Ruta al Kilimanjaro - De Machame Gate a Mweka Gate
Trail photos
Author
Trail stats
- Distance
- 35.4 mi
- Elevation gain
- 13,609 ft
- Technical difficulty
- Difficult
- Elevation loss
- 16,421 ft
- Max elevation
- 19,345 ft
- TrailRank
- 71
- Min elevation
- 5,326 ft
- Trail type
- One Way
- Time
- 5 days 23 hours 44 minutes
- Coordinates
- 3347
- Uploaded
- November 24, 2016
- Recorded
- November 2016
near Barangata, Kilimanjaro (Tanzania)
Viewed 2557 times, downloaded 37 times
Trail photos
Itinerary description
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Review of the route in Adventoorer: Route to Kilimanjaro - From Machame Gate to Mweka Gate .
.
Distance: 57 Km.
Accumulated positive elevation: 4148 m.
Accumulated negative elevation: 5005 m.
Difficulty: Difficult. Technically the route is very simple, but the altitude and the distance are decisive, apart from the circumstances in which it is carried out (cold, lack of sleep, discomfort of the camps, the happy cucumber soup ...).
Kilimanjaro is not really a mountain, but a mountainous group made up of three volcanoes: Shira, at an altitude of 3,962 meters, Mawenzi, at 5,149 meters, and Kibo, whose summit, Uhuru, at 5,895 meters, is the point highest in Africa. I had no idea about this. That of things that are learned while traveling.
We are going to go the Machame route, which can be done in six or seven days. We will go in seven, to have better acclimatization. Total, this is going to be once in a lifetime, so it is better to do things with margin, it is not going to be that it gives us a dodgy thing and we do not arrive. The descent will be done by the Mweka route.
The equipment that I am going to carry is the normal one that I would carry on any mountain. Neither ice ax nor crampons, because we are not even going to step on snow, and more warm things than normal, mainly because from the agency they scare you a little with the issue of the cold. Then it's not that bad either, but just in case ... I didn't get to put everything on myself.
I was only vaccinated against hepatitis B. The rest of the vaccines, or I already had them, or they were not necessary. From what I talked to the rest of the group, it seems that each site advises something different. I did not bring anything against malaria, apart from Relec for mosquitoes in Moshi, and also not for altitude sickness. Pass, we are going to acclimatize quite well.
Well, there we go to Tanzania, via Ethiopia. Let's go with Kilimanjaro Heroes Adventures. Is it good or bad agency? I had no problem with them. The tents could have been a bit newer, but other than that they were terrific. I guess all agencies will be more or less like that. We brought a guide, a couple of assistants, a cook, and twenty porters to carry the tents, food, and gear for the seven in the group.
In Moshi we stayed in a hostel that belongs to the NGO 'Born to Learn', the Karibu Hostel, www.karibuhostel.com/es. It is an NGO created by a woman from Madrid, who took off there and set up the organization. It has created a school for children who do not have access to schooling. The profits of the hostel are destined to maintain all this. The last day we went to see the school, and it is impressive to see how they have set up that in the middle of a huge sugar cane plantation. Highly recommended to stay there, and visit the school to see what they have created.
Day 1: From Machame Gate to Machame Camp
-------------------------------------------------- ----------
Distance: 9.7 Km.
Accumulated positive elevation: 1264 m.
Time spent: just over five hours.
After a bumpy truck ride, we arrived at Machame Gate, the start of the trail. Here we have to wait a long time before we start walking. We don't know why… They don't seem to have a lot of stress around here, so you have to take things easy.
The entrance to the Kilimanjaro park costs 800 dollars! The company does not seem to have much profit left after paying for that pasture.
After a few hours we finally get going. The usual trend throughout the climb is going to be 'pole pole', that is, 'slowly'. The pace at which the guides climb is absolutely tiresome. It is so slow that sometimes you lose the balance between one step and the next. But hey, it's about the altitude not affecting us, so you have to go at this rate. And they do not stop repeating it throughout all the stages.
Apart from the rhythm, they also insist non-stop that you have to drink a lot of water. Every day they give us three liters, which have previously been boiled, and they give us the can non-stop to drink. Most of us find it impossible to drink that much water, even if we try. The day I drank the most, maybe I managed to finish a couple of liters.
Today they give us a kind of light snack before we start walking. We will have dinner at Machame Camp.
