Mount Kilimanjaro Tours Mean Anyone Can Climb Africa's Highest Mountain

By Grace Daniels


Mount Kilimanjaro is Africa's highest mountain, an impressive peak which rise majestically out of the east African plains. There has also been a National Park, centred on the mountain, in place in the area since 1977. Mount Kilimanjaro tours offer visitors from across the world the chance to experience this wonderful and iconic piece of African geography.

The National Park mainly exists to allow people to enjoy the scenery and geography of the mountain, rather than the wildlife. There is some wildlife which dwells on the mountain, though, mainly among the rainforest of the lower slopes, where leopard and buffalo roam. There are also many hundreds of species of bird which call the mountain home.

Mammals mainly congregate in the forest zones of the mountain, and so are harder to spot. There are several species of monkey, which often dwell close to humans so that they can scavenge. Larger mammals such as eland, serval or leopard are very hard to find though.

One mammal which all visitors should avoid as much as possible is the honey badger, which is Africa's fiercest mammal relative to its size. Even lions will not tangle with this kind of badger, such is its ferocity. Bush pigs also wander the forested zones, though nowadays the presence of so many people on the mountain means that all mammals, from mice to buffalo, are very shy indeed.

But it is for the scenery which most people visit the mountain, as well as the chance to climb one of the world's iconic peaks. The mountain is actually not too hard to climb, and you will simply need to be fit and in good overall condition to reach the top. There is no need for the special mountaineering skills which are needed to conquer the other great peaks of the world.

The mountain stands some 5896 metres high, making it Africa's highest mountain, as well as the world's largest free-standing mountain. There is no surrounding mountain range here, with other peaks in the area. Kilimanjaro is also one of the highest volcanoes in the world, and there are several different environmental zones which visitors pass through as they climb it.

Any route up the mountain begins in lush rainforest, which is the first wild zone which trekkers experience as they move out from the well-cultivated farmlands at the mountain's base. From the forest, visitors head into alpine meadows, a moorland zone with few mammals present apart from small rodents. The final zone before the twin summits of Kibo and Mawenzi are reached is a barren, cratered landscape, like that of the moon.

If you would like climb one of the world's great mountains and see some superb scenery, then Mount Kilimanjaro tours are certainly something to consider. You do need to be very fit to be able to do it, though you do not need to be a serious mountaineer. You might also be rewarded with some sights of rare and elusive African woodland creatures.




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