Mount Kilimanjaro National Park

Kilimanjaro. The name itself is a mystery wreathed in clouds. It might mean Mountain of Light, Mountain of Greatness or Mountain of Caravans. Or it might not. The local people, the Wachagga, don't even have a name for the whole massif, only Kipoo (now known as Kibo) for the familiar snowy peak that stands imperious, overseer of the continent, the summit of Africa.
Kilimanjaro, by any name, is a metaphor for the compelling beauty of East Africa. When you see it, you understand why. Not only is this the highest peak on the African continent; it is also the tallest free-standing mountain in the world, rising in breathtaking isolation from the surrounding coastal scrubland – elevation around 900 metres – to an imperious 5,895 metres (19,336 feet).
Kilimanjaro is one of the world's most accessible high summits, a beacon for visitors from around the world. Most climbers reach the crater rim with little more than a walking stick, proper clothing and determination. And those who reach Uhuru Point, the actual summit, or Gillman's Point on the lip of the crater, will have earned their climbing certificates.
And their memories.
But there is so much more to Kili than her summit. The ascent of the slopes is a virtual climatic world tour, from the tropics to the Arctic.
Even before you cross the national park boundary (at the 2,700m contour), the cultivated footslopes give way to lush montane forest, inhabited by elusive elephant, leopard, buffalo, the endangered Abbot’s duiker, and other small antelope and primates. Higher still lies the moorland zone, where a cover of giant heather is studded with otherworldly giant lobelias.
Above 4,000m, a surreal alpine desert supports little life other than a few hardy mosses and lichen. Then, finally, the last vestigial vegetation gives way to a winter wonderland of ice and snow – and the magnificent beauty of the roof of the continent.
About Kilimanjaro National Park
Size: 1668 sq km 641 sq miles).
Location: Northern Tanzania, near the town of Moshi.
Getting there
128 km (80 miles) from Arusha.
About one hour’s drive from Kilimanjaro airport.
What to do
Six usual trekking routes to the summit and other more-demanding mountaineering routes.
Day or overnight hikes on the Shira plateau. Nature trails on the lower reaches.
Trout fishing.
Visit the beautiful Chala crater lake on the mountain’s southeastern slopes.
When to go
Clearest and warmest conditions from December to February, but also dry (and colder) from July-September.
Accommodation
Huts and campsites on the mountain.
Several hotels and campsites outside the park in the village of Marangu and town of Moshi.
More info on accomodation

NOTE:
Climb slowly to increase your acclimatisation time and maximise your chances of reaching the summit.
To avoid altitude sickness, allow a minimum of five nights, preferably even more for the climb. Take your time and enjoy the beauty of the mountain.

NOTE 2:
NEW RATES FOR PORTERS AND GUIDES
(JUNE '08)
Porters
USD 10 per day
Cooks
USD 15 per day
Guides
USD 20 per day

TOURISM IN TANZANIA--- Ngorongoro Photos

Ngorongoro Photos

Photos, images & pictures of Ngorongoro Crater

Zebra and flamingos drinking in the crater in Ngorongoro Conservation Area

Hippopotamus in the water in Ngorongoro Conservation Area

Heroes point, view from Ngorongoro crater rim to the crater floor in Ngorongoro Conservation Area

Blue wildebeest cross the field in Ngorongoro Conservation Area

Lion stretching in Ngorongoro Conservation Area

Cheetahs resting in Ngorongoro Conservation Area

Two Masai giraffe in front of mountains in Ngorongoro Conservation Area

Bat-eared fox at den in Ngorongoro Conservation Area

Elephants communicating in Ngorongoro Conservation Area

Elephant together with a buffalo in Ngorongoro Conservation Area

Black rhino with warthogs in Ngorongoro Conservation Area

Black rhinoceros standing alone in Ngorongoro Conservation Area

Elephant in a forested area in Ngorongoro Conservation Area

Kori Bustard in a field of wildlife in Ngorongoro Conservation Area

Black-backed jackal with a Thomson's gazelle kill in Ngorongoro Conservation Area

Flamingos in Empekaai Crater in Ngorongoro Conservation Area

Common eland looking at camera in Ngorongoro Conservation Area

Male lion sitting in Ngorongoro Conservation Area

Zebra in a line in Ngorongoro Conservation Area

Empekaai Crater in Ngorongoro Conservation Area

Blue wildebeest migrating through the crater in Ngorongoro Conservation Area

Baglafecht weaver with nest-making material in Ngorongoro Conservation Area

Eastern double-collared sunbird on a flower in Ngorongoro Conservation Area

Muddy African buffalo in Ngorongoro Conservation Area

Blue wildebeest in the Embulbuk depression in Ngorongoro Conservation Area

TOURISM IN TANZANIA-NGORONGORO CRATER...

