Kapil Shukla blog: Mount Kilimanjaro Trek (6 Days Machame Route)

Recommendation and Tips

I would recommend to go for 7 days Machame route instead of 6 days if you have not done high altitude hiking before. If you go for 6 days, then on Day 4 you would be walking a good 8-10 hours (ie cover two days of trekking in one day) followed by 5-6 hours break and then trek again for 6-8 hours summit climb in the night. Not to forget you have to climb down as well. It becomes just too much to handle if you are not trained.
Make sure you have your toe nails trimmed. Mine was not and it hurts while climbing down as trekking shoes are hard from inside.
Generally people do safaris after climbing Kili. Serengeti has so much to offer compared to Lake Manyara/Tarangire.
You could rent most of the trekking stuff from your tour agent. I was booked with Zara Tours and their collections were good quality.
I ended up paying a tip of US$250 (in a group of four climbers) plus some additional for an assistant guide.
Dinner will be served by 6:30-7pm everyday. Suggest to come out of your tent by 9 or 10pm to view the beautiful sky.
Yellow fever certificate is usually required for African and South American countries. It was not required for India or Singapore residents.

What did I train on?

You will find many itineraries, experiences online so I will try to cover something else in this post. This is the first time I did a trip on my own, and mountains and hiking were never close to me. So it would be wrong to say that I was not nervous. I was but I read a lot and made sure that I have a good exercise regime to train up. I was going gym three times a week and spending most of my time on walking treadmill 15 degrees incline at 3.5 km/hour for 45 minutes. Followed by climbing steps up to 30 floors (gradually increasing it to 90 floors). Followed by squats. Now after climbing, I realize that spending time on following will help in your climb - on your shoulders (as you carry nearly 5 kgs everyday), on climbing down and on your back. I would have been better off if I had worked on these.

How was the experience?

This tour was so different than my earlier tours, in many ways. It is difficult to explain people how I felt, so I try to explain it via answering few questions -

1. Would I do this trip again? Since I could not reach the summit, my answer would be may be, however in case I reached the summit I probably do not want it again. Mountain climbing is arduous, it had everything - rainforest walk, rock climbing, sand walk, sleeping in tents, not taking shower for 6 straight days, immense cold/wind, headaches etc. It is not a leisurely trip.

2. Would I recommend this trip to others? No, I think it should come from within if somebody wants to climb. As I explained previously, this is not a leisurely trip. You have other beautiful places in the world to spend time for your vacation.

3. Is this your one of the best trips? And this is where I confuse myself by saying yes. It is probably one of the top 3 trips that I have done worldwide. I started alone, but I had the company of a London truck driver, plasterer, electrician, australian nurse, swedish businessman, US couple taking an year long vacation and living their dream of seeing the world. It was a good time to spend with people from very different streams and understanding their perspective and culture. The views on the mountains were extremely wonderful and they keep getting better as you move up. And lastly, how many vacations/adventures do you do when you come to know about good things and limitations of your own body? I never knew I could go up to 5600 meters above sea level and not have a headache/mountain sickness. I was fine, but my body could not take any further climb, my legs gave up.

How much did I spend?

I booked my tickets via Zara, which was decent. They charged me following

6 days machame route - US$ 1640

5 days safari - US$ 1725

Trekking clothes - US$ 650

Trekking clothes (rental) - US$ 131

Tips - US$ 380

Food/Drinks - US$ 100

Visa - US$ 50

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Total - US$ 4676

Ending the blog post with few of my favorite pics