Daily Routine on Kilimanjaro

Daily routine on Kilimanjaro, During your climb of Kilimanjaro generally breakfast is between 7.30am and 8.00am, and departure from camp is at 9.00am after medical checkup.

There is a lunch at midday, tea and biscuits around 4pm and dinner at 7pm. Summit morning is different; full breakfast 11.30pm and start hiking at midnight or sometimes 1am.

Most daily hikes take from 4 – 7 hours. The pace is slow and not forced at all. There is a rest at least once every hour and plenty of time to take photos, enjoy the view and chat. When you arrive at the campsite you will find the tents erected and your bags ready to collect. In the morning please have your bags packed before breakfast.

Your wake-up call and breakfast

Early starts are important, and so is a good breakfast. You will be woken up around 6:30am by a member of the Karibu Adventure Mountain team. To help you feel awake and ready for the day’s challenge. Karibu Adventure waiter bring a hot drink in your tent, before breakfast is served around 7:30am. You will need to spend time before breakfast carefully packing your day pack and putting the rest of your stuff into your duffel bag for the porters. This is important so that they can take down your tent, ready to transport it to the next camp. Breakfast is served inside the mess tent, or sometimes outdoors if the weather is fine.

Medical Check up After breakfast

Kilimanjaro daily Medical Check, On the mountain every day before you start your trek guides will monitor your lungs accomplish by using a stethoscope, and in the evening – our guides perform a thorough health check, using their specialized High Altitude Medical Paper and conjunction with pulse-ox meters. Regular medical checks help keep your Karibu Adventure guides informed about your condition. This data is crucial in understanding how your body is handling the effects of altitude change

During the day’s trek, and lunch

Walking typically starts around 8:45am. Your porters remain at the campsite, ensuring that it is tidied up and clean. They also pack up tents and all the equipment.

A typical day on the mountain involves between four and six hours’ of walking, though this can vary. Our mountain guides set the pace, ensuring that careful consideration is given to each trekker’s welfare and physical condition. It is certainly not a race. Pole, pole – remember? Breaks will be taken, when necessary. Although the porters stay behind to clean up the camp, they magically arrive ahead of you and ensure that food is prepared, and that the campsite is all set up ready for your arrival. For lunch, a cooked meal is provided at a suitable point during the day’s trek; occasionally, a picnic lunchbox might take its place

Arrival at the campsite, and your evening meal

Welcome snacks are waiting for you when you arrive at the campsite. We aim to provide your evening meal about 6pm. Apart from undergoing a further health check and listening to the guides as they outline the following day’s trek, the rest of the evening is for you to do what you want. Read a book, listen to your music, chat with other trekkers of the mountain team members. Or just relax

Time for some sleep!

With an early morning both in front of you and behind you, you probably won’t want to stay up too late. Many trekkers will happily be in their tents as early as 8pm, looking to get some vital rest before the next day. Getting good rest is important, but the changes in wake-up times and routine means that it is quite usual for trekkers to wake up in the middle of the night. The good news is that your body will get used to these changes and sleep will improve with each day on Kilimanjaro, despite the increased altitude. But then…along comes ‘summit day,’ which is very different!

Summit day

Expect a long day starting at midnight and getting all the way back down to Millennium Camp/Mweka camp by about 3pm or 5pm in the afternoon. The route up will be in the darkness and it will be cold and often windy. Do prepare with good warm clothing and protect your extremities and face. From Barafu to the crater rim will take about 6 hours, and you will arrive with the dawn which is very special. From the rim (Stella Point) it is a further hour to the top, so expect summit time be anything between 7am and 9am. With an hour on top for photos and enjoying the exceptional view, and feeling absolutely elated, the route down is dusty, loose and quite a strain on the knees. Take it easy and stay with one of the guides; they will split up to cover all the mini groups that naturally form for the descent.

The roof of Africa – at last!

An achievement such as climbing Kilimanjaro needs to be celebrated – and photographed – and that’s exactly what we do when we reach Uhuru Peak, the highest point in Africa. But we have a long descent to make, so we don’t linger too long. We set off to return, our initial destination being either Kibo Hut or Barafu Camp.

When you get back to Barafu pack your bags for the porters to take down (you should prepare this the night before), take a rest and lunch and then drop down to Millennium Camp or Mweka camp. Some people question this, but it is necessary to get lower because Barafu is still at 4600 metres and your body will thank you for losing altitude. It may be the last thing you want to do after having summited Kilimanjaro, but it is necessary

The descent from Uhuru peak

You have a long descent ahead of you, as by the end of the day we will reach either Mweka Camp or Horombo Hut to spend the night. So we have to maintain concentration, on the lookout for loose rocks and making good use of those walking poles to ease the pressure on our knees. As well as your walking poles, you will appreciate wearing your gaiters to keep unwanted stones out of your footwear. Lunch after summiting Kilimanjaro will be at barafu camp or kibo hut

By the time you arrive at Kibo Hut or Barafu Camp, you are bound to be hungry as well as tired. Don’t worry, we know it’s been a long time since breakfast, so here we will take a well-deserved lunch and spend a good hour or so recovering from our summit and descent. After our lunchbreak, we continue to descend, heading now for our chosen overnight destination. This will be either Mweka Camp or Horombo Hut, situated at a much lower altitude and therefore very welcome for anyone suffering from altitude sickness.

The farewell day and tipping ceremony on mount Kilimanjaro

By the end, you are sure to appreciate the efforts of the mountain team who have looked after you on this truly epic climb. It is customary to reward all the team members: porters, cook, mountain guides. The tipping ceremony takes place before you undertake the final descent down to either Mweka Gate or Marangu Gate. It is here that you will receive a certificate which shows that you made it to either Uhuru Peak, Stella Point or Gilman’s Point, as appropriate. Your journey to conquer Africa’s highest mountain and the world’s highest free-standing mountain may be over…but the memories and sense of pride and achievement will be with you forever. Congratulations!