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The trip was great, the guides really looked after me especially on the descent down from Uhuru Peak when I suffered from a lack of energy and exhaustion. I felt in safe hands the entire trip and this gave me more confidence to just concentrate on walking. The tents and camps were all set up expertly everyday and food was nutritious. Only negative comment I have is that we could have prompted more often for sipping water so were sufficiently hydrated. Its hard to think at high altitude!
Making it to the crater rim and looking back to see just how far up we had walked.
The group leader worked really hard to keep everyone happy, though its not always an easy task. He gave clear briefings so we knew what to expect and were fully prepared for the day ahead.
Be prepared and buy relevant gear beforehand. Stock up massively on snacks and energy foods, you will need them!
An excellent trip from start to finish. We were looked after by the best guides, cooks and porters and feel privileged to have been part of the group.
It has got to be my fist view of Kilimanjaro through the aeroplane window and then again the view from Kia Lodge - yes! it was really happening.....but then it was truly fantastic being given the 'go ahead' to reach the summit after reaching Gillman's Point.
Our Group Leader, Mussa was incredible! He took such care of us each day with patience and sensitivity. He took the time to get to know us all as well as sharing his stories. His humour and dedication gave me the determination to go that extra mile! Mussa (Moses) really did lead us to the promised land!! I cannot forget our other guides too who made this trip unforgettable.
Warm sleeping bags- it's really cold! Baby wipes,lots of them.
Thank you Exodus, another dream come true xx
The Rongai route six day ascent and descent of Kilimanjaro felt like a hit and run trip to me but overall very well run and conducted by skilled professional people. Rongai is frequently touted as being a quiter route, unfortunately simply due to the luck of the draw our group was roughly mirroring the progress of at least two other groups on the same route and we frequently came into contact with each other on the trail and obviously at the camp sites. Perceptions of how easy or hard something is will obviously depend upon the individual, I personally found the first three days of this route to be easy to moderate hiking, enjoyable and certainly not challenging. At the end of the third day, at Mawenzi Tarn camp I got my only significant symptoms of altitude sickness for the entire trip, a very obvious headache that would come and go. After a night’s “sleep” it had gone and never came back. Poor quality sleep is a real issue for everyone, guides as well. The high altitude affects your ability to sleep properly, frequently waking in the night was common amongst nearly everyone in the group as was the feeling we hadn’t really slept at all but we’d comment that about remembering our dreams so must have been asleep at some point. That third night at Mawenzi Tarn is likely to be the last sleep you get before attempting the summit on the night of the fourth day. Virtually no one sleeps at Kibo Camp at 4700M, it’s just too high up and of course you’re trying to rest and sleep while it’s still daylight and the noise of numerous climbing parties goes on outside. Once the night comes and you prepare for the summit climb the air is electric with nervous excitement and you may see the light trails of groups already making their climb. Within minutes of setting off both myself and another member of our group had taken our gloves off. With all those layers on we were getting hot, very hot. At the first rest stop I ended up stripping off my second pair of thermal leggings and took my down body warmer off too. It’s surprising how hard work that is approaching 5000metres up. We read how it can be up to -20C on the summit but the reality that night was -7C, still cold but a fair way from -20C. Incidentally you don’t need a super high spec head torch that will turn night into day for the night climb, all it needs to do is light up the ground immediately in front of you as far as the heels of the person in front of you, that’s all you need to see. I GPS tracked our summit attempt at 0.7 km/h, 700 metres per hour!!! That is how slow you go, painfully slow, in more ways than one but there are many times when even that felt too quick. Despite a number of rest stops they never seem to be enough and the feeling of really pushing your limits in the thin air are ever present. Eventually the ridge does start to get closer and you emerge onto Gillman’s Point to immense relief and elation at finishing the main climb and knowing you made it to the summit crater. Sadly at this point we had to leave one of our group behind as we headed on for Uhuru peak via Stella point. We watched the sun rise from Stella Point which was beautiful and put a smile back on our faces despite being very tired now. A short time later we arrived at Uhuru Peak, miussion accomplished. All that was missing was football stadium style turnstiles, there was quite a crowd there but we got our photos and after only fifteen minutes or so were on a our way back down… no one complained. We did however complain about the speed of descent. We were very sore and tired but felt we were being relentlessly marched down with no regard for that and so started taking our own rest stops. For the only time on the trip there might have been a little tension between the conflicting wishes of the guides and the clients. Anyway the descent continued and we got over it. A short rest stop at Kibo Huts. The crew had made a big brunch for us but we barely touched it we were that exhausted… sorry guys, it was then a sustained descent for the next day and a half until we finally emerged at marangu gate. Fantastic!