The path is easy and comfortable. We go through a tropical forest. Huge trees everywhere, ferns, lianas ... All day we are surrounded by lush vegetation, we do not see the sky at any time. Only when we got to the camp did we discover that it was completely overcast.
The plain on which we camped is clear of trees. If there were no clouds, we could see what awaits us tomorrow, but the normal thing is that as the day progresses the clouds cover everything. Only in the mornings we will have good views.
The tents are always waiting for us assembled. We just have to prepare the sack and wait to be called to the dining room for dinner. The porters offer us basins to wash our feet… A great luxury.
For dinner there is cucumber soup, very rich, and then rice or pasta, always with some vegetables. From time to time, if we get to the camp in time, we have tea with popcorn. This is very curious.
Day 2: From Machame Camp to Shira Camp
-------------------------------------------------- -----
Distance: 4.7 Km.
Accumulated positive elevation: 882 m.
Time spent: four and a half hours.
We wake up surrounded by a few huge crows, the largest I have ever seen, that walk quietly around, stealing everything in their path. They must be completely used to people, because they don't care about everything. All they do is stick their beaks everywhere they hunt. And they take a lot of things, hey ...
For breakfast they give us the porridge they call porridge, and we are going to have it in abundance every day. A tablespoon is fine, but more tiring. And we're going to get tired of this… Other than that there's toast and stuff like that.
And nothing, let's go up. Today the landscape has changed a lot. The big trees are disappearing, and the vegetation becomes less abundant. This allows us to enjoy the views that the forest covered us yesterday. Although not much, because there are quite a few high clouds. We can't even see the Meru, which should be over there on the right hand side.
Fortunately below is clear, and we can see all the jungle that we climbed yesterday. Spectacular.
A while later the clouds catch up with us and we hardly see anything anymore, although the first senecios appear, some very strange trees typical of here. They're still a bit scrawny, but the ones we'll see above are a tremendous thing.
You can hardly see anything at Shira Camp anymore. Here they take us to see a cave where people used to camp in the past and where it is now forbidden. Then we can see a spectacular sunset with the Meru in the background, half visible between the clouds. An amazing thing.
Again cucumber soup to eat.
It's not too cold, just go a little warm.
Day 3: From Shira Camp to Barranco Camp
-------------------------------------------------- -----
Distance: 9.8 Km.
Accumulated positive slope: 859 m.
Accumulated negative elevation: 722 m.
Time spent: seven and a half hours, with stops.
The sunrise here is the pear. Below we have a sea of clouds, which will reach us later, as always, but which are now in the perfect place for this to be a spectacle. The Meru is surrounded on the entire base by clouds, and the views from the camp are perfect.
We can also see what is left up. You see where we have to go, and that's always good.
Then they put that porridge on us, and things slow down a bit.
There are no more trees. At this altitude we only find weeds, bushes and many rocks with yellowish moss. With the fog, everything takes on a gloomy aspect that I love. We don't see much today either.
We went up to the Lava Tower, at 4600 meters, with the idea of acclimatizing. It is half raining, so we appreciate entering the store to eat. The bad thing is that there is again cucumber soup, mecachisen.
We stayed here for a little over an hour and we continued to Barranco Camp, descending to about 4000 meters.
Now you can see some huge Senecios. They are the rarest trees I have ever seen. And there are also lobelias, another plant that attracts a lot of attention. They are a kind of huge pineapples. It is a very strange landscape until we reach the camp.
Shira Camp is like all other camps. The scattered group tents, the stinking latrines where it seems that people don't have much aim ...
A rich cucumber soup, buff, and to the sack.
Day 4: From Barranco Camp to Karanga Camp
-------------------------------------------------- ---------
Distance: 4.5 Km.
Accumulated positive elevation: 455 m.
Accumulated negative elevation: 400 m.
Time spent: four hours.
Today the day is going to be very short. As we are going to do the route in seven days, we will stop at Karanga Camp, where they will surely give us cucumber soup. This is the camp you skip if the route is six days long.
The day dawns very clear. We have the mountain at hand, right there. You can't see the top, but you can see how little is left.
The first thing we have to do is climb Barranco Wall. A wall of something more than 200 meters that at first glance seems crazy, but as it usually happens later, it has no major complications. A couple of hand rests and little else are needed.
From here the fog catches up with us again. The path progressively descends, until the final small climb before Karanga Camp.
Here the mountain views are already crazy. Not even cucumber soup bothers.
Well, maybe a little yeah ...
