Water
Porters will collect water from the rivers and streams along the trail. Some of this they will boil for you at the start of the day to carry in your water bottles.
On the lower slopes you can collect water yourself from the many streams and purify it using a filter or tablets. Note, however, that as you climb ever higher the water becomes more scarce.
On the Machame trail, for example, the last water point is at the Karanga Valley, the lunch-stop before Barafu; on Marangu, it’s just before the Saddle. For this reason it is essential that you carry enough bottles or containers for at least two litres.
In camp, coffee and tea is served, and maybe hot chocolate too - all usually made with powdered milk. Remember that all of these are dehydrating, which can be bad for acclimatization, and are diuretics too (ie you will want to urinate frequently - something you will already be doing a lot as you adapt to the higher conditions).
Remember to tell your agency if you have any special dietary requirements - because both meat and nuts form a substantial part of the menu on Kilimanjaro.
A typical breakfast will involve eggs (boiled or fried), porridge, a saveloy (possibly with some tomatoes too), a piece of fruit such as a banana or orange, some bread with jam, honey or peanut butter, and a mug or two of tea or coffee.
Lunch is usually prepared at breakfast and carried by the trekker in his or her daypack. This packed lunch often consists of a boiled egg, some sandwiches, a banana or orange, and some tea kept warm in a flask and carried by your guide.
At the end of the day’s walking, afternoon tea is served with biscuits, peanuts and best of all, salted popcorn.
The final and biggest meal of the day, dinner usually begins with soup, followed by a main course including chicken or meat, a vegetable sauce, some cabbage, and rice or pasta; if your porters have brought up some potatoes, these will usually be eaten on the first night as they are so heavy.
Shelter
Unless you are on the Marangu Route (or the latter part of the Rongai Route where it coincides with Marangu), accommodation on the mountain will be in tents brought up by your porters. (Do not be tempted to sleep in any of the caves, which is against the park regulations.) On the Marangu Route, camping is forbidden and instead people have to sleep in huts along the route. The sleeping arrangements in these huts are usually dormitory-style, with anything from four to twenty beds per room.
Confusingly, away from the Marangu Route, many of the campsites on Kilimanjaro are actually called huts, but don’t be fooled: they are called huts merely because of the green shacks that you’ll find at these campsites, and which are usually inhabited by the park rangers. Trekkers used to be allowed to sleep in these huts too, but no longer, although porters and guides still sometimes sleep in them depending on the mood of the ranger and the space available.
Toilets
Besides the huts, the only other buildings you will possibly see along some trails are the toilets. Most are of the same design, namely a little G-shaped wooden hut with a hole in the floor. Some are in better condition than others; all I will say is that some people are terrible shots, while other toilets are in desperate need of emptying before they become Kilimanjaro’s fourth peak.
Use the purpose-built toilets. True, some of them could do with emptying, but this is still better than having piles of poo behind all the bushes on the trail and toilet paper hanging from every bough. If the situation is really urgent and you cannot wait until you reach one of the purpose-built toilets along the way, dig a hole if you can and cover this hole with plenty of earth when you’ve finished. Also make sure you’re at least 20m away from both the path and any streams or rivers.
