KILIMANJARO & CRATER LODGE SAFARI

After breakfast you will be driven from Arusha to Machame Village on the slopes of Mount Kilimanjaro to begin your climb. From the village, you will hike for about six hours through a dense rubber tree and giant fig forest to your camp, set up near huts which were once used for shelter on the mountain. As you make your way up through the forested terrain, with luck, you may see Colobus monkeys. Your first day’s camp is at an altitude of 10,000 feet.

You will be awakened at approximately 6:00 AM with a steaming cup of tea or coffee. As you leave camp, weather permitting, you will be greeted by a fabulous view of Uhuru peak. With abundant bird life all around you, trek out of the forest today and up into the Hagenia zone, through a savannah of tall grasses and bearded heather, ghostly landscapes of volcanic lava, caves and foamy streams framed by giant groundsels. Today’s hike will be about six hours in length. Your final destination is the Shira Plateau, where you camp at 12,500 feet.

A view of the entire Shira Plateau greets you this morning. Today’s route takes you steadily upward to the pass at Lava Tower (15,000 feet) and then descends toward Barranco Camp through the immense canyon called Grand Barranco where groundsels are once again encountered. Here there are numerous small waterfalls, which are fed by streams from the mountain to form a river. The hike today is again about six hours long and your camp is at an elevation of 13,000 feet.

You will have a bit of real trekking today as you travel along the Barranco Cliff; however, this will be a light day (about four hours of trekking) with no increase in elevation to allow you time to rest and adjust to the increasingly higher altitudes.

Another short trek and day of acclimatization as you near the mountain’s peak. Today’s hike of four to five hours to Barafu Camp (15,200 feet) will be mostly on a moraine with a view of Mawenzi Peak towering majestically to the right and Kibo Peak overhead, seemingly just out of reach. You will be encouraged to turn in early this evening as tomorrow will be your longest day.

Your day begins when you are awakened at midnight to start the final ascent. You will make your way up a winding path flanked by Ratzel and Rebman glaciers. After about six hours of hiking, you will reach Gilman’s Point, at 18,630 feet on the rim of Kilimanjaro’s crater. Watch the sunrise and then, if you wish, continue around the rim to Uhuru Peak (19,340 feet); the air is purified and the climb takes at least two hours. You then begin the descent to 10,200 feet and your last campsite on the mountain. Total trekking time today will be about thirteen hours.

Continue your descent to the base of the mountain where you arrive, exhausted but exhilarated, to meet your Ecological Wilderness Adventures driver/guide. Drive to Lake Duluti lodge, where you will spend the night

Dinner and overnight at Lake Duluti Lodge

After breakfast, we will drive to Lake Manyara National Park for a game drive and have a picnic lunch. While Manyara is one of the smallest parks, it is one of the most interesting. Much of the northern part of the park is fed by underground water from the Ngorongoro Highlands and as a result is covered in dense forest vegetation, giving the appearance of a tropical jungle. This forest is ideal habitat for elephant, bushbuck, blue monkey, and huge troops of olive baboon. Some parts are dry bush land attracting zebra, impala and giraffe, while the lakeshore provides another habitat, perfect for flamingos and other shore birds. Our game drive will take us slowly south through the park and later in the afternoon proceed to the Ngorongoro Crater Lodge.

Overnight at the Ngorongoro Crater Lodge

Today we will leave very early in the morning (after a very early breakfast) and drive to the floor of the Ngorongoro Crater. There we will have a full day game drive, as we will be carrying our picnic lunch with us. The Crater is wonderful place - you descend more than 2,000 feet on steep tracks cut into the crater wall to reach the open plains of the Crater floor. The Ngorongoro Crater is undoubtedly the best place in Tanzania to view black rhino as well as large prides of lion that include magnificent black-manned males. It is also home to huge herds of wildebeest and zebra and many other plains game. An alkaline lake in the floor of the Crater provides a habitat for colorful flamingo and a variety of other water birds. Massive bull elephants feed in the swamps, some adorned with enormous tusks. We will have our picnic lunch at the hippo pool and later in the afternoon drive back to the Lodge for dinner and overnight

Overnight at the Ngorongoro Crater Lodge.

Today you will have a leisurely breakfast and then start the drive to Arusha through the Great Rift Valley, close to Lake Manyara and arrive in Arusha in time for lunch. After lunch there will be time for shopping before the trip to the airport for your departure