, at the upper edge of the cloud forest, where after summit day the air is thick and damp again.
Evening: Kilimanjaro song and tipping ceremony
Guides and porters sing the Kilimanjaro song, then the group's tips are presented — the summit certificate only comes tomorrow at Mweka Gate.
Day 8Mweka Gate & departure
Descent through the cloud forest to Mweka
A slippery, often wet forest path among ferns and cushions of moss, where blue monkeys leap across the trail.
Mweka Gate (1,640 m)
At the exit gate at 1,640 m you sign out for the last time and receive the national park's official summit certificate.
Moshi clock tower
The white clock tower on the roundabout is the centre of town; from here it's a five-minute walk to the coffee roasters.
Moshi Central Market
Market halls with spices, mountains of bananas and colourful kanga cloths — the best place for Kilimanjaro coffee to take home.
Departure from Kilimanjaro
Make it your trip
Viatro AI opens this plan in the app — with map, travel times and opening hours. You change the days, pace and places yourself.
