Mount Kilimanjaro (5.895m): through the Marangu Route

Mount Kilimanjaro trek through Marangu Route.

The Kilimanjaro (5.895m) is a dormant volcano in Tanzania which is the highest mountain in Africa and the highest single free-standing mountain above sea level in the world. It has three volcanic cones: Kibo, Mawenzi, and Shira.

The Marangu route is one of the trails to reach the highest point of the Kibo cone: The Uhuru Peak.

There are many routes to ascend the Uhuru Peak, but only one of them has huts to overnight: the Marangu route (aka The Cocacola Route, due to its popularity). The other ones require to sleep in tents.
I chose the Marangu route to avoid the cold in the night as much as possible, but as the huts are simple 4-bedded wood houses, without a heating system, I still felt the freezing nights, even with a good sleeping bag!

I will not describe every stage of this route, as I think this is better to find it out while trekking, but I will say that it is a 5-day route, which can be also done in 5 days (with an extra acclimatisation day), and that it is a very easy route (in terms of technical difficulty), even in terms of physical difficulty (as most of the days, for acclimatisation purposes, you’re going to walk “pole pole”, meaning “slow” in swahili). Except for the last day which is a bit mor steep and the elevation makes it very challenging. Remember to walk slow and breath deeply!

This is a route that cannot be freely done. As it is within the Kilimanjaro National Park, you’re requested to go with at least: 1 guide + 1 chef + 3 porters per person.

In my case, I arranged it with a local agency called Widerange African Safaris, which are great and cheap comparing to other foreign agencies. I loved each and every part of this adventure my team:

- Guide: Thadey Michael
- Chef: Wilson Mzaua
- Porter & Waiter: Mustafa Amudy
- Porter: Afizu Amudy
- Porter: Emanuel Nyadee

The waypoints on the trail are the huts so where we overnighted. I just missed to add the first one, but it is easy to see its location from the track, you will see a little curve on the first 1/4 of the trail.