12 Days Kilimanjaro Trekking and Safari

Arrive Tanzania at Kilimanjaro International. Our driver will pick you up and drive to the Hotel in Moshi where the trek begins in the foothills of Mount Kilimanjaro. Meet your experienced Kilimanjaro guide for a briefing and kit inspection. After the meeting, you will get time to prepare yourself and overnight rest before beginning the trek next day.

Distance: 11 km/7 miles Hiking Time: 5-7 hours . Habitat: Rain Forest

Drive to Machame gate from the hotel in Moshi after breakfast takes about 1 hour. The drive passes through the village of Machame which is located on the lower slopes of the mountain. Leave the park gate after registration; walk through the dense rain forest on a winding trail up a ridge until we reach the Machame Camp (2,833m/9,350ft).

Distance: 5 km/3 miles .Hiking Time: 4-6 hours. Habitat: Heath

After breakfast leave the glades of the rain forest and continue on an ascending path up to a steep, rocky ridge. On the Shira Plateau, the trail passes through heather and open moorlands, then cross a large river gorge to Shira Cave Camp.

Distance: 7 km/4 miles. Hiking Time: 4-5 hours

Habitat: Alpine Desert. Lava Tower (15,190 ft/4,785m) to Barranco Camp (13,044 ft/4,182m)

Distance: 3 km/2 miles. Hiking Time: 2-3 hours. Habitat: Alpine Desert

After breakfast, continue to the east up a ridge and then head southeast towards the Lava Tower camp (15,190ft/4,785m), – a 300 ft tall volcanic rock formation. After lunch, we descended down to Barranco Camp (3953m/13,044ft) through the strange but beautiful Senecio Forest to an altitude of 13,000 ft. The beginning and end of the day at the same elevation is not a problem. The time spent at higher altitude (Lava Tower) is very beneficial for acclimatization.

Distance: 5 km/3 miles. Hiking Time: 4-5 hours. Habitat: Alpine Desert

The day starts by descending into the base of the Great Barranco Wall. Then, from the base, we started to climb the non-technical but steep, nearly 900 ft cliff. From the top of the Barranco Wall, the trail crosses hills and valleys until it descends sharply into Karanga Valley (Karanga River), the last water point. Then we started climbing up to Karanga Camp, arriving there for lunch. Later in the afternoon, followed by a shorter acclimatization walk, then dinner and overnight.

Distance: 4 km/2 miles. Hiking Time: 4-5 hours. Habitat: Alpine Desert

From Karanga Camp, the route continues up to the rocky section until Barafu Camp. At this point, you have completed the Southern Circuit, which offers views of the summit from many different angles. Arrive at the camp, rest and followed by early dinner and prepare for the summit. When the weather gets clear, the view of the two peaks of Mawenzi and Kibo can be seen.ent

Distance: 5 km/3 miles. Hiking Time: 7-8 hours. Habitat: Arctic

Uhuru Peak (19,341 ft/5,895m) to Mweka Camp (3,100m/10,065 ft) Distance: 12 km/7 miles

Hiking Time: 4-6 hours

Habitat: Rain Forest

Starting at midnight begins the push to the summit, the most mentally and physically challenging portion of the trek. The journey will be spent in the wind and cold weather. Ascend in the darkness for several hours while taking some short breaks. Arrive at Stella Point (18,900 ft/5,730m) at sunrise. Then it continued for about an hour from Stella Point to Uhuru Peak, Africa’s highest point on Mount Kilimanjaro. Spend a short time on the summit taking photographs before starting the descent back to Barafu Camp, which takes about 3 hours. Arrive at Barafu Camp, take a short rest (1-2 hours), then continue descending to Mweka Camp for dinner and overnight.

Distance: 10 km/6 miles

Hiking Time: 3-4 hours

Habitat: Rain Forest

On the final day, after breakfast and celebrations at the camp, we continued the three-hour descent to Mweka Gate, where we signed out to the national park authority and collected our summit certificates. A vehicle will be waiting at Mweka gate and transferred back to the hotel in Moshi.

After breakfast, drive to the top of the Great Rift Valley escarpment for an incredible panoramic view of Lake Manyara. Proceed to the magical plains of the Serengeti National Park for an evening game drive en-route to your accommodation (approx. 5-6 hours drive).

Dinner and overnight at Into Wild Africa Tented Camp OR Similar, F/B

Full day in Serengeti you’ll form memories of a lifetime with a breathtaking wildlife experience in arguably Africa’s greatest animal kingdom, the Serengeti National Park (two days game viewing with all meals included). More than a million wildebeest… each one driven by the same ancient rhythm, fulfilling its instinctive role in the inescapable cycle of life; a frenzied three-week bout of territorial conquests and mating; survival of the fittest as 40km long columns plunge through crocodileinfested waters on the annual exodus north; replenishing the species in a brief population explosion that produces more than 8,000 calves daily before the 1,000km pilgrimage begins again.

Tanzania’s oldest and most popular national park, the Serengeti is famed for its annual migration, when some six million hooves pound the open plains, as more than 200,000 zebra and 300,000 Thomson’s gazelle join the wildebeest’s trek for fresh grazing. Yet even when the migration is quiet, the Serengeti offers arguably the most scintillating game-viewing in Africa, with great herds of buffalo, smaller groups of elephants and giraffes, and thousands upon thousands of eland, topi, impala and Grant’s gazelle. The spectacle of predator versus prey dominates Tanzania’s greatest park. Golden-maned lion prides feast on the abundance of plain grazers. Solitary leopards haunt the acacia trees lining the Seronera River, while a high density of cheetahs prowl the south-eastern plains. Almost uniquely, all three African jackal species occur here alongside the spotted hyena and a host of more elusive small predators, ranging from the insectivorous aardwolf to the beautiful serval cat. The liberating sense of space that characterizes the Serengeti plains is breathtaking; stretching across sunburnt savannah to a shimmering golden horizon at the end of the earth. After the rains, this golden expanse of grass is transformed into an endless green carpet dotted with wildflowers.

Dinner and overnight at Into Wild Africa Tented Camp OR Similar, F/B

After an early breakfast, then game en-route then descend into this extraordinary volcanic crater for a spectacular full day game drive (packed lunch included).

Had it not become the world’s sixth-largest unbroken caldera, then what is now known as the Ngorongoro Crater could have been a towering volcanic mountain as high as Kilimanjaro. The Crater is a large, unbroken, un-flooded volcanic caldera, formed when a giant volcano exploded and collapsed on itself some two to three million years ago.

The Ngorongoro Crater sinks to a depth of 610 metres, with its floor covering 260 square kilometres; estimates of the height of the original volcano range from 4,500m to 5,800m. Animal populations in the Crater include almost every individual species of wildlife in East Africa (with an estimated 25,000 animals within the Crater), including the “big five” of Rhinoceros, Lion, Leopard, Elephant, and Buffalo. The Ngorongoro Conservation Area (NCA), measuring 8,300 square kilometres, is the only place on earth where mankind and wild animals co-exist in harmony. The NCA became a Man and Biosphere Reserve in 1971 and was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1979. Then after game you will ascend to the rim and continue to drive to your accommodation at Bougainvillea safari Lodge OR Similar, F/B

After breakfast you will be picked up with our driver then start driving directly to JRO for your home flight.