MARANGU WAY

It is the easiest way to climb Kilimanjaro, the nights are spent in huts and the ascent is very regular. It is nicknamed the Coca-Cola Route, because of its affluence - mostly Americans at the beginning - and the relative comfort it offers. This gradual ascent allows you to discover the different stages of vegetation found in the mountains, under equatorial latitudes, and thanks to the high humidity of the massif and the numerous rivers and waterfalls, present up to 4 000 m. The coffee and banana plantations of the foothills (800 m to 1,800 m) are followed by a dense forest (1,800 m to 2,800 m), populated by large trees, inextricable lianas, rubber trees...
This is also where you will meet the most animals: monkeys, birds, chameleons and some antelopes. After the giant heathers, you will cross a zone of high grass (2 800 m to 4 000 m).
You will discover giant ragwort and lobelia, with Kibo and its snowy glaciers in the background. The landscape then becomes more arid, the sometimes muddy paths of the forest give way to others, more stony. The alpine zone quickly becomes a desert, the temperature amplitudes are enormous between day and night, and we start to feel the lack of oxygen. This part, the closest to Kibo and Mawenzi, is the most spectacular and the landscapes are grandiose. The route has been equipped with Nordic style huts and solar panels by Scandinavian donors.

Day 1 of the climb.

Marangu - Mandara. 7 km long and 750 m ascent. Departure from Marangu Gate, at an altitude of 1800m. During the formalities (declarations and payment of park fees), your porters take care of your equipment. Depart for a slow 4 hour walk through dense rainforest to Mandara Hut (2,750m), named after an influential Chagga chief from the early exploration days. If you are still in shape, a short walk to the Maundi Crater is a must, from where you will have a beautiful view of the plain, Lake Jipe and, in the distance, the Pare and Usambara Mountains. Dinner is served at the hut in a dining room on the first floor under the large dormitory and is usually hot and hearty.

Day 2.

Mandara - Horombo. 11 km for 1 000 m of ascent. Departure around 8am. You walk about 45 minutes in the forest before continuing through the high moors. After about 6 hours of walking, you reach the second hut, Horombo Hut, at 3,720m. Climbers spend the night on individual bunks in 4-person dormitories.

Day 3.

Horombo. It is highly recommended to do an acclimatization stage in Horombo, the best is to do a round trip to the foot of Mawenzi, at 4,600m. The trail starts a few hundred meters after the hut, to the right towards the north, and passes in front of the Zebra Rocks; the water flow has created beautiful white streaks on the black rock. Before reaching the Mawenzi Hut, there is a beautiful view of the plateau (the big saddle between Kibo and Mawenzi) and Kibo.

Day 4.

Horombo - Kibo Hut. 10 km and 1 000 m of ascent. 7 hours of walking for this stage, where the vegetation, shortly after the last water point, will give way to the high altitude desert. The atmosphere of high altitude is grandiose. Only the wind comes to animate these immense and silent spaces. The Kibo hut (4,700 m), with its stone walls, offers climbers dormitories for about fifteen people. The porters will stop here: for the final ascent, each person takes his own day bag, and eventually entrusts an excess load to his guide.

Day 5.

Kibo Hut-Gillman's Point - Uhuru Peak-Horombo. Climb 4km and 1,200m of ascent, descend 14km and 2,200m of ascent. The final ascent must start very early in the night (around 1h), so that the ground, then the snow, remains hard. In any case, you don't miss much, because you would have trouble sleeping. Immediately after the hut, a well marked trail rises in a Z shape. The slope is steep, and the ground is made of slag, in which you tend to sink a little. At 5,150 m, we pass the Hans Meyer Cave, where the first winners of this summit bivouacked. Not far from there, at the end of the 19th century, a mountain leopard was found frozen in the snow, and Hemingway wrote about it in one of his books. The cold is generally very intense. After 5 to 6 hours of walking, at the first light of dawn, you arrive at Gillman's Point (5,685 m), the eastern antecedent, on the edge of the crater plateau. Many climbers stop at this first summit, whereas it is really worthwhile, after having rested for a quarter of an hour, to continue on the southern rim, to reach, in one hour and at 5,895 m of altitude, Uhuru Peak, true summit of Africa and crowning of all your efforts. The descent then requires another 1 hour to Gillman's Point, then 2 hours to Kibo Hut, picking through the slag, and finally 2 hours to Horombo.

Day 6. Horombo - Hut - Marangu Hut. 18 km and 1,900 m of ascent. Quiet descent, although a little long, to the starting point of the trek, through Mandara. We advise you to ask your guide to pass by the waterfalls, a little above Marangu: some of them are very beautiful and safe, allowing you to bathe in enchanting sites typical of the equatorial forest.