KiliTrekker.Com

The Maasai Joy Children's Center is a kindergarten school started by our friend (and Kilimanjaro guide) Edward Ernest Kutingala for the poor and orphan children of his village outside Arusha. The school now has 3 classes of kids aged from 3 to 6 years old.

Maasai Joy School, April 2008

The 7 summits are the highest peaks on every continent and of course Kilimanjaro is one of them, being the highest mountain in Africa.

* See http://7summits.com/kilimanjaro for extensive information about the climb, the mountain, the expeditions and much more.

* For any person thinking about climbing Kili, the FAQ will be very helpful: http://7summits.com/kilimanjaro/faq

Any one who has ever climbed one of the 7 summits or has undertaken another expedition knows that you spend more time in preparing the trip and getting the right information than actually being there.. Or you can choose to pay an expensive agent to sort everything out. We like to think that we can offer you the best of both worlds.

7summits.com has developed a network of local guides and organizations that employ the most reliable people and offer the best value for money for the best price.

I thought it would be interesting to write a little about local East African food – what is commonly eaten, and available here in Tanzania.

Tanzania has an abundance of delicious fruit and vegetables, most of which are grown by small subsistence farmers who transport their produce on a weekly basis to the local markets for sale. (It is not uncommon to see pick-up trucks loaded with cabbages, or large bunches of bananas being transported in hand pulled wooden carts - or on the heads of eager sellers !)

Jambo! (Hello!)

My name is Ernest. I am the co-director and partner of Tanzania Platinum Expeditions Ltd, a licensed company headquartered in Arusha, Tanzania. We also have a branch in USA.

Eco-tourism activities, are the best and most experienced available in Tanzania. We also can select from a multilingual pool of talent, thus accommodating most common languages. Our extensive knowledge about the flora, fauna and geography of northern Tanzania, combined with our innate knowledge of the history, people and culture of Tanzania, will add an invaluable perspective to your adventure.

If you've already written a blog about your Kilimanjaro climb, you can help drive traffic to it by posting a link on KiliTrekker.Com. To do this, first register, then click here to create a blog entry. Write a description of your blog, and include a link.

You can also host your own blog on the KiliTrekker.Com site... A blog is automatically enabled for each registered user. To post to your blog, just follow the same instructions as above.

Some Kilimanjaro climbers (especially those with previous trekking or mountaineering experience) would prefer to climb the mountain without a guide. Others feel that having porters carry their gear is somehow cheating, or else they want to save a little money by climbing without a guide and porters.

Kilimanjaro & Mount Kenya: A Climbing and Trekking Guide
Author: Cameron M. Burns
Published by: The Mountaineers, Seattle WA, 1998 (1st edition)

I bought this book when I was planning my Kilimanjaro trek. About a third of the book is devoted to Kilimanjaro, another third to Mount Kenya, and the rest to topics common to the two mountains. The author seems to come from more of a climbing and mountaineering background (as opposed to trekking/walking) and emphasis is roughly evenly split between trekking routes and more technical mountaineering routes. The book has a few strong points, but overall I was a little disappointed with it. There is a newer (2006) second edition titled "Kilimanjaro and East Africa: A Climbing and Trekking Guide" which may have addressed some of the out of date parts of the first edition... I haven't seen this new edition yet.

Kilimanjaro porters on Barranco wall
If you're using porters to carry your gear on Kilimanjaro (which is the standard practice), you don't need to pack your stuff in a hiking pack with a fancy suspension system... Your porter will more than likely put your pack full of gear inside another larger pack or basket, along with a little of his own stuff and some more group gear. Often he will choose to carry this enormous load on his head rather than his back. We've seen porters walking by with a client's expensive hiking pack balanced on their head, hip belts and shoulder straps dangling down unused.

We've seen lots of different numbers for the percentage of Kilimanjaro climbers who actually reach the summit at Uhuru Peak. Unfortunately, nobody seems to be able to point to the original source of their data, which makes it a little suspect...

As an example, Ultimate Kilimanjaro quotes these overall success rates for all Kili climbers (not just their clients):

• All climbers, all routes 45%
• All climbers, all 5 day routes 27%
• All climbers, all 6 day routes 44%
• All climbers, all 7 day routes 64%
• All climbers, all 8 day routes 85%