When should you book your flights for Kilimanjaro? I am prompted to write this following an email from one of our climbers, Perry. He gave me a piece of advice that I hadn’t heard before. For he told me that he was going to wait a few days before booking his flight to Kilimanjaro. When [...]
We've had a lot of emails from our climbers asking about the ban on plastic bags in Tanzania. This follows the recent announcement by the government. You can find out more on this by reading our post on the ban on plastic bags in Tanzania, The ban was due to take effect on 1 June. [...]
Penalties for those arriving in Tanzania with plastic bags We have been advised that Tanzania is, from the start of next month, banning plastic bags from entering the country. This does of course have huge ramifications for Kilimanjaro trekkers, many of whom use plastic bags to keep their clothes and other items separate in their [...]
Climbing Africa’s highest mountain unaided Can you carry your own bags up Kilimanjaro? By coincidence, over the past few weeks we’ve received several emails on a very similar subject. All of the correspondents want to climb Kilimanjaro. But none of them want all the fuss that goes with it. In other words, they want a [...]
Why Kenya's Amboseli National Park is the best place to take a photo of Kilimanjaro Everybody wants to take that classic photo of the Roof of Africa. The one where the mountain provides a spectacular backdrop to a foreground filled with marching elephants. But few climbers ever get the chance to capture this image for [...]
Can you climb up Kilimanjaro without a crew? It's a question readers still ask me regularly each year. Is it possible to just turn up at the foot of Kilimanjaro with a rucksack full of camping gear, food and warm clothes, and head up the slopes to the top? In other words, can you climb [...]
Climbing Kilimanjaro during the rainy season Whether to do it, how to do it, and what to expect April and May is traditionally the low season on Kilimanjaro. Very few people climb at this time. There's a good reason for this, of course. These two months correspond with the mountains main monsoon season. And few [...]
Homophobia in East Africa Can being gay really stop you climbing Kilimanjaro? I was prompted to write this article after being contacted by a gay travel agency from California. This agency was looking to organise a climb on Kilimanjaro for later this year with Kilimanjaro Experts. They had the usual fears and questions that every agency [...]
A guide to climbing Mount Meru Why everyone should climb Kilimanjaro's little brother Mount Meru, which overlooks the city of Arusha from the nort, is used by many trekkers as a warm-up trek to Kilimanjaro. In other words, it acts as an hors d’oeuvre to the main course of Kilimanjaro, which lies about 60km to the [...]
In September this year two men from Northern Ireland became the first to serve fish and chips at Kilimanjaro's Barafu Camp, a dizzying 4662m (15,295ft) above sea level. Alan Hanna, who runs Pitstop Fast Food in Kilkeel and Malachy Mallon, who owns Dungannon's Dolphin Takeaway, set up what is believed to be the world's highest [...]