8 Days Machame Route

5 hours walking, 10 kms

Transport to Machame Gate (1 hour up to 1790m). Registration (sometimes it can take a few hours or so for this process). Trek to Machame Camp through beautiful montane forest on good path. Camp overnight at the edge of the forest.

6-7 hours walking, 7 kms

Machame camp to shira Plateau uphill through thin forest anfd into huge volcanic plateau. Camping is more exposed here with great view of the summit.

7-8 hours walking, 10 kms

Shira Camp to Barranco Camp traversing two valleys skirting the base of the summit massif. High desert environment with amazing rock formations, quite exposed to the weather, dropping into the Barranco Valley right beneath the Western Breach. This day ascends a maximum of 700 metres but the net height gain is only about 100 metres.

5 hours walking, 4 kms

Barranco Camp to Karanga Valley, starting with a scramble over the Barranco Wall and over a further two valleys to get to this open campsite with great views of the Heim Glacier. Another up and down day but no net gain in height, which is all good for acclimatisation.

4-5 hours walking, 4 kms

Karanga Valley to Barafu Camp, heading upwards towards the open rock and colder temperatures. Barafu means ‘ice’ in Swahili and the camping is amongst the rocks. Early dinner.

7 hours up, 6 hours down, 18 kms

Summit day. Night-time ascent on rock and scree, snow and ice, to the crater rim and the summit. Expect cold temperatures with windchill. The final slope to the crater rim and Stella Point has loose scree and is very slow. From Stella Point it is a further 45 minutes up the escarpment to the summit of Uhuru. Descend in sunlight to Barafu for early lunch, and then walk down to Millennium Camp, normally arriving midafternoon.

4-6 hours walking, 11 km

Normally at about 2 pm. The gate is where tips are handed out and you say goodbye to the mountain staff, although sometimes this is done at the hotel. A hot shower and an afternoon relaxing.