Day 5: From Karanga Camp to Barafu Camp
-------------------------------------------------- ------
Distance: 3.5 Km.
Accumulated positive elevation: 650 m.
Time spent: three hours.
We are already at an altitude of four thousand meters. At the moment altitude sickness has hardly taken its toll on me. A little headache one afternoon, which disappeared at night, and nothing else. The tiresome gait and drinking so much water seem to work, at least for me.
It dawns as always, with breathtaking views. No clouds above, all covered below. The sea of clouds never tires. After the porridge, yuck, there's a photo shoot.
In addition, it is perfectly clear how little, relatively, we have left for the top. That encourages anyone.
There is no longer a hint of vegetation, only stones. You can see that this is a volcanic area.
To the east is the Mawenzi, one of the three volcanoes that make up Kilimanjaro. Finally without clouds, the views in the distance are amazing. We can see the entire plain to the mountain and far beyond.
The day was short and we arrived at the camp immediately. The rest of the day there is little to do, except rest as much as possible. Tonight we get up at eleven o'clock, mother, and we'll shoot up.
It's very sunny, which I don't like at all, and inside the tent the heat is unbearable. It will be cold tonight, but now I can't stand the temperature. I'm almost looking forward to nightfall. Even if that means the cucumber soup is coming ...
Day 6: From Barafu Camp to the top and to Mweka Camp
-------------------------------------------------- ------------------
Distance: 16 Km.
Accumulated positive elevation: 1040 m.
Accumulated negative elevation: 2840 m.
Time spent: sixteen and a half hours.
And the great day has arrived. What nerves ... All the trip we have been thinking about this day, really the only one with some chicha, mainly because of the beating that comes early, the accumulated fatigue, the cold and the altitude.
At eleven o'clock at night they wake us up. I have slept some, but I do not know how long. A couple of hours, maybe. I dress like this a little blind from the dream I have, and I wear a lot of clothes. Later I will notice that I have left over, as I imagined. But since they give you so much trouble with the cold… A shirt, lining, windbreaker and gore would have been enough for me. But hey, it was true that it was cold, of course.
We had a quick breakfast, no porridge this time!, And started walking. If until now the pace with which they took us was tiresome, today's is insane. Slower still. And since we do not see three on a donkey, because it is dark at night, we go more together. One step. Stop to avoid colliding with the one in front. Another step. Another stop. And so about twenty thousand times.
The climb is tough, really. You can see how long the trip has been. There is no sunrise, not even shot, and since you can't see anything, we don't have any references from anywhere. The only thing I can do is look at the GPS from time to time to see the altitude, but seeing that things are not going much, I leave it. We'll get there, I say.
And finally, after a hundred hours, it seems that it is dawn. On the horizon a reddish light can be guessed, which until now had covered the usual sea of clouds. But yes, it is going to dawn, and the show is brutal. As always, but more today. It's all worth seeing this. Even the cucumber soup.
At the last stop to drink, the guides bring us tea. They must have thrown something into it, because we all feel great, and the last climb to Estella Point is delighted. Not cold or tired or anything.
From here, on the rim of the crater, we rest for a while until full dawn. Well, this is almost done. In the distance you can see Uhuru, the highest point. We have barely an hour at a leisurely pace until there.
Come on, let's go there, what a total, little more remains to be done here.
And step by step we approach the top, seeing what little remains of the glaciers. It is a pity. This fifty years ago should have been superb. They are very rare, glaciers. It seems that they have just put them there in the middle.
Top! It was about time, what a beating we have gotten.
The poster now looks like the old one, those old-looking wooden planks. Apparently they changed it, and put a more modern (and ugly), and people complained so much that they changed it again and put this one, more of the style than there was before.
Come on, a hill of photos, a while here looking at all this, and to think about the almost 3000 meters that we have to descend now ... Mae mía, what is still missing.
But the descent is not so long, nor so heavy. It will be for the emotion of the moment.
We return to Barafu, there we rest for a while, I suppose they would give us some cucumber soup, I no longer remember, and we continue towards Mweka Camp. This route does not go up, it only goes down. They told us that because of the unevenness, which is so exaggerated that it does not allow us to acclimatize properly. They only go up to bring supplies to the camps.
During the descent, the fog surprises us again. But it doesn't matter, we've seen it all.
At one point along the way we come across a few antediluvian stretchers that are used to carry the wounded and sick. With this goat trail, it must be quite curious to see something like that.
