Kilimanjaro trek, Rongai Route

Environment

The very ethos of our style of travel is responsible; small groups on fully escorted tours, experiencing the very best of a region, a culture and a landscape, with a friendly local hand guiding the way. Our itineraries are designed to give our travellers real life experiences without compromising the part of the world we are exploring; to travel responsibly is at the heart of our commitment as a global tour operator.

This Kilimanjaro trek is the ultimate challenge for keen trekkers, the chance to conquer the highest free standing peak on Earth and watch the sunrise from the highest point in Africa. Following the Rongai route to the summit you will be approaching the mountain from the north and trekking the path widely regarded as the route less travelled. Aided throughout the trek by your team of local guides and porters you can be sure that this fantastic trip will not only give you an enormous sense of personal accomplishment, but will also benefit local families and businesses in Tanzania.

Working with our ground agent in Tanzania we recruit all our ground staff from the communities surrounding Kilimanjaro, working to a ratio of one experienced guide to every two climbers, plus a team of assistant guides, porters, cooks and assistant cooks to accompany our trekkers.

Porters will carry your baggage during the trek, with each trekker assigned a personal porter. You’ll be expected carry only your day pack, but ensure that you have everything you require for a day’s trekking to hand. To ensure the continued welfare of our trekking team, and particularly that of your porter, you will be required to limit the weight of your baggage on this trip to an absolute maximum of 15kg. We ensure that our support team are all well cared for when escorting our groups; from having appropriate equipment and clothing, enough food and getting paid a fair wage. Your support team are there to help you summit Kilimanjaro and as a company, it is our responsibility to ensure that they are properly looked after while on trek.

You support team will encourage you throughout to take steps to make your climb as environmentally responsible as possible. Rubbish and refuse will not be left on the mountain, and our camping areas will be left as we find them. Your group leader will be on hand to assist with the appropriate disposal of rubbish en route, even if this means carrying it back down with us. To reduce waste (and limit the amount of weight carried), trekkers should carry refillable water bottles with purification tablets to enable them to remain hydrated, rather than rely on plastic bottles purchased prior to the climb.

As a company we are very aware of the negative effect carbon emissions have on our environment and as such operate a carbon neutral policy; offsetting the ground emissions of all our passengers on all our trips. Despite this mainly being a trekking itinerary, there are ‘on the ground’ transfers involved, meaning that on this particular journey that equates to 209kgs of carbon offset per passenger, per departure. We also offer all our travellers the opportunity to offset the cost of their international travel with us.

Community

We are proud to be a partner of Kilimanjaro climb outfitter by the Kilimanjaro Porters Assistance Project (KPAP).

KPAP is a project supported by our Foundation meaning that all of our climbs have been assessed and scored based on a number of criteria, all of which are designed to ensure the proper treatment of porters on the Mountain.

Despite the significant efforts of KPAP to improve conditions for porters working on Kili, there is still an astonishing amount of abuse of porters on the Mountain. Receiving this accreditation shows our emphasis on what it means to travel responsibly.