Mt Kilimanjaro

When the pandemic hit and borders closed in 2020, thousands of porters faced unemployment. One organisation came to the rescue.

Mt Kilimanjaro is one of the most challenging hikes in the world. This is what a trek to the roof of Africa really looks like.

Being well prepared, with the right equipment, will give you the best chance of making it to the top of the world’s highest free-standing mountain.

Before I travelled to Tanzania for the first time in 2009, I was a little gobsmacked by some wildly incorrect notions my friends and family had about the coastal African country.

Sure, you can rock up at the foot of Mt Kilimanjaro with nothing but a song in your heart and a pocket full of dreams. But you’re going to be in for a bit of a shock.

Intrepid mountain guide Samuel has climbed Kilimanjaro over 500 times. So when his travellers are struggling to the summit, he’s got a few tricks up his sleeve to help encourage them along. Singing this traditional Kili trekking song is one of them.

On the fourth day of our climb it was plainly in sight, so close we felt like we could reach out and touch it—the exhaustion, the aches, pains, nighttime trips to the bathroom in below freezing temperatures with monkeys shrieking at our backs, the altitude sickness, it had all been worth it.