We crossed High Camp without stopping, and by the time we got to Mweka we were once again surrounded by jungle, of everything we have come down.
What a pleasure to wash your feet in the basin ...
Come have a cucumber soup to regain strength!
Day 7: From Mweka Camp to Mweka Gate
-------------------------------------------------- ---
Distance: 8.2 Km.
Accumulated negative elevation: 910 m.
Time spent: three and a half hours.
The last stage of the journey is quiet. We no longer have to go pole pole, so each one goes to his own ball enjoying the last kilometers of Kilimanjaro.
The path looks like the one in the first stage. Rainforest, lots of vegetation, lots of green.
And to finish it off, we are also lucky to see monkeys. They don't show much, but they surround us on the way. First we see some dark ones, and later a very cool one, with long white hairs. You can not ask for more.
When we arrive at Mweka Gate, the car awaits us that returns us to civilization. How little desire ...
The next day we do a small excursion to see some waterfalls. A nice walk. The waterfalls are pretty too, but I can't remember the name ...
On the day of our return we would catch the plane in the afternoon, so we used the morning to go to the school that the NGO has created. We ride in the same van that volunteers ride in every day. Some are going to teach, others to help in the construction of the school, which is still half done.
This is quite far, it took us a long time to get there. The school is in the middle of a huge sugar cane plantation. But huge, huh. Inside the plantation there are villages, where the workers live. Huge.
The school land belongs to the NGO, and it is seen that they are working on it. They have already erected several buildings where they give classes, another for the bathrooms and the kitchen. I was very surprised to learn that the walls are made from plastic bottles instead of bricks. They fill them with soil, they pack it together and that is what they use. One last.
As they teach, they are building a new module for the next course.
It was really nice to go to see the school, and it is nice to see that there are people who voluntarily dedicate part of their lives to helping others, and that this help ends up in something tangible.
And hala, to house.
.
Review of the route in Adventoorer: Route to Kilimanjaro - From Machame Gate to Mweka Gate .
.
Distance: 57 Km.
Accumulated positive elevation: 4148 m.
Accumulated negative elevation: 5005 m.
Difficulty: Difficult. Technically the route is very simple, but the altitude and the distance are decisive, apart from the circumstances in which it is carried out (cold, lack of sleep, discomfort of the camps, the happy cucumber soup ...).
Kilimanjaro is not really a mountain, but a mountainous group made up of three volcanoes: Shira, at an altitude of 3,962 meters, Mawenzi, at 5,149 meters, and Kibo, whose summit, Uhuru, at 5,895 meters, is the point highest in Africa. I had no idea about this. That of things that are learned while traveling.
We are going to go the Machame route, which can be done in six or seven days. We will go in seven, to have better acclimatization. Total, this is going to be once in a lifetime, so it is better to do things with margin, it is not going to be that it gives us a dodgy thing and we do not arrive. The descent will be done by the Mweka route.
The equipment that I am going to carry is the normal one that I would carry on any mountain. Neither ice ax nor crampons, because we are not even going to step on snow, and more warm things than normal, mainly because from the agency they scare you a little with the issue of the cold. Then it's not that bad either, but just in case ... I didn't get to put everything on myself.
I was only vaccinated against hepatitis B. The rest of the vaccines, or I already had them, or they were not necessary. From what I talked to the rest of the group, it seems that each site advises something different. I did not bring anything against malaria, apart from Relec for mosquitoes in Moshi, and also not for altitude sickness. Pass, we are going to acclimatize quite well.
Well, there we go to Tanzania, via Ethiopia. Let's go with Kilimanjaro Heroes Adventures. Is it good or bad agency? I had no problem with them. The tents could have been a bit newer, but other than that they were terrific. I guess all agencies will be more or less like that. We brought a guide, a couple of assistants, a cook, and twenty porters to carry the tents, food, and gear for the seven in the group.
In Moshi we stayed in a hostel that belongs to the NGO 'Born to Learn', the Karibu Hostel, www.karibuhostel.com/es. It is an NGO created by a woman from Madrid, who took off there and set up the organization. It has created a school for children who do not have access to schooling. The profits of the hostel are destined to maintain all this. The last day we went to see the school, and it is impressive to see how they have set up that in the middle of a huge sugar cane plantation. Highly recommended to stay there, and visit the school to see what they have created.
Day 1: From Machame Gate to Machame Camp
-------------------------------------------------- ----------
Distance: 9.7 Km.
