10 Days/ 9 Nights Kilimanjaro Trekking Northern Circuit Route

After arrival at the airport (Kilimanjaro / Arusha), your private driver guide will pick you up at the airport and transfer you to your accommodation for dinner and overnight awaiting for your departure on the following day. Your safari guide will meet you at your accommodation for the briefing and equipment checkup.

• Hiking time: 3 hours
• Habitat: Rain Forest

After breakfast at your hotel, you will drive two hours and a half from Arusha (1400m) to Londorossi Park Gate (2150m). At the entrance gate, the guides and porters distribute the supplies and register with the Tanzania National Parks Authority (TANAPA). You are now ready to begin your 3-hour hike into the rain forest. Be on the lookout for Colobus monkeys! At the gate, we will have hot lunch, and then commence through undisturbed forest which winds to the first camp site. The porters, who arrive at the campsite before the clients, will set up your tent and boil water for drinking and washing. The chef will prepare a snack then dinner for the clients. At nighttime, mountain temperatures may drop to freezing so be prepared!

• Hiking time:  5-6 hours
• Distance: About 5 km’s
• Habitat: Moorland

Early in the morning after breakfast, the day is spent to reach Shira campsite (3610 m). After arrival at shira camp, you will have hot lunch. The trail take us for an hour or so to the top of the forest and then for about two hours at a gentler gradient through the moorland zone. Hiking to this point you will be able to see in an easterly direction, the Western Breach with its spectacular glaciers. You are now due west of Kibo and after a short hike you will reach the Shira campsite.

• Hiking time: 4-5 hours
• Distance: About 8 km’s
• Habitat: Moorland.

Today you will cross Shira Ridge with its rocky ground, low grasses, and shrubs. As the terrain is much flatter than the day before, your hike will seem more leisurely and you will enjoy fantastic views of the Great Rift Valley and Mount Meru. Beautiful and distinctive giant lobelias still dot the moor landscape. Before reaching Shira 2, you will reach cathedral point which is 3872m which is good for acclimatization. Walking on the ground where lava used to flow, you will reach Shira Camp 2, where you will have your evening meal and overnight stay.

• Distance: 10 km
• Hiking Time: 7 hours
• Habitat: Semi Desert

From the Shira Plateau, we continue to the east up a ridge, passing the junction towards the peak of Kibo. As we continue, our direction changes to the South East towards the Lava Tower, called the “Shark’s Tooth.” Shortly after the tower, we come to the second junction which brings us up to the Arrow Glacier at an altitude of 16,000ft. We now continue down to the same trail to Moir Hut at an altitude of 4200m. Here we rest, enjoy dinner, and overnight.

• Hiking time: 4 hours
• Distance: About 6km
• Habitat: Alpine Desert.

We start with a moderately steep climb out of the Moir Valley. We can climb the summit of Little Lent Hill at 4,400 meters via a small detour before we return to the Northern Circuit. The route follows a series of ascents and descents that lead to Buffalo Camp on the northern slopes of Kibo. On the way we have spectacular views of the plains north of Kilimanjaro, which extend as far as the Tanzanian border into Kenya. We arrive at Buffalo Camp in the early afternoon, where we have lunch and enough time to rest. You will have well prepared dinner and overnight at your camp.