TOP 10 REASONS ON WHY YOU SHOULD CLIMB KILIMANJARO WITH UHURU TRAILS BY AFRICANMECCA

1. A PIONEERING APPROACH TO GUIDES (1 GUIDE : 1 CLIMBER RATIO)

Uniquely, with Uhuru Trails by AfricanMecca, every trekker has his or her own dedicated support guide and a special personal porter to carry up to 15 kilograms (33 pounds) of their personal belongings and equipment. This does more than any other innovation to ensure the safety, enjoyment and success of each individual who attempts to climb Kilimanjaro under their auspices.

This is a pioneering improvement on the usual ratio of other climb companies offering two or three guides to every five climbers. The advantages are manifold for those who have a 1:1 guide-climber ration. A personal guide becomes a devoted ally in the struggle to conquer the highest peak in Africa.



Treated with the respect due to his or her courage, hardihood and experience, your private personal guide will become your inspiration and your friend on the mountain. The special camaraderie developed between a host guide and his guest means that the climber can pace himself or herself comfortably, never afraid to fall behind or venture ahead.

It will become a treasured part of the satisfaction of this special African mountain climbing experience to have grown close to a native Tanzanian, to have shared insights into lifestyles, customs and beliefs, to have identified flora and fauna, and to have learned phrases and songs that lifted your spirits on the trek. This is most important on the grueling hike to the summit, when you should and not attempt to move too fast to keep up with the rest of the trekkers or the lead guide. Should you need to descend early, your own guide will stay close to you at all times.

2. YOUR SAFETY AND WELL-BEING IS IN GOOD HANDS

Uhuru Trails by AfricanMecca takes pride in customizing your Kilimanjaro trekking trip to the particular needs and abilities of your group. This includes helping to choose the most suitable route, setting a comfortable pace, taking time to acclimatize and to be aware of the physical and mental condition of their charges. Your team leader is a well-trained altitude responder guide, capable of dealing with any emergency.

Such personal skills are preferable to any amount of technological fixes on a climb where assistance is easily accessible, and the best cure for all ills is a rapid descent. Uhuru Trails by AfricanMecca ensure that their experienced and trained altitude responder guides can recognize the potential danger of these symptoms and decide on appropriate action.

They are chosen for their leadership skills and ability to recognize the seriousness of a situation and impose their final judgment in cases of injury or altitude sickness where the only effective treatment is immediate descent. They could save your life. Your guide will treat severe symptoms in situ whilst informing Kilimanjaro Park Rangers and our base office in Moshi via the park’s or personal mobile phone network, or Ranger Post radio communication.



If evacuation is deemed necessary, escorting wounded sufferers on foot to a lower camp, where they are never left alone, but accompanied back to their base camp to await the rest of the team when they return. If the casualty is not mobile or if the terrain is difficult, porters accompanied by a responsible guide will use a wheeled stretcher as far as the nearest road access. Fast reaction mountain rescue vehicles driven by fully acclimatized staff who work daily on the mountain can reach considerable altitudes.

Highest quality emergency oxygen equipment is carried for medical emergencies, but not to enable climbers to ascend beyond their capabilities. It is strictly a last resort for very serious conditions and is combined with immediate descent. Pulse oximeters (small digital machines fitting over a finger), are also present and can be used when required, but are not recommended as readings can be misleading in the special conditions of a Kilimanjaro summit attempt and in the wide range of physical fitness presented by climbers.

Readings that would indicate perfect safety in an athlete may mask life-threatening conditions in a less fit and poorly acclimatized climber. Specialized equipment is carried by request for more challenging altitude conditions, such as the optional Kibo overnight at Crater Camp where hyperbaric oxygen can be given in Gamow Bags if immediate descent is delayed or too hazardous. But your best safety option is your personal altitude responder and support team, in touch by mobile phone with park emergency services, local base, hospital and remote medical advice and evacuation service.

3. ADD ON CRATER CAMP OPTION AVAILABLE ON MOST ROUTES

For more adventurous souls who want to explore the remaining snowfields and glaciers in Kibo Crater, or stand on the edge of the bottomless central ash pit, glazed with sulfur deposits and belching occasional fumes of bad egg scented steam, an extra night can be added to Machame, Umbwe, Lemosho and Shira routes to allow camping in the crater itself.



