Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #6163 in Books
• Published on: 2006-10-10
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 336 pages

Synopsis
Talks about getting to Kilimanjaro from Europe, North America and Australasia.

From the Author
This the second edition of the bestselling guide to
Kilimanjaro. First published in 2003, this book quickly became the
established guide to those wishing to reach the summit of Africa's highest
mountain. You can read reviews of the first edition on Amazon (the first
edition had a blue cover) and please note: all of these reviews are
genuine!

For this second edition we have improved and updated the book in a number
of ways. As a result, this book:

* Is the only one with full descriptions of each of the trekking routes up
Kilimanjaro by somebody who has climbed all of them.

* The only one to include town and city guides to Arusha, Moshi and
Marangu, the three towns and villages that will be your base before and
after your climb.

* The only book with a review of the trekking agencies, both in Tanzania
(Arusha, Moshi and Marangu) and those tour operators in the
UK/US/Europe/Australia/New Zealand/South Africa. As it is the tour
companies and the guides they hire that, more than anything else, will make
or break your trip, this is a vital part of the book and should be required
reading for anybody before booking a climb. We do not accept sponsorship
and our reviews are completely unbiased and based on our dealings with the
companies and from readers' letters and recommendations.

* The only book with up-to-date and accurate maps and altitude readings
(other books are still using inaccurate and out-of-date maps and altitudes
that are widey accepted by tour operators and park officials alike to be
inaccurate).

* Full run-down of Kilimanjaro's nature including full-colour flora guide.

We also provide:
* A thorough health and fitness section to help you stay healthy in East
Africa, increase your chances of making it to the top and ensure you make
it back down again;
* Advice on how to book your trek and what to look out for in the agency's
contract;
* Comprehensive pre-departure information including advice on what to take
- and what to leave behind!
* Details on flights to East Africa;
* City guides to Nairobi and Dar es Salaam, the two cities that you are
most likely to fly into, as well as the newly-opened Kilimanjaro
International Airport;
* A thorough practical information section (including visas, currency,
budgeting, transport, food etc) on travelling around Tanzania and Kenya;
* Advice on how to look after your porters and crew on the trek;
* The most comprehensive sections on the history of Kilimanjaro and
Tanzania, and on the flora and fauna of Kilimanjaro(including a
photographic guide to the plants and flowers);
* A look at the culture of the local Chagga people who inhabit
Kilimanjaro's lower slopes;
* Photos and illustrations (from both contemporary and historical sources,
including some wonderful pen-and-ink sketches by the first Europeans to see
Kilimanjaro, way back in the nineteenth century).
* Over thirty maps covering every stage of climbing and descending from the
mountain.

. . . everything, indeed, to help you get from the safety of your favourite
armchair at home all the way to the very summit of Africa's highest
mountain. And no other guidebook can provide anything like that kind of
comprehensive coverage.

In addition, the book now has:

a full description of the Mount Meru trek, following recommendations by a
number of our readers that this should be included.

We also have worked closely with the Kilmanjaro Porters Assistance Project
(KPAP) to highlight the plight of porters and how trekkers can help to
alleviate their suffering.

And if that's not enough, this book is still the cheapest and, published in
2006, the most up-to-date available, with all the new park fees and
regulations included.

Customer Reviews

'The' pocket guide to Africa's great white mountain
Stedman's trekking guide to Kilimanjaro really is a gem of a guide. It provides just about all the information you might need to help you conquer Africa's great white peak. A mine of practical information that will help take you from planning your trip to the summit and which you will probably find you take with you on your way up the mountain.Certainly when I turned Kilimanjaro into Kili half the party I was with had a copy of this book with them!

Henry Stedman covers his subject very methodically taking you from the early planning of which tour companies to use or if you arrange your trek on arrival which trekking agencies to use. The equipment you will need and the health precautions you should take. He progresses through the practicalities of how to get to Tanzania even giving a brief guide to the ins and outs of travelling via Nairobi's somewhat haphazard airport and city. A brief description of Kilimanjaro airport and practicalities precedes more extensive descriptions of the major towns around the base of the Mountain and finally he moves on to the meat of the book - climbing the mountain itself.

Climbing the mountain is where this book really earns it's keep. Stedman starts with a quick summary of the major issues you might encounter, which is principally altitude sickness and what to do to avoid it and treat it before getting into an extensive description of each of the major routes. On each of these he does an excellent job describing the route, the practicalities, waymarks, features of the trek distances covered and altitude gained. Even if you weren't using a guide and porters this book could be enough to steer you up the mountain (although trying to climb Kili without a guide and porters is just silly as if you can afford to get to Tanzania you can afford to give a little bit more back to the local economy). Its second edition is worth getting, not just because the mountain changes as glaciers retreating and routes are altered, but because the second edition is much more comprehensive.

Flaws in the book. Well Stedman describes the flora, fauna and people of the region but attempts to do so in little more than ten pages. Far too short but then again this is a practical travel guide not a travelogue. The maps used for each section of the routes are just sketch maps and really these should be supplemented with proper maps, or was Stedman trying to prevent people using this guide to avoid paying for local porters and guides? If those are flaws then they are flaws that can be excused.

Compact and practical to take with you and comprehensive enough to help plan your trip from fireside to summit. Buy this book follow it's advice and it will make your ascent much easier or at least as easy as climbing 20 thousand feet is ever going to be. Buy it!

Exactly what I was looking for
I was looking for a book with frank, honest and impartial advice about trekking on Kilimanjaro. This is it, with far more information besides. It is not JUST a reference book - I have read it with continued interest from cover to cover. The one minor criticism I have is the prolific use of sub-text boxes which are distracting and break up the flow of reading.

A brilliant guidebook
What a great guidebook! We had to wait ages for this book to arrive (it finally arrived last month), as apparently there was some delay in publication. But we were determined to wait after reading all the rave reviews to the first edition. And after spending the best part of a month reading through it, we're glad we did. Though we have yet to climb the mountain, this book has already come in useful with its extensive reviews of trekking companies in the UK and Tanzania , whilst its descriptions of the routes are by some distance the most detailed we've come across. It's also a surprisingly funny and well-written book. A couple of our friends who climbed Kilimanjaro last year said that their guide said it was by far and away the best book on the mountain and carried a copy with him `just in case' and used it to identify the mountain flowers!

Well done Trailblazers on a cracking book. Now we've just got to get to the top!