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Chagga Cultural Programme
Foothills Walking Tour
Challenge Trek
Africa’s highest mountain, Mount Kilimanjaro, has fascinated travellers ever since the first nineteenth-century explorers set eyes on its snow-capped peak. It’s a rich, fertile area full of exotic flowers and fruits, waterfalls and rippling streams - a striking contrast to the dry plains all around. The first missionaries in Tanzania thought so too, settling in the Kilimanjaro foothills before anywhere else.
Today, the challenge of reaching the summit draws hikers from all over the world. Yet how many of them ever realise that just off the well-beaten trails, there are vibrant local communities? How many of them have the opportunity to share a bowl of steaming plantain stew with a village elder, exchange stories, chew freshly cut sugar cane and join in with the energetic dancing?
The unique culture of the Chagga people is already under threat as young people migrate to towns to find work, and elders pass away. Unless we take action now, this generation could be the last ever to experience their songs, dances and traditional healing knowledge.
Oreteti Cultural Discovery offers both a Kilimanjaro Foothills Walking Tour and the classic Kilimanjaro Challenge Trek, both of which incorporate our unique Chagga Cultural Programme (see below). The costs for the Foothills tour include accommodation in a tented camp under the banana trees, meals provided by our experienced chefs, transport, an introductory Ki-Chagga language lesson, fair payments to guides born and raised in the village, a contribution to sustainable community development through the local government’s Village Development Fee, and a donation to an Arusha NGO helping the Chagga protect their heritage.
The Trek includes (in addition to the above) porter and guide fees, meals and accommodation in mountain huts for the 5-7 day expedition, and entrance fees for Mount Kilimanjaro National Park.
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Chagga Cultural Programme
- Walk through home gardens filled with a vast range of edible, medicinal and other useful plants, and taste fruits you’ve never seen before…
- Visit a herbalist’s medicinal garden…
- Make bowls, spoons and other utensils with a master wood-carver…
- Hike to local waterfalls and splash in the cool, clear water…
- Join the fun-loving Uduru women in their lively dancing and singing…
- Learn history, proverbs and stories from respected elders…
- Chat with a traditional midwife about pregnancy, birth and child-rearing
- Enjoy all your experiences with a clear conscience, knowing that at least 20% of the profits from your visit will go directly to the community, and a further 10% to an Arusha-based organisation working to promote and preserve the disappearing Chagga culture…
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Kilimanjaro
Foothills Walking Tour
Starting from the Chagga village of Uduru, hike to the Nkuu Caves, where the Chagga people traditionally hid from the raiding Maasai during 19th-century conflicts (fortunately relations are a bit more peaceful these days!) From there, continue to a crystal-clear waterfall, where you can swim and splash in the Weruweru River for as long as you like before returning to the village. Camp under the banana trees for a night, before continuing with the cultural programme or heading on up the mountain.
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Callenge Trek
If you’re ready for the ultimate challenge, climbing to the Roof of Africa could leave you feeling literally ‘on top of the world’! After a one-day or two-day cultural programme, our guide will lead you through the lush equatorial forest – with its endemic plants, found nowhere else in the world - to the glaciers above the treeline, and hopefully to Uhuru Peak at 5,895m above sea level. You’ll set up camp at the designated sites as our chef prepares delicious meals.
We strongly recommend the 26km Machame Route, which can usually be completed in seven days (six days may be possible for those with a high level of physical fitness), and has a higher rate of success than the popular but less scenic Marangu Route. For experienced climbers, Oreteti can also offer trekking on other, more remote routes:
- Rongai Route, on the northeastern side, provides a tangible sense of wilderness for the first few days. This side of the mountain has less rain than the south and west, making it the route of choice during periods of less reliable weather (March to mid-July, and October to December).
- Lemosho Route, on the western side, is an unspoilt, remote and beautiful route that crosses the Shira Plateau and the icefields of Kibo. It includes a number of river valleys, which add around 1000m to the climb, and is not recommended for inexperienced climbers or during the rainy seasons.
Oreteti particularly welcomes charity climbers, and offers special rates to anyone pledging a minimum donation of ₤500 to Aang
Serian. We can provide assistance with local publicity on request, including T-shirt printing, and organise visits to projects supported by the climb – e.g. a safe house for Maasai girls fleeing female genital mutilation and forced marriage, a rural secondary school, or grassroots education to prevent HIV/AIDS. Discounts may also be negotiable for those with their own ‘pet’ charity to support – please contact us for details.
Click here to request a quotation and/or suggested itineraries
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