First tackle the summit itself, then, if you still have the desire, descend the snow slopes into the crater where you can stay overnight if you are sufficiently acclimatized, sleeping well below Uhuru Peak. The following morning, you have to re-climb the crater rim before descending to Mweka Camp.

This option is risky because you are spending a longer time at high altitude which should be avoided where possible. Favorably, you are not attempting the long descent on the same day as the summit, so you will be less exhausted. The polar wilderness crater environment provides an amazing climax to a Kilimanjaro climbing tour. Uhuru Trails by AfricanMecca is an ecologically responsible outfitter. Please do not pollute the crater.

4. PRIVATE & FULLY CUSTOMIZABLE CLIMBS

Uhuru Trails assist you to design your African mountain dream adventure. You are not restricted to group departure dates, set itineraries or predetermined timetables. Each Kilimanjaro highlands tour is organized for an individual private group. Your can choose your own route and pace, timing your departure to coincide with your air flights or with other African safari activities.

If you particularly wish to summit by moonlight, your itinerary can be adjusted accordingly. An extra day or two for acclimatization can be built into your schedule, or a diversion to visit a place of special interest, such as a Chagga village on the lower slopes, a spectacular waterfall near Marangu, or peculiar forests of giant groundsel in the Karanga Valley.



Your particular hobbies, botany, geology or bird-watching can be taken into account and efforts will be made to assure an authentic wilderness experience, avoiding peak departure times and overcrowded trails wherever possible. Particularly fit, acclimatized and daring groups can attempt the more challenging, isolated Umbwe route up steep, narrow ridges between deep ravines. Or opt for the preferred Lemosho, Machame and Rongai routes respectively.

5. 30 YEARS OF MOUNTAIN EXPERIENCE

Uhuru Trails by AfricanMecca is a fresh team name for a long-established partnership between AfricanMecca Safaris and one of our most experienced, dependable and licensed team outfitters on Kilimanjaro to provide discerning and distinctive Tanzanian mountain climbing experiences. This collaboration deserves special recognition under a renewed identity of its own.

Together with our Tanzanian family team with 30 years of mountain experience in selecting, training and equipping leading support teams of seasoned mountain guides, porters and cooks, supervised from our local base camp office in Moshi, Uhuru Trails by AfricanMecca offers seamless, independent and highly personalized Kilimanjaro trekking expeditions. We have good community links and are respected employers of expert and experienced local guides, porters and cooks to provide dependable and enthusiastic support on the mountain.



Many of them have lived and climbed in the area for the greater part of their lives and know what is most appropriate for safety and enjoyment on Africa’s highest peak. Our guides and mountain support crew’s knowledge is encyclopedic, enthusiasm boundless and their experience ensures your safety on this character-building Tanzanian highlands adventure.

6. MADE IN TANZANIA GUIDES

For a climbing tour of Kilimanjaro, local guides are far superior to professional climbers imported from abroad. An assault on the shining mountain is not a technical climb, but calls for very special knowledge of the self-generated climate of this stand-alone extinct volcano. Imported celebrity talent may sound impressive, but their lack of weekly experience on Kilimanjaro itself can be dangerous.

In comparison, indigenous guides live and work in the area all year round, not just visiting occasionally for specific group treks. Therefore, they are intimately aware of the mountain in all its moods and familiar with local conditions as they develop.

They are also more knowledgeable about flora, fauna, geology and local history, having taken every opportunity to educate themselves on the subjects of importance in their work: subjects they have mastered not only by study, but by close personal acquaintance over a lifetime and passed on from generation to generation.



Local guides are used to climbing the mountain on a twice-monthly basis, negotiating its trails with diverse groups of visitors, whereas visiting guides only climb a limited number of times a year – around 2-3 times on average. Where a seasoned Tanzanian mountain guide has summited Mt. Kilimanjaro hundreds of times, incoming guides who require passports to be stamped in and out of Tanzania can count dozens of assaults or even less.

By empowering Tanzanian staff, and training and trusting them, Uhuru Trails by AfricanMecca promotes independence and entrepreneurship amongst local people, encouraging them to help themselves, improve their skills and pride themselves on their achievement in taking thousands of visitors on mountainous vacation in Tanzania safely to the top of the highest summit in Africa.

