 So I guess start to say there are nine that go on to the mountain, seven of which go up and two go down. Yeah. So definitely so many routes on Mount Kilimanjaro and which makes it an interesting mountain and also for a lot of people who try to plan to climb Kilimanjaro, it's one of the most important decisions to make early on. What route am I going to choose? So you will end up doing so much reading and there are so many factors that will dictate which route is best for you. So that's what we're going to talk about today. We're going to just touch on some of these seven routes to climb up the mountain and then two. So it's a total of nine routes, seven up and then two down. We'll talk a little bit about them and then we will be sharing which route we chose for this summer's hike and we'll take it from there. Like Habiba was saying with all the choices, it gives you the most opportunities to get in your own head. So you'll actually find yourself caught up doing a lot of research and such as well and hopefully we'll be able to point out the good first choice ones here and be able to narrow down your decision if you're thinking about going. Yeah. So hopefully this is going to help you choose what route is best for you or if you're just curious about the mountain, this will give you an idea about what we're talking about. So we'll start first of all with the first route. It's kind of difficult because we're not sharing our screen to show you the route or some sort of graphics but we'll just talk through them. The first route that we wanted to share is the Murangu routes. Also known as the Coca-Cola route. Coca-Cola. I have to check why they call it Coca-Cola though. It's one of the classic routes and Coca-Cola was Coca-Cola classic. I'm guessing but that really makes sense. So the Murangu route is one of the very popular routes of the mountain. It is the oldest and then the other thing that makes this route different is that usually when you are climbing Mount Kilimanjaro you are going to be joining a tour operator or a company with porters and another group of people unless you want to do it as a private expedition and then you are going to be camping throughout the length of your climb. The difference for Murangu routes specifically is that you can't camp during your climb because they have huts throughout the way. So you will have, you are mandated if you choose the Murangu route to stay in one of the huts and then share them with a bunch of other people. Yeah. And I think this one also is the most straightforward in terms of the approach, like the physically straightforward. The path starts out and you go straight pretty much toward the top. Yeah. Yeah. We read that basically on the Murangu route it takes a minimum of five days to get up the mountain but they say that if you go on five days on the Murangu route the success rate is very low. And a lot of the older routes and we'll talk about this a little bit with the newer routes. Is there extra cost to stay in huts? It's probably built into your trip. So yes, because it's mandatory. You don't have a choice in the matter and as a result of this as well, this is a strictly up route. You can't imagine they wouldn't want to have to support people camping on the way down and the way up. This is an up only route and chances are it's built a little bit into your trip. I would presume if I were to have chosen the Murangu route some of it would have been for that sort of unique experience with the huts. Yeah. But last, this is not the one we picked. No. And also for a lot of people, you know, some people like being up in the mountains and going into an exhibition like this, but not everyone is comfortable sleeping out. Especially, I don't know, some of my friends told me, oh, Africa, are you not going to be afraid of wild animals? And I was like, no, not up in the mountain. They don't get up to that level. And if it happens, it's pretty rare, but it just gives some comfort for people who are not comfortable camping out in a tent. Sure. So that's Murangu route. The second route is... How about I say, I'm going to start with the Lamosho, that's what I'll say. The Lamosho route comes in from entirely on the other side of the mountain. While the Murangu approaches from the east, the Lamosho approaches from the west. And the Lamosho is one of the newer routes. It was introduced originally to get rid of bottlenecking with some of the original routes that were there as more and more tourism started to drive people toward hiking the mountain. They had a lot of congestion and Lamosho was then invented in a way to give people another route in. As a result of this being a newer route, the Lamosho route actually had some thought put into it in terms of favoring acclimatization. So this is a bit of a longer route onto the mountain and has a path that's kind of meant to allow hikers to acclimatize more appropriately. It also will go through four different ecological zones, starting down in a rainforest area, moving through some sort of jungle territory, and plateau, and then getting all the way up to the top. You'll hear about some of these different ecological zones as well when we talk about one of the other routes. Yeah. Yeah. The Lamosho route is definitely a good route to choose because it's just got a bit of everything. The level of difficulty is reasonable. It's quieter compared to other routes. And then we will talk about some of the routes that it connects with, but it's definitely quite as you can imagine. So many people trying to climb the mountain during the same season. It just makes it very difficult. You should be comfortable with a lot of people around you. This one actually is a bit more remote as a result of its newness. A lot of people seem to prefer routes closer to what we'll talk about, the Machame route at some point here, the Morangu route that we had talked about already. And it seems like those ones as being a bit more established have a bit more clout. But the Lamosho route is by all means advertised as a very beautiful route and being less popular that you will have longer stretches where you won't necessarily be bumping into people. I may give you a bit more of the isolated feel that you may be seeking for if you're going out on a big hike for something like this. So that's the second route. The third route