7 Days Kilimanjaro — Machame Route

A short but steep day out of the forest and onto the Shira Plateau — one of the highest plateaus on earth and the floor of an older, collapsed cone. The vegetation drops away and Kibo appears properly for the first time.

Short distance, big altitude gain. Walk slowly. Your guide will say pole pole roughly two hundred times this week and he means it.

The most important day of the week and the one people misunderstand. You climb east to Lava Tower at about 4,600 m, have lunch there, and then descend to sleep 600 m lower at Barranco.

That looks like wasted effort and is the opposite: climb high, sleep low is how acclimatisation works, and this single day does more for your summit chances than anything else on the route. Most people feel rough at Lava Tower and noticeably better by the time they reach camp.

Barranco itself is the finest campsite on the mountain — giant groundsels, the Breach Wall above you, and the lights of Moshi far below at night.

The Barranco Wall looks impossible from camp and is not — it is a scramble rather than a climb, using hands in a few places, and it takes about an hour and a half. It is the best morning on the mountain and the one everybody photographs.

Then a short day across the Karanga Valley to camp. Adding the Karanga night is part of why this is a seven-day route rather than six: it means summit night starts rested.

A deliberately short day up alpine desert to base camp. You arrive around lunchtime, eat early, and are in the tent by seven trying to sleep — which almost nobody manages.

Your guide will go through summit night in detail: layers, water, pace, what to eat, and what happens if you have to turn around. Listen to that briefing properly.

You are woken around 23:30 for tea and biscuits and start walking a little after midnight, in the cold and the dark, in a slow line of head torches.

Six or seven hours of switchbacks brings you to Stella Point on the crater rim at about 5,750 m, usually right as it gets light. Another forty-five minutes along the rim, past the glaciers, is Uhuru Peak — 5,895 metres, the highest point in Africa, and the sign everybody photographs.

Then you go down, a long way. Back to Barafu for a rest and something to eat, then on down to Mweka at 3,100 m. It is a very long day and you will sleep extremely well at the end of it.

A last descent through the rainforest to Mweka Gate — muddy, knee-punishing and cheerful. Certificates are issued at the gate: green for Stella Point, gold for Uhuru.

Then the drive back to Moshi, a shower that you will remember for some time, and the tipping ceremony with your crew.