Admiral101 posted:

I don't agree with the 6 day Kilimanjaro. Guessing you're doing Machame?

I spent some time at 14k altitude as well in South America, but 19k on kilimanjaro was a whole different ballgame. Keep in mind that most days on Mt Kiliyou'll be around 15-16k feet elevation or so. The last 2-3k comes all at once at night.

The 6 day climb probably generally involves skipping the camp that's halfway between the barranco wall and the camp situated at the base of the summit. To do this, you will have to power through the day and make sure to get to the last camp before evening (ideally in the afternoon). This is because you will probably be waking up around midnight in order to start your climb (it's a 5ish hour climb from the camp to the summit). You do not want to be rolling into the last camp at like 7pm because you won't get the sleep you need for the summit climb. Even when you get off the summit, it's not like you'll be able to catch up on your sleep. The minute you're off the summit you'll be packing your poo poo up for the 5-6 hour climb to the bottom base camp. You're not allowed to linger at the camp next to the summit.

You better be very confident in your fitness to both make the climb and have it be relatively enjoyable. Not to mention, the camp you skip is actually above the cloud line, so if you're into night photography, you can get some great shots during the night that you otherwise wouldn't be able to get (since you'd presumably be climbing up to the summit instead).

I did the 8 day lemosho climb and really enjoyed the different biomes we hiked through. Kilimanjaro is really a textbook example of the journey mattering more than the destination.

Regarding the safari: yes, I did both the Serengetti and Norongoro Crater in 3 days/2 nights. 4 is plenty of time. If anything, I had enough of the zebras by day 3. Try to get a booking to camp on the serengetti for one of the nights. It's really awesome and was definitely one of the highlights of my trip.