we have on the list is the Rongai route. So this route is the one that comes from Kenya. From the north. From the north side. And then you make your way up the mountain. This also supposed to be a quiet route, a gentle route. And I think it takes usually between six to seven days to track up the Rongai route. And the Rongai one comes around and we'll connect with at some point the Morangu route. We'll discover as we start talking about these different routes that there are actually two ways onto the peak, but most of the reasonable people like us are only really looking at the one. In this case, the Morangu route and the Rongai route here do join up on their push up to the top. What was the comment there? The Rongai. Oh, on the right guy for a job. Yes, exactly. It's R-O-N. G-A-I. G-A-I. Like Rongai. And as a result of coming in from Kenya as well, and this is in the moment ad-libbing, you will need a different vaccination mandated upon you. If you are coming from a country that has yellow fevers endemic with yellow fever, you will need a yellow fever vaccination while it is not required. If you are only within Tanzania, it is required if you are in Kenya. So I will presume that you will need that if you're going to come in from the Rongai route. Yep. The next route on the list is the Ombui, Ombui, Ombui route. I think it's Ombui. The Ombui. The right way, the wrong way, the up way, the down way, the Ombui. The Ombui. U-M-B-W-E. So Ombui route is a route that approaches the mountain from the south. This is a down only route in this case. And it is short, it is steep, and it's usually chosen by aggressive climbers. Right. So it's not your typical limocho, machame, or the routes that we mentioned earlier. It's pretty, it's a very aggressive route. We probably don't need to talk about the Ombui too much if it's more of a down route. It's worth pointing out that the other route down is also called the Moeke route. Both routes off of the mountain come off the mountain to the south. And I can hold on my little picture I've got drawn here, something that I feel like. They say it's just a lot of facts and we don't have much to use. Like the arrows, right? Got skills. Cut that part from the video, that's proprietary. But again, the Moeke and the Ombui come down. I will admit it, and I took a picture of this so I can prove it later. It seems like you can kind of go down other ways. Permits are very much, it seems limited for many of the other companies. I've seen a route that goes up the Ronghe and seems to point going down the Merangu, which is different than obviously what I've just said about the Ombui and Moeke. But these seem to be very much the primary ways you would experience advertisements for these routes. It does seem like special permits might be available to certain companies to deviate from that a little bit, but I'm sure that they are rare permits in that regard. So again, Ombui goes down, Moeke goes down, and they're both on the south side of the mountain. Do you mind if I bring out the next up route? Sure, sure. So we'll talk about, let's see, I don't want to step on... Are you talking about the Shira? I was going to leave that one for you if you had it there. But the Shira route, I guess we'll tag team this one. The Shira route also approaches from the west side, and the Shira route actually joins up with that Lemosho route that I was talking about earlier. In this case, typically, if you're doing the Shira route, and maybe we can chat here in tandem, you'll actually take the southern circuit around the mountain, which joins up with many, or with another one of the routes that we'll tell you about in a moment, the Machame route. But you go ahead. Yeah, so Shira route, yeah, same thing, it also joins with the Lemosho route. Starts from the west, and it's usually on the Shira route you don't have much time to acclimatize, because you already start from almost 12,000 feet, so it's pretty intense from the get-go. Like camping. Intense. What else? So another route that's worth pointing out, and this is the danger zone, the Western breach. Oh yeah. And like I said, there are two different ways to get actually up to the summit. There's the traditional way that you would experience coming from one of the Shira two camps or something to the effect of that. And then there's the Western breach. The Western breach is the adventurous, more mountaineering way. It actually takes you into the crater rather than the other routes that take you along the crater wall, you'll actually go into the crater. And the way that I imagine this route working in my head is if you were hiking up the traditional way, and you saw the big sign that said, you're at the top of Kilimanjaro, and then some crazy guy with a parka on with big furry things climbed up over the other side on the other side of the sign with glasses and goggles on, that's the Western breach. It's like a mountaineering route. Now, this route was closed down for a long period of time because three Americans actually died on this trail back in 2006. The problem isn't necessarily that the climate itself is so dangerous. The problem is that as the glacier continues to recede, it reveals more rock that is now available to fall. And it was indeed a rockfall that killed these three Americans back in 2006. Again, the route was closed down after a period of time, the route reopened again because there are still plenty of thrill seekers out there that wanted to just take on this challenge. But the Western breach by all means is a very technical route. And if you're looking to spend your money wisely and get to the top of the mountain the first time, probably not the best one, but it could be depending on who you are. Yeah. Exactly. So, the next one I have on here, I think the last one I have on my list is the Machame route. Did you have any other? I think we... I can talk about the northern circuit if you put this one. Okay. We'll talk about the north. So, the Machame route is also known as the Whiskey route. It's one of the most scenic routes on the mountain. So beautiful. It goes through different climate zones. You hike through the rainforest. This is the one that I was talking about the other day. It's supposed to be really scenic. And then it also has high success rate, but it's very busy. So very busy, high success rate, very