4-Day Mount Meru Trek

You are met at Kilimanjaro International and taken to Arusha National Park, where the climb starts at Momella Gate at 1,500 metres. An armed ranger joins you here, which is not theatre, the lower trail runs through forest holding buffalo and elephant. You walk up through montane forest with giraffe out on the glades and colobus monkeys overhead, reaching Miriakamba Hut at 2,500 metres by early afternoon.

Meru is the only mountain in Tanzania where the walk in doubles as a game drive on foot. Very few treks anywhere let you pass giraffe at close range on the way to a 4,500-metre summit, and the first day is worth taking slowly for that reason alone.

A steady climb out of the forest and into open moorland, with the extraordinary shape of Meru revealing itself as you go: a horseshoe crater blown open on one side, with a near-perfect ash cone standing in the middle of it. Saddle Hut sits at 3,570 metres, reached by early afternoon, with an optional walk up Little Meru at 3,820 metres later on.

Take the Little Meru walk if you have the legs. It costs ninety minutes and gains 250 metres, which is exactly the acclimatisation you want before a summit push tomorrow. It also gives you the best view of the ash cone and, on a clear afternoon, Kilimanjaro floating on the horizon to the east.

A midnight start for the summit. The route follows the narrow crater rim, exposed in places with a serious drop on one side, which makes this a more technically interesting climb than Kilimanjaro despite being a great deal lower. You reach Socialist Peak at 4,566 metres around sunrise, then descend all the way back past Saddle Hut to Miriakamba at 2,500 metres.

The reason people climb Meru is waiting for you at the top. As the sun comes up, Kilimanjaro appears to the east, floating clear above a sea of cloud with its snows catching the first light. It is the single best view of Kilimanjaro available anywhere, and you cannot get it from Kilimanjaro itself.

A relaxed final descent through the forest to Momella Gate at 1,500 metres, with a short game drive through Arusha National Park on the way out. Giraffe and zebra are common on the Momella plains, and the lakes themselves often hold flamingos. You are back in Arusha by early afternoon for your onward transfer or flight.

Many people climb Meru as acclimatisation before Kilimanjaro, and it is excellent preparation: four days with a night at 3,570 metres makes a real difference to a subsequent summit attempt. It is also a fine mountain in its own right, and considerably quieter than its famous neighbour.