Experiencing the working life of the porters. It was inspiring and humbling to see people work so hard to better their lives and those of their children in a country which presents them with a tiny fraction of the opportunities of our own. Their backbreaking hard work is absolutely essential to your success. They make the climb work, I described them as life support.
Our group leader was Mussa. He was a star and quite comical at times but at the same time one could really appreciate his experience and knowledge of the mountain. His frequently referring to climbing Kilimanjaro as a piece of cake made us grin and groan at the same time. It also made us laugh that he lied to us. Reaching the summit is not a piece of cake at all but the object of his light hearted approach was to stop us dwelling on things and deal with one step at a time. Of equal importace and worthy of mention to me were the assistant guides, John, Raphael and Diglan since we spent more time walking with and being guided by them than Mussa himself who lead the summit attempt. All three men were an absolute credit to themselves, I have an immense amount of respect for them, I learnt a lot about general life in Tanzania from them too.
Be aware that you are going to be entering a dusty and mucky environment and just live with it for a few days. I took a bag full of energy bars and munchies with me and returned with half of them. With the exception of summit attempt the hiking is just not that intense enough to require masses of super duper sports supplements and as is often remarked upon, we are very well catered for on the mountain and on reflection I need not have taken as much as I did. You will not need any Tanzanian Shillings, everything you come into contact with as a tourist is priced or can be priced in American dollars. Euros are sometimes accepted as an alternative but British pounds are useless. I'd recommend $350 as a minimum to safely cover tipping the mountain crew, miscelaneous tips, meals and drinks at the hotel and a selection of small souvenirs. While some places do accept credit/debit cards the network connection for the card reader is very unreliable and a couple of times I was unable to complete a transaction with my cards. Cash is king in Tanzania. 500ml bottle of Coca Cola $1, bottle of water $1 - $3. If you wear glasses consider taking some anti fog lens cleaning soloution. The humidity of the forest and indeed your own body heat and sweat can leave glasses and normal sunglasses prone to misting. Take one of the new ultra compact and concentrated bottles of Vimto or Oasis, the flavouring makes drinking large quantities of water much easier.
If you hire some equipment through Exodus check that it's right for you before you start the climb. I hired some walking poles. The local rep was not aware of this on arrival but having viewed my invoice confirming I'd paid for some poles he brought some to the hotel the next day as we were loading up the bus to set off. I took the poles from him and just attached them to my back pack. I only intended to use them on the descent as many others have advised. It was only when I was ready for some scree skiing on the way down that I got the poles and attemped to extend them only to find the were way too short for me (I'm a tall bloke) and didn't reach the ground rendering them useless. I reattached them to my backpack where they basically spent the entire climb as dead weight.
This was an amazing experience, a chance to enjoy the great outdoors with freindly group of fellow travelers whilst pushing myself to my personal limits. Unfortunately I didn’t reach the summit due to altitude sickness brought on by the rapid ascent of this brutal itinerary. I strongly recomend that if you can afford the extra time & money you should consider taking an extra couple of days to get up the mountain.
Where do you start? The guides and porters were fantastic. Getting "back to basics", the stunning views and the group I travelled with.
Be under no illusions the alltitude is a real issue. On our trip, out of our group of 11, only 5 succesfully made it to the summit and the rest sufffered varying degrees of altitude sickness and were turned back by the head guide for thier own safety.
These are my personal suggestions: DO NOT rent a sleeping bag from exodus. The sleeping bag I rented was very bulky and took up approximatly a 1/3rd of my exodus trecking bag so I had to ditch less essential equipment at the hotel.The drinking water is heavily chlorinated so I strongly suggest you take some sort of flavouring tablets. there is plenty of boiling water for drinks so you may want to take packets of say cup-a-soup for a bit of variety.Take plenty of personal snacks - AND not just sugary energy bars/sweets but savory items as well eg a tub of pringles or a big bag of peanuts.Take earplugs and an airline style eyepatch because you will crave undisturbed sleep up the mountain!
Quite simply if you enjoy the ‘great outdoors’ and the mountains plus a challenge this is the trip for you. It is not a holiday but an ‘experience’.
Obviously reaching the 3 objectives of Gilmans, Stella and the actual Peak. Viewing the Glaciers betwen Stella and the Peak. Plus having those photos taken at the top especially when you consider it is the 10th highest in the world.
