Mweka Route
The way down. Mweka is a descent route and nothing else, and four of our seven climbs come off the mountain on it.
What the Mweka route is
Mweka is the way off Kilimanjaro. It runs down the southern side from below Barafu to Mweka Gate at about 1,640 metres, and it is used for descent only.
There is no ascent on it. The park does not permit climbers to go up Mweka, and the reasoning is straightforward. A line this direct would put you at the summit camp far too fast to be safe, and running traffic both ways down a steep, narrow forest path would be worse for everybody.
So Mweka has no gate queue, no morning registration and no first day. You meet it for the first time a few hours after standing on the summit, when your legs have already done more than they wanted to.
Four of our seven climbs finish here. Both Machame routes, the eight-day Lemosho and the nine-day Northern Circuit all come down it.
The descent, stage by stage
- Uhuru Peak to Barafu
- About 3 km straight back down the scree you climbed in the dark, and far faster. One to two hours, with a good deal of sliding.
- Barafu to Millennium Camp
- About 6 km and 850 m of descent out of alpine desert onto moorland. Two to three hours, usually on the afternoon of summit day.
- Millennium Camp to Mweka Camp
- About 3 km and an hour, for itineraries that break the descent lower down.
- Mweka Camp to Mweka Gate
- About 10 km and 1,460 m down through heather and then thick rainforest. Three to four hours on a wide track that holds water.
- At the gate
- You sign out in the park register, hand back any hire gear, and collect your certificate.
Two reasons, and both are practical.
The first is altitude. Mweka runs almost straight up the southern flank. A climber going up it would reach the high camps in two days, which is faster even than Umbwe, and Umbwe already has the lowest summit rate on the mountain.
The second is traffic. Everybody on Machame, Lemosho, Umbwe, Shira and the Northern Circuit comes down this path, most of them tired and many of them unsteady. A stream of fresh climbers walking up into that would make a difficult descent worse for both.
The park settled the question a long time ago. Mweka runs one way, downhill, and no operator can get a permit to ascend it.
How hard the descent is
Coming down is the part of Kilimanjaro people fail to plan for, and Mweka is where most of it happens.
You lose about 3,000 metres between the summit and Mweka Camp, then about 1,460 metres more the next morning. That is a great deal of descending in a day and a half, on legs that have been walking since midnight.
Nothing about it is technical. It is a walking path the whole way. The difficulty is the load on your knees and thighs, hour after hour, with no relief in it.
The scree below Barafu is the fast part. Guides encourage a sliding, heel-first gait that covers ground quickly and jars less than picking your way down carefully. Follow it.
The forest below Mweka Camp is the slow part. Steep in places, often wet, and the surface turns to slick mud after rain.
What it does to your knees
More people are hurt going down Kilimanjaro than going up, and almost all of it is wear, not accident.
Trekking poles are the most useful thing you can carry for this. Set them longer than you use them climbing, and let your arms take some of the load.
Boots need room at the front. On a long descent your feet slide forward and your toes meet the end of the boot, and a lost toenail is the standard souvenir of this route.
Train for it before you come. Most people train by walking uphill, which prepares you for none of this. Find a hill and come down it, repeatedly.
And take whatever painkillers you would normally take at the times you would normally take them. Do not wait until the last hour.
Millennium Camp sits at about 3,820 metres in moorland, a couple of hours below Barafu. Most itineraries stop here on the afternoon of summit day, and it is a good place to sleep because the air is thick again and people rest properly for the first time in days.
Mweka Camp is lower, at about 3,100 metres, on the edge of the forest. Warmer, wetter, and loud with birds in the morning.
Which one you use depends on the itinerary. Longer routes tend to stop at Millennium, shorter ones push on to Mweka. Either way you are down and warm on the night after the summit.
Both are busy. Everybody on the southern side of the mountain funnels through them.
The gate, and your certificate
Mweka Gate sits at about 1,640 metres in rainforest, and going from the crater rim to here in under two days is one of the stranger pleasures of this mountain.
You sign out in the park register. Your guide collects the summit certificates, and they are handed over at the gate or back at the hotel.
Certificates are green for Gilman's Point or Stella Point, and gold for Uhuru Peak.
The tipping ceremony with the crew usually happens at the last camp or at the gate. Have the cash ready in small notes before then, because there is no cash machine anywhere near it.
Then a short drive to Moshi, a shower, and the first proper meal in a week.
Rain, mud and the forest
The forest between Mweka Camp and the gate takes some of the heaviest rainfall on the mountain.
In the wet months it is genuinely slippery, and the wide track becomes a run of mud with deep ruts cut into it. People fall here, usually harmlessly and often more than once.
Gaiters help. So do poles. So does accepting in advance that you will reach the gate filthy.
In the dry months it is still damp underfoot, because the canopy holds the moisture in, but the footing is good and the walk down is a pleasure.
Whatever the season, keep a dry set of clothes in the bag the porters carry. Changing at the gate makes the drive back a great deal better.
Warm air, first of all. You have come from below freezing to shirtsleeves in about a day and a half, and the change is startling.
Vendors at the gate sell carvings, shirts and cold drinks. Prices there are whatever you negotiate.
Your guides and porters usually sing at the last camp or at the gate. It is not staged for visitors. They do it at the end of every climb, and it is the part most people remember afterwards.
And your legs will be worse the following day than they are at the gate. Plan a rest day before a safari or a flight home. A summit night and this descent together take more out of most people than they expect.
Climbing the Mweka with us
We do not publish an itinerary on this route
Our published climbs go up Machame, Lemosho, Marangu, Rongai and the Northern Circuit. If the Mweka is the route you want, say so when you enquire and we will tell you honestly whether we can arrange it for your dates.