Accumulated positive elevation: 1264 m.
Time spent: just over five hours.
After a bumpy truck ride, we arrived at Machame Gate, the start of the trail. Here we have to wait a long time before we start walking. We don't know why… They don't seem to have a lot of stress around here, so you have to take things easy.
The entrance to the Kilimanjaro park costs 800 dollars! The company does not seem to have much profit left after paying for that pasture.
After a few hours we finally get going. The usual trend throughout the climb is going to be 'pole pole', that is, 'slowly'. The pace at which the guides climb is absolutely tiresome. It is so slow that sometimes you lose the balance between one step and the next. But hey, it's about the altitude not affecting us, so you have to go at this rate. And they do not stop repeating it throughout all the stages.
Apart from the rhythm, they also insist non-stop that you have to drink a lot of water. Every day they give us three liters, which have previously been boiled, and they give us the can non-stop to drink. Most of us find it impossible to drink that much water, even if we try. The day I drank the most, maybe I managed to finish a couple of liters.
Today they give us a kind of light snack before we start walking. We will have dinner at Machame Camp.
The path is easy and comfortable. We go through a tropical forest. Huge trees everywhere, ferns, lianas ... All day we are surrounded by lush vegetation, we do not see the sky at any time. Only when we got to the camp did we discover that it was completely overcast.
The plain on which we camped is clear of trees. If there were no clouds, we could see what awaits us tomorrow, but the normal thing is that as the day progresses the clouds cover everything. Only in the mornings we will have good views.
The tents are always waiting for us assembled. We just have to prepare the sack and wait to be called to the dining room for dinner. The porters offer us basins to wash our feet… A great luxury.
For dinner there is cucumber soup, very rich, and then rice or pasta, always with some vegetables. From time to time, if we get to the camp in time, we have tea with popcorn. This is very curious.
Day 2: From Machame Camp to Shira Camp
-------------------------------------------------- -----
Distance: 4.7 Km.
Accumulated positive elevation: 882 m.
Time spent: four and a half hours.
We wake up surrounded by a few huge crows, the largest I have ever seen, that walk quietly around, stealing everything in their path. They must be completely used to people, because they don't care about everything. All they do is stick their beaks everywhere they hunt. And they take a lot of things, hey ...
For breakfast they give us the porridge they call porridge, and we are going to have it in abundance every day. A tablespoon is fine, but more tiring. And we're going to get tired of this… Other than that there's toast and stuff like that.
And nothing, let's go up. Today the landscape has changed a lot. The big trees are disappearing, and the vegetation becomes less abundant. This allows us to enjoy the views that the forest covered us yesterday. Although not much, because there are quite a few high clouds. We can't even see the Meru, which should be over there on the right hand side.
Fortunately below is clear, and we can see all the jungle that we climbed yesterday. Spectacular.
A while later the clouds catch up with us and we hardly see anything anymore, although the first senecios appear, some very strange trees typical of here. They're still a bit scrawny, but the ones we'll see above are a tremendous thing.
You can hardly see anything at Shira Camp anymore. Here they take us to see a cave where people used to camp in the past and where it is now forbidden. Then we can see a spectacular sunset with the Meru in the background, half visible between the clouds. An amazing thing.
Again cucumber soup to eat.
It's not too cold, just go a little warm.
Day 3: From Shira Camp to Barranco Camp
-------------------------------------------------- -----
Distance: 9.8 Km.
Accumulated positive slope: 859 m.
Accumulated negative elevation: 722 m.
Time spent: seven and a half hours, with stops.
The sunrise here is the pear. Below we have a sea of clouds, which will reach us later, as always, but which are now in the perfect place for this to be a spectacle. The Meru is surrounded on the entire base by clouds, and the views from the camp are perfect.
We can also see what is left up. You see where we have to go, and that's always good.
Then they put that porridge on us, and things slow down a bit.
There are no more trees. At this altitude we only find weeds, bushes and many rocks with yellowish moss. With the fog, everything takes on a gloomy aspect that I love. We don't see much today either.
We went up to the Lava Tower, at 4600 meters, with the idea of acclimatizing. It is half raining, so we appreciate entering the store to eat. The bad thing is that there is again cucumber soup, mecachisen.
We stayed here for a little over an hour and we continued to Barranco Camp, descending to about 4000 meters.
Now you can see some huge Senecios. They are the rarest trees I have ever seen. And there are also lobelias, another plant that attracts a lot of attention. They are a kind of huge pineapples. It is a very strange landscape until we reach the camp.