Charles was superb. Everything he said to the best of my knowledge proved to be correct and he was able to address every little difficulty which arose, and the chances and law of averages dictate there will be some on a trek such as this. I was personaly pleased he identified my altitude sicknes symptoms early and brought the oxygen bottle out to administer immediate relief.
Even if you an experienced traveller/trekker read the trip notes carefully before making your decisions on kit etc and when on the trek take note of the advice provided by the Trek Leader and assistants. They have undertaken this trek in some cases 100s of times. They know better than you.
Overall this was a well organised trip and in general met most of my expectations. This was my first trip with Exodus and I booked it with them based on word of mouth advice from others. As I didn’t plan to come back to Kilimanjaro another day, I wanted to make sure I booked with a serious company in order to increase the probability of a summit success.
Getting to the summit. The Rongai route itself was beautiful and offered a diverse and amazing scenery. It is less crowded than the other routes which was one of the reasons why I chose this route. The porters were absolutely amazing and did a sublime job, always friendly, helpful and professional. The food was good too and there was enough of it.
As mentioned I found the porters very friendly and helpful, but I tend to say that I found our local head guide a little arrogant, especially on the summit day. The other guides were brilliant! Also I did not like the head guide's attitude and so called guidance on the tipping. On arrival the guide who met us at the airport and hotel gave us a tipping sheet with the recommendations. On the last day our head guide on the mountain more or less told us that it was mandatory to go with these amounts to the different group of staff (helping porters, supporting porters, cook, guides, head guide). To me a porter is a porter, no matter if he is a helping or a supporting porter, how will I tell the difference? Maybe the head guide was so keen on the tipping part as he himself was on top of the tipping sheet with the highest recommended tipping amount!?! Anyway we told him otherwise that it was entirely up to the climbers how to tip!
I would recommend to book the trip through Exodus without the group flights and organise this yourself. Preferable you should go with another airline than the one Exodus use. Exodus use Ethiopian Airlines and I have to say that never have I experienced such a horrible airline. The staff was ruder than rude and so incompetent and unprofessional. I have travelled a lot all over the world, also in less developed countries, and this was by far the most horrible airline I have experienced.I would receommend to consider a Kilimanjaro trip that takes in 1-2 additional days on the mountain, as I found the acclimatisation a little tough (getting headache and nausea) . You will enjoy it a lot more if you spend 6 days going up instead of the 4 days this trip offer.
This was the most amazing experience, it is an incredible feeling reaching the roof of Africa, but that is not to undervalue the rest of the trip…every day has different scenery and stunning view points. Well worth it!
Meeting the other members of the group and hearing their stories and reasons for doing the climb; there was such a variety of people with different motivations. I was a solo traveller amongst a larger group and they all made me feel completely welcome. The gentle words of the group leader (Henry) as we were completing the ascent were inspirational; I became quite choked up when he said that we had only 15 minutes to go...he kept us all moving! Talking the guides, who have done the walk hundreds of times (it doesn't get easier apparently!), they are incredible and supported us all the way (Luce carried by day pack, and someone else's all the way up and down on summit night and fed me water on the way!).
Henry was an excellent leader. He was calm, answered all of our questions and told us what to focus on (only think about the next day ahead). Every day when we were walking, he kept a close eye on all of us to see how we were, and he watched what we were eating to make sure we were all having plenty. He spotted people who were finding it difficult and instinctively knew what to do to support them. He also encouraged the assistant guides to lead some of the walks, so that they could get experience and training and he was happy for our feedback.
Layers, layers, layers! Also a camelbak is brilliant, take a Sigg bottle (or other metal equivalent) so that you can fill it with hot water every night - it is an excellent hot water bottle. I took a space blanket (metal sheet) for the last night at Kibo - it worked well to keep me warm, but it does collect condensation on the top so be careful not to get wet when you take it off. The hired sleeping bags were good quality and clean and included a thermal liner and the walking poles were brilliant. Pack everything in plastic bags; I had trousers in one, tops in another, etc which meant it was easy to find things quickly. You don't have to have the buffet meal in the hotel either; they do a tasty bar menu too!
It is simply brilliant! If you have any sort of inkling that would would like to climb Kili (and I guess by the fact that you are reading this then you do) then it is time to just do it! This trip is exceptionally well organised; they thing of everything from good acclimatisation walks to popcorn before dinner. I booked my own flights as I wanted to stay longer (I found some that were also a bit cheaper). Go for it!
