7-Day Kilimanjaro Climb · Machame Route

Met at Kilimanjaro International and driven the short distance to Moshi, a low-slung town that exists more or less entirely because of the mountain standing over it. Your head guide runs a full gear check in the afternoon (boots, layers, sleeping bag, head torch), and anything missing can be hired locally. The briefing afterwards covers the route day by day and the symptoms of altitude sickness you must report rather than hide.

Machame is the most popular route on Kilimanjaro for good reason: it is scenic, it has an excellent acclimatisation profile, and its summit success rates are among the best on the mountain. It is also steeper than Marangu and sleeps in tents throughout, which is worth knowing before you start.

A morning drive to Machame Gate at 1,800 metres for registration and the porter weigh-in, then straight into the rainforest. The first day's walking is under closed canopy: humid, dripping and full of birdsong, with colobus monkeys in the branches above the trail. You climb steadily to Machame Camp at 3,000 metres, right at the point where the forest gives out.

Twelve hundred metres of ascent on day one is a real day's work, and the forest section is often muddy regardless of season, so gaiters earn their place. So does the discipline of walking far more slowly than feels natural, the guides set a pace that seems absurd on day two and makes complete sense by day five.

A steeper day, climbing out of the last of the forest and onto open moorland where giant heathers and lobelias take over. The ground turns rockier and the views open up dramatically behind you. You cross onto the Shira Plateau and reach Shira Camp at 3,840 metres by early afternoon, with an optional acclimatisation walk available later.

The Shira Plateau is the remnant of one of Kilimanjaro's three volcanic cones, which collapsed and then filled with lava from Kibo. Walking across it you are on the floor of an extinct volcano with Kibo's ice-capped dome directly ahead. Take the afternoon walk if you have anything left; every extra metre gained today helps tomorrow.

The classic climb-high-sleep-low day, and the one that does most for your chances. You ascend steadily to the Lava Tower at 4,630 metres, where a hot lunch is served, then drop back down to Barranco Camp at 3,960 metres for the night: ending almost exactly where you started in altitude terms, having spent several hours a great deal higher.

This is not inefficiency, it is the entire strategy. Hours at 4,630 metres trigger the physiological changes you need, deeper breathing and more red blood cells, while sleeping lower lets you recover overnight. Many people feel rough at Lava Tower and noticeably better by Barranco. That is the day working exactly as intended.

A short day in distance and the most enjoyable one on the route. It opens with the Barranco Wall, a 250-metre scramble up a rock face that looks impossible from camp and turns out to be a straightforward hands-on climb: no ropes, no technical skill, just steady movement and a reasonable head for exposure. Beyond it the trail rolls through valleys to Karanga Camp at 3,995 metres.

The Wall has an infamous move known as the Kissing Rock, where the path narrows and you press yourself flat against the face to get past. It sounds alarming and is genuinely fine. What you get in return is the best view on the mountain: straight up at Kibo's southern glaciers with the plains of Tanzania spread out behind you.

A steady climb across the alpine desert to Barafu Camp at 4,673 metres, the high camp for the summit attempt. It is not a long day, and deliberately so. You arrive by early afternoon with the rest of the day to rest, hydrate and eat, followed by an early dinner and an attempt at sleep before a midnight start.

Barafu means ice in Swahili, and the camp is a bleak, windy shelf of rock with no vegetation at all. Prepare everything tonight: layers laid out in order, head torch with fresh batteries, water in insulated bottles so it does not freeze, snacks somewhere you can reach without removing your gloves. You will not want to be organising anything at eleven o'clock.

A midnight start, climbing by head torch up steep scree in serious cold, moving so slowly it barely feels like progress. You reach Stella Point on the crater rim at 5,756 metres around sunrise, and that sunrise, above the cloud with the curve of the earth visible, is why people do this. Another hour along the rim brings Uhuru Peak at 5,895 metres. Then the long descent to Mweka Gate at 1,640 metres, summit certificates, and the transfer back to Moshi.

Summit day runs to around fourteen hours of walking and involves descending more than four vertical kilometres after already climbing 1,200. It is genuinely hard. It is also the most memorable day most trekkers will ever have, and the beer in Moshi that evening is the best any of them have tasted.