Shira Camp is like all other camps. The scattered group tents, the stinking latrines where it seems that people don't have much aim ...
A rich cucumber soup, buff, and to the sack.
Day 4: From Barranco Camp to Karanga Camp
-------------------------------------------------- ---------
Distance: 4.5 Km.
Accumulated positive elevation: 455 m.
Accumulated negative elevation: 400 m.
Time spent: four hours.
Today the day is going to be very short. As we are going to do the route in seven days, we will stop at Karanga Camp, where they will surely give us cucumber soup. This is the camp you skip if the route is six days long.
The day dawns very clear. We have the mountain at hand, right there. You can't see the top, but you can see how little is left.
The first thing we have to do is climb Barranco Wall. A wall of something more than 200 meters that at first glance seems crazy, but as it usually happens later, it has no major complications. A couple of hand rests and little else are needed.
From here the fog catches up with us again. The path progressively descends, until the final small climb before Karanga Camp.
Here the mountain views are already crazy. Not even cucumber soup bothers.
Well, maybe a little yeah ...
Day 5: From Karanga Camp to Barafu Camp
-------------------------------------------------- ------
Distance: 3.5 Km.
Accumulated positive elevation: 650 m.
Time spent: three hours.
We are already at an altitude of four thousand meters. At the moment altitude sickness has hardly taken its toll on me. A little headache one afternoon, which disappeared at night, and nothing else. The tiresome gait and drinking so much water seem to work, at least for me.
It dawns as always, with breathtaking views. No clouds above, all covered below. The sea of clouds never tires. After the porridge, yuck, there's a photo shoot.
In addition, it is perfectly clear how little, relatively, we have left for the top. That encourages anyone.
There is no longer a hint of vegetation, only stones. You can see that this is a volcanic area.
To the east is the Mawenzi, one of the three volcanoes that make up Kilimanjaro. Finally without clouds, the views in the distance are amazing. We can see the entire plain to the mountain and far beyond.
The day was short and we arrived at the camp immediately. The rest of the day there is little to do, except rest as much as possible. Tonight we get up at eleven o'clock, mother, and we'll shoot up.
It's very sunny, which I don't like at all, and inside the tent the heat is unbearable. It will be cold tonight, but now I can't stand the temperature. I'm almost looking forward to nightfall. Even if that means the cucumber soup is coming ...
Day 6: From Barafu Camp to the top and to Mweka Camp
-------------------------------------------------- ------------------
Distance: 16 Km.
Accumulated positive elevation: 1040 m.
Accumulated negative elevation: 2840 m.
Time spent: sixteen and a half hours.
And the great day has arrived. What nerves ... All the trip we have been thinking about this day, really the only one with some chicha, mainly because of the beating that comes early, the accumulated fatigue, the cold and the altitude.
At eleven o'clock at night they wake us up. I have slept some, but I do not know how long. A couple of hours, maybe. I dress like this a little blind from the dream I have, and I wear a lot of clothes. Later I will notice that I have left over, as I imagined. But since they give you so much trouble with the cold… A shirt, lining, windbreaker and gore would have been enough for me. But hey, it was true that it was cold, of course.
We had a quick breakfast, no porridge this time!, And started walking. If until now the pace with which they took us was tiresome, today's is insane. Slower still. And since we do not see three on a donkey, because it is dark at night, we go more together. One step. Stop to avoid colliding with the one in front. Another step. Another stop. And so about twenty thousand times.
The climb is tough, really. You can see how long the trip has been. There is no sunrise, not even shot, and since you can't see anything, we don't have any references from anywhere. The only thing I can do is look at the GPS from time to time to see the altitude, but seeing that things are not going much, I leave it. We'll get there, I say.
And finally, after a hundred hours, it seems that it is dawn. On the horizon a reddish light can be guessed, which until now had covered the usual sea of clouds. But yes, it is going to dawn, and the show is brutal. As always, but more today. It's all worth seeing this. Even the cucumber soup.
At the last stop to drink, the guides bring us tea. They must have thrown something into it, because we all feel great, and the last climb to Estella Point is delighted. Not cold or tired or anything.
From here, on the rim of the crater, we rest for a while until full dawn. Well, this is almost done. In the distance you can see Uhuru, the highest point. We have barely an hour at a leisurely pace until there.
Come on, let's go there, what a total, little more remains to be done here.
