There are plenty of wrong ways to climb Kilimanjaro – wrong shoes, wrong backpack or wearing a full evening dress, perhaps. But the right way to climb it will depend on how fit you are, what your preferences are and how you like your challenges.
Let’s take a look at the routes and you’ll be clearer about which route is best for you.
Marangu Route
The Marangu Route is an old favourite. It’s the most well-established route and used to be the most popular because the slopes are more gentle and easier to climb. It’s also called the Coca-Cola route because if you can drink a can of cola then you can climb this route. Or because it makes you gassy. We’re not sure.
However, in the recent years Marangu Route has been kicked into second place by the more popular Machame Route – more of this in a minute!
Marangu Route advantages:
It’s the easiest – its slopes are the gentlest of all the routes so it’s great for a beginner or if you’re a little out of shape.
It’s the cheapest and fastest. It’ll take you five or six days to the summit.
It is the only route with hut accommodation in a dormitory style, so you won’t need camping equipment.
It’s a less busy route because there are a limited number of beds in the huts, so only a certain number of climbers are allowed per day.
Marangu Route disadvantages:
The climb is gentle but it’s rapid, which means acclimatisation could be a problem. We recommend an extra day to make sure you give yourself a good chance of making it to the top. “Pole, pole” (slowly, slowly) is Kilimanjaro’s motto, and you’ll need to take it slow. An extra day will cost a little more, which is not great for those on a budget.
Because it’s a quick route, with less time for acclimatisation, the success rate of making to the summit is lower than on the longer routes.
The route is there and back, which means the scenery, although as magnificent as you’d expect, will be the same on the way back as on the ascent.
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Ethiopia’s extraordinary cultures
A journey to Chew Bahir, Ethiopia – Best told from the scribbles in Kingsley Holgate’s expedition journal…
Our Land Rover convoy enters Ethiopia at Omorati – we’re into the wild South Omo region with our clear ‘Living Traditions‘ objective to record and do continued humanitarian work with the nomadic tribes that make up one of Africa’s greatest, most colourful kaleidoscopes of tribal cultures.
We’ve arrived on the third day of the fierce Mursi tribe’s Donga Stick-fighting Ceremony fought with long sticks up to 2.5 metres in length. One of yesterday’s fighters has got his wounds all wrapped up in pieces of cloth. The ‘prize’ that two of the warriors will be fighting for is a beautiful Mursi girl, who has moved from the shade of a thorn tree to lean demurely against the bush bar of our Land Rover Discovery.
Looking on are more Mursi women with their clay saucer-like decorated lip plates. A Mursi girl at the age of 15 or 16 has a slit made beneath her lower lip, over time the gap is progressively stretched forming a lip loop large enough for a small circular clay plate. As the lip stretches, so larger plates are inserted until eventually the loop is large enough to hold a decorated clay plate up to 12cm in diameter, that without the plate inserted, can be pulled over the woman’s head. We’re told that the larger the lip plate the greater her bride price – a real whopper can fetch up to 50 head of cattle.
The Donga ceremony gets wilder. I jump backwards as an AK47 round goes off close to my ear. Down comes a fighting stick and then another AK round into the air. The tension builds! Some of the warriors have very dazed looks as they circle each other with their sticks at the ready. Our man, 45 year old Banna tribesman Mosku Guni, the armed wildlife ranger from nearby Mago National Park who is guiding us into Mursi country, is getting fidgety. “Time to go – the drinking has started,” he says. The fighting will continue for days and sometimes ends in death.
The magic of Zanzibar
East Africa has an irrepressible allure, and I’ve become addicted to its vibrant kangas (patterned fabric), its friendly people and its crystal clear waters. So, in order to get my next Kiswahili fix, we headed to Unguja Island – more commonly known as Zanzibar – which is just a two-hour ferry ride from the Tanzanian coastal capital of Dar es Salaam, or a direct flight from many African cities.
Thanks to its close proximity and budget airline options, the largest island in the Zanzibar Archipelago is an easily accessible and relatively affordable idyll where South African residents with itchy feet can spend their crashing currency. And with a week’s prescription of sun, sea, sand and Stone Town tucked between the pages of my passport, a holiday in Zanzibar proved to be just what the doctor ordered to take the edge off my East African cravings.
