This September, Chloe took on the adventure of a lifetime, conquering Kilimanjaro on the stunning Northern Route. Along the way, she picked up some game-changing tips to help make the trek smoother and improve your chances of reaching the summit!

I travelled on our Northern Route Traverse and Circuit trip in September – a fantastic route that traverses round the western and northern sides of the mountain. Not many other groups go in this direction which means there are about three days in the middle of the holiday where you nearly have the mountain to yourself!

My group was fantastic and we came up with a little list of top tips as we were walking along:

The food on this trip is amazing and there is plenty of it. However, on longer days and especially on the summit day, it is great to have some of your own energy bars (or similar) always on hand.

The crew will quite often go to bed after you do and get up much earlier in the morning – so it’s handy to be able to block out this noise and get a couple of hours extra sleep.

I took a little bike light in addition to my head torch. I could hang this from the middle of the tent as a general light and not have to use my head torch all the time.

The trail is quite dusty in places and we all found that having a good stock of tissues was very useful.

For taking any toilet paper or sanitary products away with you – great idea to have a few of these handy in your day bag, with some tissue and hand sanitiser.

A great idea from someone on my trip – take a fold away small bowl (often sold as camping bowls) as an additional bowl when having a wash in the tent.

Warm water is provided most days for washing, this of course comes in one bowl (per person). Using one for clean water and another for rinsing the flannel would work really well.

You can also take any outdoor gear that you no longer need or use out with you to give to the crew – just let your guide know on arrival and they will help you with this. Anything you take for the crew will not be part of your 14kg allowance on the mountain.

… One last tip:

The guides love Kendal Mint Cake – please do take some out for them!