Ngorongoro Crater

• Ngorongoro Crater

The Ngorongoro Crater is a breathtakingly beautiful setting and the best place in Tanzania to see the Big Five.  However, as one of the world's most astonishing and renowned natural wonders, the Ngorongoro Crater does get busy, and at times very busy.  Due to the crowds we recommend a two-night stay only here, then moving on to the Serengeti for a quieter, more private safari experience.  

Any Northern Tanzania Safari should ideally include a visit to Ngorongoro Crater: it is one of the most beautiful natural wildlife safari sites in the world and an exceptional place to interact with people from the Maasai tribe.

The Ngorongoro Crater and surrounding highlands together form one of Africa's most beautiful regions.  Volcanic craters form stunning backdrops to some of the most fertile and richest grazing grounds in Africa.  The most famous such crater is without question Ngorongoro, the world’s largest intact volcanic caldera and home to the highest density of big game in Africa, including all the big five and plenty of predators. Ngorongoro is justifiably one of the continent's most famous safari destinations. 

The choice is whether to stay at a hotel on the Crater rim for the phenomenal view, or a little way away from the Crater in nearby Karatu.  The advantages of Karatu include the comparative lack of crowds, and better-value, smaller and more intimate lodges which offer a range of activities such as walking and mountain biking.

Ngorongoro Crater: the game

The Ngorongoro Crater is the best place in Tanzania to see 'The Big Five'.  A healthy population of black rhino and some of the largest tusker elephants left in Africa today are the prize spots, but the crater is also home to good populations of lion, leopard and hyena along with healthy herds of wildebeest, buffalo and zebra.  Other wildlife here includes serval cat, cheetah, jackal, Grant's and Thompson's gazelle, flamingo and bat-eared foxes, as well as approximately 400 species of bird.

Ngorongoro Crater: the activities

Activities inside the Ngorongoro Crater itself are limited to game driving; there are a couple of picnic spots in the park, but getting out of the vehicle is strictly limited to these areas.  However, a full range of activities is on offer in the wider Ngorongoro Conservation Area, including walking, trekking, excursions to Olduvai Gorge and visiting the Masai and other tribes.

Ngorongoro Crater: when to go

Since the wildlife mainly stays in the crater all year round, there is really no good or bad time to visit.  However given that the crater floor does get busy with vehicles, it can be more pleasant to visit during low season.  Higher water levels in Lake Magadi (in the centre of the Crater) also result in higher concentrations of flamingos.  Whenever you visit to Ngorongoro, you are guaranteed excellent safari action.

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While we try and make our website as comprehensive as possible, if you would like some more background information on the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, or Tanzania in general, have a read through the Cadogan Guide to Tanzania and Zanzibar, written by our director Annabel. The most recent edition was published in 2005 so some of it might be slightly dated but generally it’s as comprehensive as they come.

Why US is looking beyond dissidents on Cuban human rights

By Tara McKelvey BBC News White House Reporter in Havana

• 22 March 2016
• From the section Latin America & Caribbean

Image copyright Reuters

Obama in Cuba

On Tuesday, US President Barack Obama met several prominent Cuban dissidents, including Berta Soler, who is part of a group known as Ladies in White, at the US embassy in Havana.

It was a dramatic moment and gave Mr Obama a chance to highlight the issue of international human rights in Cuba.

He has brought the subject up several times during his trip.

Cuban President Raul Castro has responded by denying that Cuba has political prisoners. Besides that, Castro says, Americans violate human rights of people at Guantanamo and in other places.

Many Cubans agree with him.

"Give back Guantanamo," said Albino Moldes, a Cuban-born photographer who was waiting at the Havana airport on Sunday for President Obama to arrive. "And then we talk."

President Obama and his aides said they are happy to talk about problems in the US and in Cuba. But they will not return control of the military base at Guantanamo to Cubans.

"We've made it very clear that's not on the table," said Ben Rhodes, Obama's deputy National Security Adviser, at a news conference in Havana on Monday

In other words, it's business as usual - for US and Cuban officials.