Our first stop was Stone Town – the historical part of Zanzibar City and a UNESCO World Heritage Site, which lies 10 minutes from the international airport on a western headland that protrudes into the Indian Ocean.
Stone Town has all the accoutrements of a magician, whereby the distractions of noise and charm mask its subtle changes to amaze and astound the amateur. It is a hypnotist by whose acquaintance you allow yourself to be harmlessly deceived as you wander beguiled under its spell; submitting to its whims at every indiscernible turn.
Its smoke and mirrors are a labyrinth of coralline ragstone and mangrove timber architecture, and its urban fabric tells the tale of the town’s former life as a Swahili trading port. The now crumbling buildings were once moulded under the influence of disparate cultures from Asia to Europe, and its notorious history as East Africa’s main slave market remains imprisoned in the foundations.
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The Kilimanjaro challenge – which is the best route for you?
There are plenty of wrong ways to climb Kilimanjaro – wrong shoes, wrong backpack or wearing a full evening dress, perhaps. But the right way to climb it will depend on how fit you are, what your preferences are and how you like your challenges.
Let’s take a look at the routes and you’ll be clearer about which route is best for you.
Marangu Route
The Marangu Route is an old favourite. It’s the most well-established route and used to be the most popular because the slopes are more gentle and easier to climb. It’s also called the Coca-Cola route because if you can drink a can of cola then you can climb this route. Or because it makes you gassy. We’re not sure.
However, in the recent years Marangu Route has been kicked into second place by the more popular Machame Route – more of this in a minute!
Marangu Route advantages:
It’s the easiest – its slopes are the gentlest of all the routes so it’s great for a beginner or if you’re a little out of shape.
It’s the cheapest and fastest. It’ll take you five or six days to the summit.
It is the only route with hut accommodation in a dormitory style, so you won’t need camping equipment.
It’s a less busy route because there are a limited number of beds in the huts, so only a certain number of climbers are allowed per day.
Marangu Route disadvantages:
The climb is gentle but it’s rapid, which means acclimatisation could be a problem. We recommend an extra day to make sure you give yourself a good chance of making it to the top. “Pole, pole” (slowly, slowly) is Kilimanjaro’s motto, and you’ll need to take it slow. An extra day will cost a little more, which is not great for those on a budget.
Because it’s a quick route, with less time for acclimatisation, the success rate of making to the summit is lower than on the longer routes.
The route is there and back, which means the scenery, although as magnificent as you’d expect, will be the same on the way back as on the ascent.
Source
Tourism will suffer until government changes rules: Airline boss
The new immigration regulations introduced by the Department of Home Affairs have had a devastating effect on the growth in visitors to South Africa – and will continue to harm the industry until government changes its stance.
This is the view of Comair CEO Erik Venter‚ speaking as his company celebrated 20 years of franchise partnership with British Airways.
“The changes have had a serious effect on tourism in South Africa. We have been talking to a number of tour operators in China‚ Europe and America about this. They have been out and about‚ advising their clients not to come to South Africa. The biggest problem is that people never come because of these issues,” said Venter.
Cape Town makes Lonely Planet’s list of must-visit cities for 2017
“South Africa is very much advertised by word of mouth. We don’t have strong advertising in other countries. Our tourism depends very much on the people who are coming here to tell their friends and family about their experience. When they experience the problems that we have in immigration‚ then they go back home and tell people not to come here.”
The biometric system‚ which captures travellers’ fingerprints at South Africa’s ports of entry‚ was introduced by the the department in April last year‚ but rolled out in earnest in June this year at 65% of Home Affairs’ counters at terminals for arrivals and transit passengers. Compounding the problem was the confusion over the requirement for foreign visitors to travel here with unabridged birth certificates for their children.
Venter warns that these regulations introduced by Home Affairs have to change in order to help boost tourism in the country.
“Until these regulations are changed we are going to struggle.”
The Tourism Business Council of South Africa on Friday revealed the extent of disruption for tourists landing at Johannesburg’s OR Tambo airport‚ measured during 1-18 October 2016: Visitors stood in line at immigration at peak times for between 90 minutes to four hours; 800 passengers have missed connecting flights due to the delays; 24 domestic and nine international flights were delayed. International Migration Services (IMS) counters were only manned at 40% on average.
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