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Gap Year & Career Gap Ventures > Kilimanjaro Venture
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Page 4 of 9
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Kilimanjaro Venture Phase 3:
An expedition through Tanzania, Uganda and Kenya
Total time: Six Weeks
Kilimanjaro Venture follows a loop clockwise through Northern Tanzania,
Uganda, Kenya and back into Tanzania. Over the course of twelve weeks,
as we travel between project sites, we will embark on a broad range of
adventurous activities, all geared towards developing your expedition
skills in preparation for the final challenge: Kilimanjaro!
Expedition Tanzania
Ngorongoro Crater and Serengeti Safari, Tanzania (Week 3)
Our first chance to put those expedition skills into practice! From the
safety of our vehicles we will see lions, buffalo, antelope, elephant,
giraffe, baboons, hippos, rhino and perhaps even the illusive leopard.
At the end of the day we establish camp, and after a night under canvas,
surrounded by the sounds of the African bush, you will gain a dramatic
appreciation of life on safari.
Ngorongoro Crater is perhaps the ultimate place to see Big Game; it's
a "caldera" which is an extinct volcanic crater, twelve miles
across and over 600m deep. The concentration of game is much greater than
the adjoining Serengeti, so this is the place to get all the best pic's.
Moving on through Serengeti you will see how vast the grasslands are and
maybe you'll be lucky enough to come across one of the huge wildebeest
herds that often number more than a million animals. We leave Serengeti
via the Western Corridor and reach the town of Mwanza, on the southern
tip of Lake Victoria.
Mwanza Project (weeks 4 and 5)
Click here for for full details.
Expedition Uganda: crossing Lake Victoria, Queen
Elizabeth National Park and the Crater Lake Trek (week 6)
Our route towards Uganda crosses the "inland sea" of Lake Victoria.
The lake, shared by Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda, is the world's second
largest fresh water lake (after Lake Baikal in Russia) and forms the headwaters
of the River Nile. We continue to Queen Elizabeth National Park in South
Western Uganda where we can see the world's largest concentration of Hippos,
elephants, vibrant birdlife and, with luck, a troop of chimpanzees. The
Rwenzori mountains dominate this part of Uganda and we skirt around the
range to the crater lakes at Kibale for a 3 day trek from one lake to
the next. We stay at locally run camping lodges and enjoy rural Uganda
at its most relaxed!
Kagando Project (weeks 7 and 8)
Click here for full details.
Kampala, The Nile and the Great Rift Valley (week
9)
We travel from Kagando to Kampala, a vibrant city built on seven hills,
but that's where the similarity with Rome ends! Check out the Owino market
which is a huge throbbing mass of humanity trading everything from smoke-dried,
mummified fish, to bicycle spokes! The handicraft village and the Buganda
museum are also worth visiting. We end this week by making the short transfer
to Jinja, the town at the source of the Nile.
Our final activity in Uganda is to spend two days shooting the Nile's
mighty white water rapids. Clambering into inflatable rafts, each piloted
by an expert guide, we descend the big water of the world's most impressive
rapids: surfing the source! We overnight on a mid-stream island which
is an adventure in itself. If, at the end of all this, you still have
any adrenaline left . . .the Nile High Bungee is available! This is a
43m bungee jump that ends as your fingertips touch the Nile: touch the
source!
 The
Great Rift Valley and Mt Kenya Trek Kenya (week 10)
We enter Kenya and drop into the Great Rift Valley, one of the world's
most impressive geographical features. Created by tectonic plate movements
in the earth's crust, the Rift is thought to be the origin of earliest
man. Having built up a good level of fitness and plenty of expedition
experience we tackle Mt Kenya a 5,199m peak, our first high altitude trek!.
Experienced guides and porters will accompany us all the way, explaining
how best to conserve energy at high altitude. Climbing above the forests
that cover the lower slopes, we follow a series of ridges through the
cloud base, spectacular views every step of the way. On the 4th day we
set off early in the morning for the final push to the top. Soon after
dawn we reach Point Lenana (4,998m) the highest point that can be reached
by non-technical climbers and more than five times the height of Scafell
Pike, England's highest peak!
Climb Mt Kilimanjaro and hit the beach (week 11
and 12)
Having acclimatised to the altitude and after enjoying a few days rest
in Nairobi, we head back to Moshi, the starting point of the Venture,
to begin our ascent of Kilimanjaro, Africa's highest mountain, 5,895m.
In order to maximize our chances of success we follow the Machame or "Whiskey"
route. The ascent is slower and less steep, allowing us to stick to the
principle of "trek high and sleep low" - by far the best way
to acclimatize to high altitude. These features also make the route far
safer than the more touristy Marangu or "Coca-Cola" route. We
also include an acclimatisation or rest day on the third day of the trek.
Climbing Kilimanjaro requires a good level of fitness, but no technical
mountaineering skills at all. We deliberately leave the trek until the
end of the Venture because after twelve weeks of adventurous travel we
will be in good physical shape, confident of our trekking and expedition
abilities and accustomed to the African weather and food. Most days we
will break camp early in the morning and trek for between 5 and 7 hours,
allowing us to reach the next camp in the early afternoon and rest up
for the remainder of the day. Day 7 is summit day! Crawling out of the
mountain hut shortly after midnight, we strap on our headtorches and head
for the summit. Our guides will set the pace, which as usual will be "pole
pole" (very slow!) With the sun beginning to rise behind the neighbouring
Mawenzi Peak we finally reach the crater rim. From here we can see Uhuru
Peak, the highest point, and with renewed energy we push on to the summit,
5,895m: the "Roof of Africa".
After all of the hard work, you've deserved a spot of R&R, the beaches
of the Indian Ocean await. We head back to Kenya and hit the coast at
Mombassa from where we have several beach options for a few days of heavy
duty kicking back!
Where else do VentureCo operate in the region?
Onward Travel
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Explore Zanzibar: for some well-deserved rest and relaxation, take the ferry to Zanzibar and discover the pristine beaches. For the more energetic there’s snorkeling amongst the coral reefs and uninhabited islands and divers and potential divers can make use of the world class Zanzibar dive centres. Meanwhile culture vultures can head into Stone Town to learn more about the Spice Island’s remarkable history and architecture, a classic blend of Omani, African Portuguese and British influences.
- Spend an extra week on Zanzibar gaining a PADI scuba diving qualification.
- Fly from Dar down to Cape Town and follow the Garden Route to Port Elizabeth.
- Take the TAZARA railway from Dar es Salaam to Victoria Falls, continue on through Botswana and Namibia by bus.
- Head south to Malawi and Mozambique.
- Return to Uganda and visit the Mountain gorillas in the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest.
- Explore more of Kenya and Uganda.
VentureCo staff have explored throughout the Magreb in north Africa, the Sahara & Sahel (an accumulation of five separate trans-Sahara expeditions over a ten year period) the jungles of the Congo basin; the grasslands of east Africa, and southern Africa from the Cape to Namibia’s Skeleton Coast. We look forward to the chance of discussing your travel plans with you.
Airline connections are available to incorporate Africa into a Round the World travel plan.
Afterwards
Life can seem very tame when you return home from a place like Africa. It’s important to retain contact with your fellow Venturers to help put your travel experiences into context, VentureCo host an annual reunion party every September. This event is open to all Venturers, past and present and is an important date in the social calendar!
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