And step by step we approach the top, seeing what little remains of the glaciers. It is a pity. This fifty years ago should have been superb. They are very rare, glaciers. It seems that they have just put them there in the middle.
Top! It was about time, what a beating we have gotten.
The poster now looks like the old one, those old-looking wooden planks. Apparently they changed it, and put a more modern (and ugly), and people complained so much that they changed it again and put this one, more of the style than there was before.
Come on, a hill of photos, a while here looking at all this, and to think about the almost 3000 meters that we have to descend now ... Mae mía, what is still missing.
But the descent is not so long, nor so heavy. It will be for the emotion of the moment.
We return to Barafu, there we rest for a while, I suppose they would give us some cucumber soup, I no longer remember, and we continue towards Mweka Camp. This route does not go up, it only goes down. They told us that because of the unevenness, which is so exaggerated that it does not allow us to acclimatize properly. They only go up to bring supplies to the camps.
During the descent, the fog surprises us again. But it doesn't matter, we've seen it all.
At one point along the way we come across a few antediluvian stretchers that are used to carry the wounded and sick. With this goat trail, it must be quite curious to see something like that.
We crossed High Camp without stopping, and by the time we got to Mweka we were once again surrounded by jungle, of everything we have come down.
What a pleasure to wash your feet in the basin ...
Come have a cucumber soup to regain strength!
Day 7: From Mweka Camp to Mweka Gate
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Distance: 8.2 Km.
Accumulated negative elevation: 910 m.
Time spent: three and a half hours.
The last stage of the journey is quiet. We no longer have to go pole pole, so each one goes to his own ball enjoying the last kilometers of Kilimanjaro.
The path looks like the one in the first stage. Rainforest, lots of vegetation, lots of green.
And to finish it off, we are also lucky to see monkeys. They don't show much, but they surround us on the way. First we see some dark ones, and later a very cool one, with long white hairs. You can not ask for more.
When we arrive at Mweka Gate, the car awaits us that returns us to civilization. How little desire ...
The next day we do a small excursion to see some waterfalls. A nice walk. The waterfalls are pretty too, but I can't remember the name ...
On the day of our return we would catch the plane in the afternoon, so we used the morning to go to the school that the NGO has created. We ride in the same van that volunteers ride in every day. Some are going to teach, others to help in the construction of the school, which is still half done.
This is quite far, it took us a long time to get there. The school is in the middle of a huge sugar cane plantation. But huge, huh. Inside the plantation there are villages, where the workers live. Huge.
The school land belongs to the NGO, and it is seen that they are working on it. They have already erected several buildings where they give classes, another for the bathrooms and the kitchen. I was very surprised to learn that the walls are made from plastic bottles instead of bricks. They fill them with soil, they pack it together and that is what they use. One last.
As they teach, they are building a new module for the next course.
It was really nice to go to see the school, and it is nice to see that there are people who voluntarily dedicate part of their lives to helping others, and that this help ends up in something tangible.
And hala, to house.
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Waypoints
Intersection
Sports facility
Risk
Archaeological site
Campsite
9,946 ft
Machame Camp
Machame Camp
Door
5,899 ft
Machame Gate
Machame Gate
Panorama
11,282 ft
Mirador Machame
Mirador Machame
Campsite
10,093 ft
Mweka Camp
Mweka Camp
Door
5,349 ft
Mweka Gate
Mweka Gate
Dead-end street
7,889 ft
Otro baño
Otro baño
Fauna
8,962 ft
Otro baño más
Otro baño más
Picnic
12,241 ft
Picnic
Picnic
Campsite
12,595 ft
Shira Camp
Shira Camp
Panorama
18,877 ft
Stella Point
Stella Point
Summit
19,339 ft
Uhuru Peak
Uhuru Peak
Comments (4)
You can add a comment or review this trail
Ay que recuerdos! yo la hice este verano y parece que ya haga mil años...
a mi no me dieron sopa de pepino, jaja, pero el porridge ese que nunca pude ni con una cucharada, siempre estaba ahí por las mañanas... La verdad es que vale mucho la pena la experiencia.
Enhorabuena!!!
Jajaja, sí, es una experiencia que hay que probar alguna vez. El porridge también hay que probarlo, pero poco...
Thank you for the write up. We hike this route in two weeks. Excited! Any suggestions?
Hello, Abscam!
Drink a lot of water and walk slowly. That's all you need. And enjoy the route.