8 Days Shira Route

Overnight At Shira One Camp - Altitude: 3500 Meters Via Shira Route

Before breakfast, do final checks of your two pack gear: a small backpack for your own daily needs and a duffel bag to be carried by your personal porter. Make sure you have filled enough water for the day, got your packed lunch, store excess luggage with the hotel, your passport and money are all stored with you. You will need trekking poles and light clothing. An early start takes you on a two to three hour drive through farmland and villages to Londorossi Gate at 2250 meters on the west side of the shining mountain. En-route your drive, you will have fantastic views of snow-crested Kibo Crater, your ultimate African mountain climbing objective. You will appreciate the leisurely pace necessary for your trek as you wait around for registration and meet your team mountain crew of guides, porters and cooks. There will be a chance to observe some of the sparse wildlife in woodland, where black and white Colobus monkeys are frequently seen. You will need gaiters, waterproofs, and trekking poles for a three to four hour trek through tropical rain forest on a steep, demanding introduction to your Tanzanian mountain hiking trip. Thereafter, you will be driven to Morrum Barrier at 3720 meters, here you will begin your trek at a high elevation. This is a two to three hour hike where you will have wonderful views of the west side of Shira Plateau. You will then reach Shira One Camp at 3500 meters for the overnight. Nights are getting chilly, but spirits are high as you settle into the daily rhythm of your trek on Kilimanjaro.

Trekking time: 2-3 hours

Distance covered: 7 km

Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner

Overnight At Shira Two Camp - Altitude: 3900 Meters

After a beautiful sunrise over the mountain, press onward across the Shira Caldera, the bowl of the ancient volcano, for a short, easy acclimatization walk of three to five hours to Shira Two Camp at 3900 meters. Here, you can side track to the cathedral rocks where there is an excellent mobile signal. When the mist rises, there are superlative views. 400 altitude meters is ascended today.

Trekking time: 3-5 hours

Distance covered: 6 km

Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner

Overnight AtBarranco Camp - Altitude: 3960 Meters

Depending on your reaction to the height, you can climb to Lava Tower at 4600 meters before lunch to gain some height to help with acclimatization, and later in the early afternoon to Arrow Glacier at 4876 before dropping down into the Barranco Valley at 3960 meters, a bizarre, furrowed landscape of surreal giant groundsel, like living lava columns crowned with orbs of foliage and yellow daisy flowers in season. Both the Lava Tower and Arrow Glacier offers an exhilarating African climbing challenge before you join the toiling hordes making for Barranco Camp from other routes like Machame, Lemosho and Umbwe. You can go as far to the outskirts but take care. You came to focus your Tanzanian mountain tour on climbing Kilimanjaro, not to risk injury on a mere side track. Total trekking time will be between seven and eight hours today. Make the most of your Tanzanian highlands holiday adventure with magnificent sunset photos of pastel clouds boiling up from the valleys and ice on the vertiginous cliff walls. This is where you will begin to feel the effects of altitude, so be sure to tell your guide if you have problems. Your safety is of paramount importance on this East African mountain challenge. In line with climb high and sleep low strategy, you will gain on ascent and lose on descent - an impeccable acclimation day. Today is also the day when three other treks (Machame, Shira and Umbwe) join up with the Lemosho Route for the overnight at Barranco Camp.

Trekking time: 7-8 hours

Distance covered: 10 km

Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner

Acclimatization - Overnight At Karanga Camp - Altitude: 4035 Meters

Today you tackle the Great Barranco Wall for further highlands acclimatization, in company with hundreds of fellow climbers in this bottleneck area which must be crossed by hopefuls from Lemosho, Machame and Umbwe Routes. All spent the night at Barranco Camp, one of the busiest intersections on this Kilimanjaro altitude trip. It may appear to be unnerving and is certainly exposed and steep for the short ascent, but the rest of the ascent is diagonal and easier than it might appear. Still, it is a hard day’s adventure on Kilimanjaro and one to generate a great sense of achievement as you look down over the pleated mountain side and watch clouds rolling up to meet you. Then follows a switchback descent into Karanga Valley making a long day of three to five hours before reaching the campsite in a beautiful river valley, home to glorious Malachite sunbirds and the last green vegetation you will see until you return from Uhuru Peak. Instead of pushing on to Barafu, you get to stay overnight in the valley at Karanga Camp at 4035 meters for a well-earned rest and to gain an extra acclimatization day before tackling the summit. From the various valleys, there are superb views of the lower glaciers which alone make your demanding Tanzanian highlands vacation worthwhile.

Trekking time: 3-5 hours

Distance covered: 6 km

Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner

Overnight AtBarafu Camp - Altitude: 4650 Meters

The sun rises behind Kilimanjaro, dazzling as it reflects on snow and ice. From Karanga Valley to Barafu is a short trek of around three to four hours ascent on a path that is admittedly steep and gets steeper as you get nearer Barafu. The landscape is barren, arctic desert. It is cold and windy, but the views are fantastic with Kibo ahead, clouds below and glaciers to your left. You will reach Barafu Camp at 4650 meters after your picnic lunch, and your porters may greet you with encouraging clapping choruses of “Kilimanjaro, Hakuna Matata”, “Kilimanjaro, No Problem Or Worries”! This clapping song and dance is unique to hiking tours on Kilimanjaro.