7. EXTRA ACCLIMATIZATION DAY IS STANDARD EXPERIENCE ON ALL OUR CLIMBS

Uhuru Trails by AfricanMecca is competitively priced, but still adds extra acclimatization days as standard on all routes. For example, it is possible to climb Kilimanjaro on the cheap using the five-day Marangu trek offered by endless tour operators along with its low success rate, with the very few summiting after only four trek days in which climbers have ascended over 4700 meters.

Not surprisingly, even fit, previously acclimatized trekkers often suffer terribly from altitude sickness by taking this fast-track option while most fail at it utterly.



Six days on the actual mountain are minimally recommended by most responsible operators for the Machame, Rongai and Lemosho Routes, but Uhuru Trails offers the acclimatized seven and eight days trek on the Kilimanjaro mountain itself plus the two nights in Moshi prior and after your trek.

On our acclimatization day, climbers not only relish the challenge of hiking high and sleeping low but enjoy free time exploring the wilderness, familiarizing themselves with the unique flora and geology of the area, preparing to enjoy the taxing final ascent rather than enduring it as an ordeal.

The same extra acclimatization day is offered to hardy mountaineers who want to trail the Umbwe and Shira Routes. Similarly, on all routes, time is allowed to appreciate every aspect of this once-in-a-lifetime African mountainous vacation and to revel in the experience rather than meeting it with grimly stoical determination.

8. WELL MAINTAINED EQUIPMENT AND EXTRA COMFORTS

Hilleberg four-season tents are warm, sturdy and secure, suitable for all weather conditions on a Tanzanian climbing trip. A roomy mess tent with tables and chairs and portable tented toilets are standard comforts. Personal attentions, such as bowls of hot water to wash hands, faces and feet, and hot water bottles for colder nights are all cheerfully provided, but you are expected to use your own towels.

Showers are not standard on Kili since it would be most inconvenient to strip butt naked in gale force winds and sub-zero temperatures, whilst the labor involved in carrying and heating extra water would be unreasonable; though, on special request for a convincible reason, we can deliver it with prior notice.



Uhuru Trails by AfricanMecca will do their best to assure a comfortable climbing experience as possible. If, for instance, clients are unable to use sleeping bags or need more mountain comfort, we can supply hire tent beds or carry other special personal equipment with the use of an extra porter. Read more on demystifying safety equipment for Kilimanjaro.

9. DELICIOUS FOOD TO SUSTAIN MIND, BODY AND SPIRIT

To keep up your energy to levels, maintain body fluids and boost morale, it is important to eat and drink well. Meals must be tasty, nourishing and fresh. Your Uhuru Trails cook knows the nourishment necessary at each stage of your African mountain tour, from meats, fruits and salads in high temperatures at lower altitudes, to hot porridge, soups, filling pastas and stews in cold, inhospitable campsites near the summit.

You may not really want to eat or drink, so it is this challenge tempting you with delicious, familiar dishes that add yet another dimension to your enriching Kilimanjaro trekking expedition with AfricanMecca.



Comforting nursery food, such as toast, jam, honey, sausages and hot chocolate raise your spirits in the morning. Picnic lunches of sandwiches, fruits and eggs are easily carried. Snacks of biscuits or popcorn sustain you at tea-time until evening brings appetizing dishes like fish, mince meat, chicken, rice, pasta, fruits, vegetable relish cooked with spices offer fresh, aromatic culinary delights.

10. COMBINES FLAWLESSLY WITH ANY OTHER SAFARI IN TANZANIA, KENYA, SOUTH AFRICA OR ELSEWHERE

If your escapade is an adventure honeymoon trip, you could end with a relaxing barefoot beach holiday in Zanzibar to become accustomed to your new status after your Kilimanjaro climbing adventure. You could go game driving in the Serengeti, witnessing the annual Great Migration of millions of wildebeest, or visit the elephants of the Kenyan Amboseli plains, the rhinoceros in Ngorongoro Crater, the crocodiles of Katavi, or the chimpanzees of Gombe.



You could follow the ancient slave route, visit the Cradle of Mankind in Olduvai Gorge, go snorkeling with gloriously hued cichlids in Lake Tanganyika, botanize in God’s Garden on the Kitulo Plateau or simply indulge yourself in a luxurious colonial camp, rococo chateau or wilderness tree house.

AfricanMecca founder family members are committed to sustainable eco-tourism in Africa, personally spending several months each year sampling their own tour venues to maintain standards. You can rely on us for a perfect Tanzania safari tour, enabling you to combine a trek on Kilimanjaro with any other African dream destination.