easiest, least hassled way of organising the trip, since nearly all agencies will sell you a complete package, including airport pick up and transfers, accommodation and the ingredients for the climb itself. They may also be able to sell you flights as well. This is the least time consuming option and means that you can make all of the arrangements well in advance. Inevitably this does cost a little more than booking direct with an outfitter in Tanzania, but the additional money buys you peace of mind.
Most of the outfitters and agencies in Tanzania are found at the foot of the mountain, in either Arusha or Moshi. The larger and more established agencies now have online booking facilities as well, which mean that you can arrange your trek from outside Tanzania. Arusha tends to be a little more expensive than its neighbour, Moshi, not least because many of the agents in Arusha are working on behalf of outfitters in Moshi and need to take their cut. There are also higher transport costs to the trailhead from Arusha as it is further away from the mountain. Moshi has the largest number of outfitters (see Appendix B for a selection of the better outfitters in Moshi). Many of these are affiliated to agencies in the UK. Booking directly with an outfitter in Moshi represents the best value in terms of how much you will pay and what your money will buy. As a result of the sheer mass of competition in the town and the fact that you have removed all of the middlemen, you are also likely to pay less than if you book your trip elsewhere.
Porters with supplies at Naremoru trailhead before leading on to the Rongai Route
The most important thing to bear in mind when booking your trip is that the agency must be licensed. Ask to see the licence and make sure that it is in date. A good way of comparing the different agencies is to ask other people about their experiences on the mountain. Check the visitors’ books and read the various comments. Shop around and consult several outfitters in order to get a feel for the types of service and price ranges on offer. Check the day-to-day itineraries proposed by the outfitters and, if possible, ask to see the standard of equipment that they propose to use. Make sure that you establish exactly what is and isn’t included in the price. All national park fees, rescue fees, hut or camping fees for both you, the guide and all of the porters that will accompany you should be included. Food and drinks for the entire trip should also be part of the proposed deal, as should all equipment hire costs and the price of being transported to and from the trailhead by the outfitter. Most of the established reputable outfitters will have standard contracts that stipulate all of this information, so that you know what you are signing yourself up for.
Guides and porters
The outlawing of independent trekking on Kilimanjaro ensured that groups were no longer allowed to pitch up at the foot of the mountain and just start climbing. Nowadays, all ascents must be conducted with a guide and usually with a team of porters who carry all of the team’s equipment and food up the mountain on their heads and backs. Trekkers only shoulder a modest day pack and yet there are times on the mountain when even that will seem like a Sisyphean burden. Kilimanjaro National Park recommends that each individual making an ascent of the mountain does so with at least one or two porters. The guide will stay with you throughout the climb, accompanying you right to the summit should you be fortunate enough to make it that far. The porters will climb as far as the top camp, then wait for you to return from the summit bid before descending with you.
Porters gathered at the foot of the mountain
Climbing the mountain with a guide and porters is nothing new. In 1889, Hans Meyer was accompanied by a team of porters and guides. The group was led by 18-year-old Yohana Kinyala Lauwo, supported by an assistant, Jonathan Mtui, and several porters: Elia Minja, Tom Mosha, Makalio Lyimo and Mamba Kowera. Their names are commemorated on a plaque at the Marangu Gate. Lauwo went on to guide people up the mountain for most of his life. He was present at the centennial celebrations when he was honoured in recognition of his role in the first ever ascent of the mountain. He died, allegedly aged 125, in 1996. The first Chagga to actually stand on the summit were the guides Oforo and Jonathan, who did so in 1925 and have been credited with the 11th and 12th ascents.
The guides and porters are often interesting and entertaining companions, whose easy humour, ready laugh and knowledge of the mountain and the area can enhance your trip. Most are affiliated to one or other of the outfitters at the foot of the mountain. All guides must be registered with the national park authorities and will have a permit which confirms that. They are drawn from all walks of life and represent a broad spectrum of ages, tribes and backgrounds. That said, most of the porters are members of the Chagga tribe. Many are youngsters in their late teens and early twenties. Others have worked on the mountain for a decade or more.
Many porters volunteer to climb Kilimanjaro to supplement the income they generate from farming. Others are freelancers who have no other job. The role of porter is by no means a demeaning one and has long been a major source of employment in the Kilimanjaro region. In an area where the unemployment rate is around 80%, it is a respectable and comparatively well paid job and money earned in tips supplements pay. Porters usually receive US$5–7 per day, although the official rate of pay is US$10. Cooks and assistant guides earn US$6–8 (official rate: US$15) and guides can expect to be paid US$8–9 per day (official rate: US$20). There have been attempts to enforce the official wages but the likelihood of the official salaries being standardised and applied across the board is very slim.
Porters are also often open to exploitation. Hopefully you’ll be slightly more considerate towards your team than HW Tilman, who noted on his return to Gillman’s Point from higher on the crater rim: ‘We picked up the patient Solomon, now the colour of a mottled and overripe Victoria plum, and at twelve o’clock started down.’ There is never enough work on the mountain to go round and competition to become a porter is fierce. Only by serving an apprenticeship as a porter will they become an assistant guide and have a chance to progress to the level of guide. Although there are regulations in place to try to preserve porters’ rights, these are sometimes flouted by unscrupulous outfitters or guides.
Tourism Concern (www.tourismconcern.org.uk), a UK-based organisation that lobbies on behalf of porters’ rights, noted ‘There have been reports of guides bribing the rangers who weigh the porters’ loads, for example, so that the porters end up carrying huge weights, and of guides choosing porters on the basis of payments and bribes. Porters who complain fear that they will be threatened by the guide and told that they will not climb again.’ Porter conditions and standards vary considerably from one group to another. The lack of standardised rates of pay can mean that it is often the outfitters that get rich while the porters put in the hard graft.
Other organisations working for improved conditions for porters include the International Porter Protection Group (www.ippg.net) and the Kilimanjaro Porters Assistance Project (www.kiliporters.org). The latter lends out equipment and clothing, donated by trekkers, to porters for free, teaches the porters English and first aid, and generally tries to raise the issue of porter exploitation in the public mind by arranging for people to spend a day with a porter and see what his life is really like. KPAP estimates that a fair wage for a porter’s work done properly is 28,000 Tsh per day. They have also set up a ‘Partner’ scheme for trekking agencies, and there are lists online of those agencies which have signed up to it. To qualify as a partner, one of the criteria is paying porters at least US$7, assistant guides US$10 and guides US$14.
Porters watching the sunrise illuminate clouds below Mawenzi Tarn Hut (Rongai Route, Mawenzi Tarn Hut to Kibo Huts)
The level of equipment given to porters
