Touch down at Kilimanjaro International Airport and you’ll be met for a simple transfer to Moshi, sitting on the lower slopes of the mountain. Today is about landing well: a shower, good food, and letting your body catch up with your travel day. If you arrive early, there’s time for a gentle wander, a coffee, and your first proper view of what you’re here to climb. This evening we’ll keep things relaxed and get everyone together as the team begins to form.

Today is where this becomes real. We’ll run a full kit check, help with any last minute hires if needed, and talk through how the week works: pacing, altitude, safety systems, daily routines, and what to expect from summit night. We’ll also share the Street Child story and your fundraising ‘why’, so the climb has a clear purpose before we even set foot on the trail.

We drive to the Lemosho Gate, complete park formalities, meet the full mountain crew, and begin trekking through the rainforest. It’s a gentle start on purpose. The goal is steady rhythm, calm breathing, and arriving into camp feeling strong. Tonight you’ll fall asleep to forest sounds and the odd realisation that you’re actually on Kilimanjaro.

Out of the rainforest and into heath and moorland. The air feels different, the views open up, and the scale of the route starts to make sense. It’s a longer trekking day, but still steady paced, with plenty of stops. Tonight you camp higher, with bigger skies and a sense of momentum.

A shorter day across the Shira Plateau, giving your body time to adapt. The landscape here is wide and dramatic, and you’ll feel the mountain shifting from “hike” to “expedition”. If conditions allow, we’ll take an acclimatisation walk in the afternoon. Slow, simple, and surprisingly effective.

A key acclimatisation day: climb high, sleep low. We trek up towards Lava Tower, spend time at higher altitude, then drop down into Barranco. It’s common to feel the altitude today: a headache, a slower appetite, a slightly fuzzy head. That’s normal. The team is watching closely and managing it with pace, hydration, and good judgement.

Barranco Wall looks immense from below, which is half the fun. But once you’re on it, you’ll find a clear route of natural steps and ledges, guided carefully all the way. Poles away, hands free, slow moves, plenty of encouragement. It becomes one of those shared moments where the team pulls together and everyone tops out feeling ten feet taller than they were an hour earlier.

A shorter push up to Barafu, your summit base camp. After lunch, the job is rest: hydrate, eat what you can, final kit checks, then an early dinner. You’ll try to sleep, but it’s a strange light sleep. Everyone is quietly doing the same maths in their head: midnight, headtorch, one step at a time.

Around midnight, we start climbing. Headtorches (as a backup with that beautiful full moon overhead), silence, and slow steady steps as the air thins. This is the heart of the challenge. With dawn approaching, you reach the crater rim and push on to Uhuru Peak, the highest point in Africa. Photos, hugs, a few quiet moments before the long descent begins. Tonight you sleep lower at Mweka Camp, tired in the best possible way.

Final descent through rainforest back to the gate. Certificates, transfers, and the simple luxury of a shower and clean clothes. Tonight we celebrate properly: stories, laughter, and the realisation that you’ve done something most people only ever talk about.

Transfers to the airport for flights home, or onward travel if you’ve booked an extension. If you’re heading to a bolt-on, today is the handover day, same team, same smooth logistics, different pace of life.