beautiful. So you should be really comfortable just sharing the trail with so many people and so many porters. And that is the route that we chose. We like the four ecological zones. I can't say I think we're going to be too bothered by people on the trail. It does seem like there will be times where obviously if you get to a bottleneck that we were talking about earlier. One of the most popular bottlenecks is the kissing wall. Did I say that right? It's a kissing wall. Yeah. It's what it is. Obviously a very narrow area where you kind of have to get intimate with the mountain. And narrow areas like that are obviously where you might have a lot of people that slow stuff down depending on the pace of your group versus other groups. I don't think we're going to be bothered by that. If we're up there and we can look around and snap some photos. Yeah. Good news. Yeah. So definitely when we were looking at the routes, we were kind of thinking considering the Machame route and the Lemosho route. And then I don't remember exactly what was the reason why we chose the Machame. I think we chose the Machame because it was supposed to be more scenic. I think price. And I think we were really interested in taking a lot of days on the mountain because we wanted to really take advantage of the acclimatization. And at that point, it really was six or one half a dozen of the other for us. And I think we'd heard a lot of people also just spoken highly of the experience they had on the Machame route. Yeah. And that was enough to convince us. At the end of the day, sometimes just the prices. As you can imagine, all of these different routes start from very different sides of the mountain, very far apart. So depending on where you might fly into or where your route starts, you may have to find accommodations or you may actually have a long drive ahead of you in certain stages, depending on where you fly into to get to your starting point, let alone hike the mountain. Exactly. Yeah. I think the Machame, though, just looked pretty. Yeah. A lot of documentation on it. Yeah. And there's no issue with the limo show, though. And then also, no problem with a lot of people on the trail. I mean, sometimes it's nice to have company on the trail. And I personally don't mind it. I think it's nice. And you get to meet some really cool people and you can make long-lasting friendships on that type of adventure. So it's not a problem at all. Yeah. So this last route that I was talking about, and it's worth pointing out that the Northern Circuit and the Southern Circuit, imagine that the mountain is a big dot, and the peak is a big dot in the middle of a circle. And you have the opportunity to take the northern route around the top half of the mountain or the southern route along the bottom half of the mountain. A lot of these routes we've been talking about so far, the Shira route, the Machame route, go take the Southern Circuit, right? They pass underneath the peak of the mountain on the southern side, whereas the Morangu route coming in directly from, I feel like a weatherman. I'm like looking at little things, where the Morangu route coming all the way in from the east side just goes straight up. It doesn't pass underneath the mountain. And a lot of these trips underneath the mountain, either on the Southern Circuit or on the Northern Circuit, give you time to acclimatize as you go over many peaks, go higher, sleep lower. Northern Circuit takes you around the top, though, which is a little bit of a longer route. And the route that I've seen that connects and usually gives you the opportunity to take this path is the Lamosho route. This also means in my mind that you could create a hybrid one if you had the right size private group from the Shira trail as well, which, like we said, connects up with the Lamosho route on the west side. On the west side, yeah. But then the Northern Circuit, a bit of a longer route, gives you more time on the mountain, but you're going to be paying money for that and you're going to be spending time there. But I'm sure it would be a unique experience. I don't think we had any reason to say we didn't want to do it from a natural perspective. Probably just a question of time. Time and price is very much what would deter us from doing that at the time. Can I just say, by the way, a Coca-Cola route, Morangu, and we made our little joke as to why it was Coca-Cola because it was a classic route. And then obviously the whiskey route, the Machame route. And you could probably have a good guess at the tip of your tongue right now as to why those two have nicknames. They're very popular routes, as they are said, and they're like whiskey and coke at that point. They're parrots, right? And it seems like those are two of the very popular routes that people would look for. And again, and we fell into that category as we picked the Machame route. So I think these are the routes up the mountain. There's obviously a lot more information to share. I am guessing at the end of the whole trip, if we make it or even if we don't make it, we'll probably put a very solid video just talking through them with details and some graphics and some more information. Chances are a lot of the stuff we'll talk about now we'll really talk about the Machame route, to be honest with you, because we're probably going to be researching the one that we're doing more. As you can imagine, there are a lot of established camps on the mountain and you just have to apply for permits to be at these because they want to regulate how many people are in each spot. You obviously don't want a thousand people at one camp and zero people at the other. So we'll probably be able to talk a little bit about some of those more popular ones. Again, as the routes converge higher and higher up the mountain, you start to bump into people who are hiking up from many other trails. I do the whiskey route just because of the name. That's not a bad reason. This is apparently a very good route, so you'd be fine. But yeah, anyway, so some of these camps we could probably talk about that are more popular at some point, Shira 2, Shira 1, stuff like that. But another video. Yeah, but I think we're a little bit early, 6.21, but we covered what we wanted to cover for this live stream, so we'll just keep it probably open a little bit for anything.