AMAZING TRIP, VERY WELL ORGANISED, WONDERFULL EXPERIENCE, CANT FAULT ANYTHING, DONT DELAY BOOK THIS TRIP WITH EXODUS, YOU WILL NOT BE DISSAPOINTED.I BOOKED ON THE SOLO DEPARTURE AND EVERYONE IN THE GROUP WETE LIKE MINDED AND GREAT PEOPLE, PORTERS,COOKS AND GUIDES ARE FABULOUS, OUT OF THE 14 IN OUR GROUP ONLY 7 OF US MADE THE SUMMIT, I WAS LUCKY AND DIDNT GET ANY ALTITUDE SICKNESS, HEADACHES ETC …. ONE OF THE BEST EXPERIENCES OF MY LIFE !!!
REACHING THE SUMMIT WITHOUT ANY PROBLEMS SUCH AS HEADACHES, ALTITUDE ETC....
AMAZING GROUP LEADER
KEEP A STRONG MIND AND YOU WILL REACH THE SUMMIT, DIAMOX TABLETS ARE ADVISABLE
DONT DELAY BOOK THIS TRULY AMAZING TRIP
Awesome, Fantanstic, Exilirating.
The most inspirational thing about the whole trip is although we had a group of mainly strangers from all over the world, everyone pulled together and made the trip very enjoyable, whether your a lone traveller, brother sister or married this trip will suit everyone.
The group leader was encouraging and put everyone at ease, his interaction with the whole group was remarkable and his briefings after dinner made the itinery very clear and gave everyone clear expectations of what to expect for the coming days..... well done !!
The only advise i give is to enjoy it, get out walkng in the hills before you go to get the muscles going, listen to the advise the guides give you, after all they have done it many times. Take a good sleeping bag and mat although the hire equiptment is extremely good quality and relativily cheap (and it saves you buying it) be prepared and it will be a blast. Have a good waterproof jacket and trousers and take good warm clothes for summitting, it can be extremely cold, stay organised. Finances, well normally american dollars will be just fine, it's easier to manage and work out, ATM can be problamatic but taking cash isn't an issue if you keep it safe, i kept mine with me all the time, visa for tanzania is 50USD tips for the guides and porters I suggest keep 150USD set by, it sounds alot but it's not, you will feel much better about it during and after the trip, these guys work so hard !! and look after you all week.Add some dollars for food at the hotel and some Kilimanjaro beer to celebrate your trip... :-) Exodus plan this trip very well, and i am glad i had their expertise !!! Good Luck.. and enjoy the feeling of reaching the top ^ .
Take plenty of batteries for your camera, keep them warm the cold drains them !!! If anyone is thinking about Diamox, I took some but didn't use it, others didn't either, this isn't a clinical answer but it is what happend for our group, everyone made it to Gilmans Point, but fatigue and sickness prevented some from making it to Uhuru Peak, again take the guides advise, they will look after you all the way, and watch you very closely, take it slow slow and slow again.....!Drink plenty of water, i mean plenty !!! i was drinking 2-2.5 litres each day, it helps !! try and get a flavouring it makes it taste better and more interesting. Have some nice energy bars, sweets, choccy etc to boost the energy. Leave some clean travelling clothes at the hotel ready for when you get back, i have been twice and forgot both times !!!! ususally you can get your clothes laundered at the hotel too. Enjoy your trip...
A truly amazing experience….the trekking, the people and the country made this an unforgettable trip of a lifetime.
The most inspirational aspect of the trip was the way in which the group was looked after by the African Walking Company. They carried our bags, prepared fantastic meals, always checked that the group were ok physically, set-up our camp, welcomed us back to camp after the summit climb (including brushing the dust off our trousers and shoes)....there wasn't anything they hadn't thought of....then the tipping ceremony on the final morning topped it all off...the Kilimanjaro song brought tears to my eyes.Obviously reaching the summit and witnessing the sunrise was incredibly special also...as was the meteor that lit up the sky at 3am on summit night.
Joseph and his assistant guide, Rob, were brilliant. They organised the camp and the other staff very well and were a pleasure to walk with. Their knowledge of the mountain and the way in which they looked after us was second to none
The porters and guides look after you...so look after them in return. Take lots of chocolate and sweets to hand out during the trek and take any unwanted clothing too....it'll be warmly welcomed.
I stayed at KIA lodge hotel and they arranged a trip to a local Masai village....it was well worth it and killed a few hours before flying home.There's too much to say to fit it into a review so if you want to know any more or want some advice then feel free to email me: gary.tyerman@gmail.comHakuna Matata!!!