Be sure that you are not suffering badly enough from Acute Mountain Sickness to be a danger to yourself and others. A headache or other mild AMS symptoms may not prevent you from continuing with your team’s cheerful help and unfailing support, but confusion, coughing, lack of motor function or impaired vision all indicate real problems. Your team head guide will make the final decision on your fitness to proceed with this East African climbing challenge or whether you need to descend quickly to a lower camp. If so, you will be accompanied by your personal guide or in more extreme straits, you will be stretchered down on a sturdy, purpose built, one-wheeled stretcher: the “Kilimanjaro Express” before any further evacuation. The extra night spent at Karanga will prove its worth as you are more rested and better prepared than many people who have reached Barafu by other routes. You have plenty of time to prepare for your summit attempt, leaving behind all unnecessary equipment. 615 altitude meters expanded today to your ascent tally. Uhuru Trails by Encircle Trekkers advises you to eat and sleep during the afternoon as well as to familiarize yourself with the camp. It is a sprawling agglomeration of dozens of tents pitched on rocky, sloping ground, so being amongst the first to arrive gives your porters chance to select the best camping spots. It is also daring in the dark, being situated on the edge of a cliff. Be sure your equipment is ready and your water tube is well insulated against freezing. Take spare batteries for headlamp and camera. Be sure to capture your African climb adventure forever.

Trekking time: 3-4 hours

Distance covered: 4 km

Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner

Overnight At Mweka Camp - Altitude: 3080 Meters After Summiting Uhuru Peak At 5895 Meters

You will need every layer of dry, warm, rainproof clothing, gloves, hand warmers and balaclava, as you set out on your summit attempt just after midnight. You will summit and descend to a lower camp during the hardest day of your life. You cannot move too slowly. Pace yourself and listen to your body. Headache, nausea and even vomiting are not uncommon, but climbers ignore them and trudge on sensibly, “Pole, Pole”, slow and easy. You will soon fall into the Kilimanjaro shuffle, familiar to everyone who accepts the Kilimanjaro uphill challenge, for a trance-like eternity of placing one foot before the other, pausing for breath, then making another step. But whether you succeed in reaching Uhuru Point at 5895 meters, call it a day at Stella Point at 5740 meters, or have to give up for safety before you get there, you will still have achieved something that will be the envy of most of your friends. You will have learned valuable lessons about your own body and mind. Success and failure are alternative faces of the same coin, which cannot be devalued. Failure teaches success. You were here and you will never forget your Kilimanjaro climbing safari.

A slow, torturous shuffle up an incredibly steep, loose, tortuous shale incline will test you until you become an entranced sleepwalker, thinking only of the next step on an endless trudge to eternity. In fact, it lasts around 6 hours before you get to rest for a moment at Stella Point to witness the incredible spectacle of dawn breaking behind the spires and pinnacles of Mawenzi Crater wall. Those who still want to see the snowfields and glaciers from Uhuru Peak will continue for another 1-2 hours along Kibo Crater rim to its highest point. Here few people collapse mindlessly against the sign, too spent to realize what they have achieved, whilst those who are better acclimatized have actually been seen running the last few yards in ecstatic celebration. Take the photos you will treasure forever or let your guide take them if your mind is too fuzzy. You are only allowed to stay for less than 15 minutes at the top. Then start the long trek back down to Barafu Camp for a short rest. Be very careful and take things slowly. This is no time to strain a knee joint, sprain an ankle or bruise your toenails on unstable, steep scree with hidden rocks. That is not what you want as a keepsake of your challenging highlands vacation in northern Tanzania. Pack your rain proofs before continuing down to Mweka Camp at 3080 meters for a well merited comfortable night’s sleep.

Trekking time: 13-15 hours

Distance covered: 19 km

Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner

Overnight At Mountain Inn - Altitude: 890 Meters Via Shira Route

A descent hike of only three to four hours through beautiful montane forest with tree ferns and waterfalls will reinforce good feelings about your climbing tour of the highest freestanding mountain in the world and highest in Africa. At Mweka Gate, you will receive your certificate of achievement for reaching Stella Point or Uhuru Peak. When you are all assembled, enjoy a last rousing rendition of the Kilimanjaro song, in which the chorus leader may have included a special mention of each of your team by name and the cheerful comment, “Kilimanjaro Hakuna Matata”, “Kilimanjaro, No Worries”! They are alluding the Lion King song with a twist. Before you are driven back to Mountain Inn, your Moshi base hotel, the tipping ceremony gives your support team recognition for their cheerful and devoted companionship during this challenging East African climbing tour. What bliss to luxuriate in a long, hot shower, your first for over a week. You can also have a swim, a massage and a celebratory dinner in multicultural style, a suitable ending to your Tanzanian highlands holiday safari. Uhuru Trails by Encircle Trekkers guarantees you the best possible experience on a Shira tour of Kilimanjaro.

Trekking time: 3-4 hours

Distance covered: 10 km

Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner