Kilimanjaro Day Hike - Shira Route

Kilimanjaro Day Hike - Shira Route

The Shira Plateau area of Kilimanjaro offers a fantastic opportunity to get high on a big mountain and to hike around this impressive World Heritage Site as a day trip – it’s a fantastic area and there are some great day hikes – either a more strenuous day hiking up along the ancient rim of the plateau or something more relaxed sticking to the undulating floor – perhaps going as far as the photogenic ‘cone place’ or Shira Needles’ at the Southern end of the plateau.

There is a fair amount of wildlife on the plateau however most of it is elusive and nocturnal but with care the events of the night can be reconstructed from the footprints around the watering points on the streams. There are herds of buffalo but also smaller gazelles and bushbuck, there is the carcase of eland and elephant higher on the mountain proving that these larger animals are occasional visitors.

Itinerary

Morning after breakfast the day starts early with a pick up in Moshi then a 2 hours drive through the rich agricultural area at the base of the mountain, this varies from hand tilled small holdings to large commercial farms before giving way first to plantation forest and finally to indigenous forest .

When you’ll arrive to the Londrosi gate, will stop there for the few minutes for registration and then later proceeding on to the Morum gate. Once through the park gate the road climbs more steeply up a rough track moving quickly through the different layers of vegetation from thick mountain forest with towering trees gradually giving way to the giant heath. These giants initially tower ten to fifteen feet high but as we get higher they become gradually shorter, when we crest the final rise on the plateau they are only a few feet high.



Stop At:

• Kilimanjaro National Park, Kilimanjaro National Park, Kilimanjaro Region
• Mount Kilimanjaro, Kilimanjaro National Park 00255 Tanzania