6-Day Kilimanjaro Marangu Route Trek to Uhuru Peak from Moshi

• Begin with a pick-up from your hotel in Moshi at 8 a.m. and drive to Marangu Gate, enjoying excellent views of the mountain along the way.
• Meet the team of guides and porters at the gate.
• See bright-coloured birds, colobus monkeys and other monkey species, as well as mosses, lichens, flowers and delicate orchids in the forest.
• Get an incredible view of the town of Moshi lying at the edge of the plain further below.
• Ascend from the park buildings and walk for 4-5 hours through coffee plantations and thick rainforest to reach Mandara Hut for dinner and an overnight stay.

• After breakfast, take a steep climb through the last swathe of rainforest, which soon gives way to a rolling alpine meadow dotted with giant heather. Witness the incredible view of Kilimanjaro's two peaks: snow-covered Kibo and rocky Mawenzi, lying straight ahead and overlooking the skyline.
• Cross a zone of open moorland with diminutive vegetation. Have dinner and stay overnight at Horombo Huts (3,720 m).

Duration of the walk: 5-7 hours (depending on your pace).

• Take a walk to the base of Mawenzi Peak, the dramatic eastern summit of Kilimanjaro (4-5 hours including the round trip). This is the third-highest peak in Africa after Mount Kilimanjaro and Mount Kenya.
• Return to Horombo Hut for dinner and an overnight stay.

• Go around Mawenzi Peak as you pass the last water point. Cross a stark landscape to the Saddle, a wide tundra desert between the two peaks of Mawenzi and Kibo.
• Witness the upper ranges of the mountain before arriving at Kibo Hut (4,705 m), a dry-stone-walled hut with dorms and limited facilities. Prepare for the summit day and take proper rest at Kibo Hut for the night.

• Wake up soon after midnight and begin the trek in the darkness, zigzagging up a long scree slope by the light of your torch in the extreme cold. (2-hour walk)
• Reach Hans Meyer's Cave, named after the German geologist who made the first successful ascent in 1889.
• Continue the trek for another three hours to reach the crater rim at Johanne's Notch.
• Take a short walk to Gillman's Point (5,685 m) and witness the dramatic spectacle of the sun rising over the ice fields and craggy peaks of Mawenzi. Trek for another couple of hours along the crater rim to reach Uhuru (Freedom) Peak (5,896 m) if you still have energy left.
• Take the route back down past Kibo Hut to Horombo Hut for a well-deserved rest and an overnight stay.

• Trek down across alpine meadow and past Mandara Hut through the rainforest to Marangu Gate.
• Board the vehicle at Marangu Gate for the journey back to Moshi.