Mount Kilimanjaro National Park

Size: 755 sq km (about 470 sq miles)

Location: Northern Tanzania

Getting here: 128 km (about 80miles) from Arusha. About 1 hour from Kilimanjaro airport.

To do: Six usual trekkin routes to the summit and other more-demanding mountaineering routes. Day or overnight hikes on the Shira plateau. Nature trails on the lower reaches. Trout fishing.

Best time: Clearest and warmest conditions from December to February, but also dry (and colder) from July-September.

Accommodation: Huts and campsites on the mountain. Several hotels and campsites outside the park.

Map

NOTE Climb slowly to increase your acclimatization time and maximize your chances of reaching the summit. To avoid altitude sickness, allow a minimum of 4 nights, preferably 5 or even more for the climb. Take your time and enjoy the beauty of the mountain.

Kilimanjaro. The name itself is a mystery wreathed in clouds. It might mean Mountain of Light, Mountain of Greatness or Mountain of Caravans. Or it might not. The local people, the Wachagga, don't even have a name for the whole massif, only Kippo (and now known as Kibo), for the familiar snowy peak that stands imperious, overseer of the continent, the summit of Africa.

Kilimanjaro, by any name, is a metaphor for the compelling beauty of East Africa. When you see it, you understand why. Rising in the absolute isolation, at 5,895 metres (19,336 feet), Kilimanjaro is Africa's highest mountain and one of the world's most accessible high summits, beacon for visitors from around the world. Most climbers reach the crater rim with little more than a walking stick, proper clothing and determination.

Those who reach Uhuru Point, the actual summit, or Gillman's Point on the lip of the crater, will have earned their climbing certificates and their memories.

But there is so much more to Kili than her summit. A journey up her slopes takes you on a climatic world tour, from the tropics to the arctic. The grassy and cultivated lower slopes turn into lush rainforest, inhabited by elusive elephant, leopard, buffalo and antelope. Higher still, heath and moorland, covered with giant heathers, becomes surreal alpine desert and, finally, ice, snow and the magnificent beauty of the top of the continent.