Over the weekend dozens of people were arrested at a demonstration staged by the Ladies in White, including Ms Soler.

And another dissident, Elizardo Sanchez, was detained at Jose Marti airport on the day a group of US journalists arrived. He was released shortly afterwards. By the time the journalists got there, things looked calm - as if nothing had happened.

Cuba experts said there is a reason for the arrests.Image copyright Getty Images

"There's a string of people - the old guard - who are not really thrilled about the opening," said Eric Olson, a director at the Woodrow Wilson International Center in Washington, describing the new relationship between the US and Cuba.

"How do you control it? Some of it is done by exerting their power," Mr Olson said, explaining these officials try to show that they are still in control by arresting the activists.

At times, though, it seems like "shadow boxing", a term that Mr Obama has used to describe the relationship between the two countries.

---

More on Mr Obama's visit to Cuba

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Media captionYoung Cubans: "We don't want a lot of McDonalds and Starbucks"

Six sticking points to better relations - Guantanamo Bay, human rights and media freedoms are among the unresolved issues
In Pictures: Obama's trip to Cuba - The historic visit to Havana in photos
Internet access still restricted in Cuba - Only about 5% of Cubans have web access at home

---

US officials tell me privately they knew beforehand that the activists would be arrested. The activists themselves had told the Americans what they planned to do - and that they would be arrested for it.
Still Obama administration officials say things have improved, despite these setbacks. Detentions for activists are shorter than they were in the past. People talk on the streets openly, and they have better access to the internet.
The history of US-Cuba relations has been intricately intertwined with the story of human rights. For years Americans have invested on average about $20m annually in a variety of programmes in Cuba, according to a congressional staffer, including those that support civil society.
Cuban officials portray the US aid as a "regime-change programme", a sneaky way for Americans to infiltrate Cuba and control its people. Image caption A Cuban protesters is arrested last December

In a similar vein dissidents are cast as US-funded actors.

"The Cuban government has been very effective in saying they're paid mercenaries of the US," says the Brookings Institution's Ted Piccone, who studies Latin America.

Obama administration officials have been trying to soften these accusations by approaching the subject of human rights differently. They try to promote freedom and democracy in a more inclusive way, embracing civil society as a whole rather than focusing on a small group of dissidents.

In a speech about Cuba before Obama left for Havana, National Security Adviser Susan Rice used the word "dissident" once - at the end of her remarks. She spoke instead about activists and civil society.

It's an important distinction, Mr Olson said, because the term "dissident" means "a very clear set of 200 people", a group that includes Ms Soler and others who are politically engaged and are arrested on a regular basis Image caption Miriam Celeya listens to President Barack Obama during their meeting at the US embassy

"I think the administration would like to think more broadly," he said. Instead of working only with dissidents, US officials support those who work in non-governmental organisations, journalism, as well as ordinary Cubans who are working for change.

(One official says they use the terms "dissident" and "activists" interchangeably, while another says Rice's speech underscores the point - they'd rather talk about civil society than just dissidents. It shows that even the people who work on US policy disagree about what Americans should do to help Cubans.)

Still language isn't the most important thing. The real issue, Mr Olson, said is freedom, democracy and human rights for people in Cuba.

"Is that going to happen?" he asked.

The matter will be decided not by US officials, though, but by Cubans themselves. For them, it's a tricky - and long-term - project.

Obama invokes 'future of hope' for Cuban people

• 22 March 2016

Media caption In a televised address, Mr Obama said he had come to ''extend the hand of friendship to the cuban people''

Obama in Cuba

• Live Obama's final day in Cuba
• Why US is looking beyond Cuba's dissidents
• Cuba's DIY economy raises hope
• How times are changing in Havana

US President Barack Obama has invoked "a future of hope" for Cuba in an unprecedented live TV address delivered from the Grand Theatre in Havana.

Mr Obama said he had come to Cuba "to bury the last remnants of the Cold War" after decades of conflict.

He told Cuban President Raul Castro that he did not need to fear a threat from the US nor from "the voice of the Cuban people".

Mr Obama is the first sitting president to visit Cuba in 88 years.

In his keynote speech on the last day of his three-day visit to Communist-run Cuba, Mr Obama said it was time for the United States and Cuba to leave the past behind and make a "journey as friends and as neighbours and as family, together" towards a brighter future.

He urged Cubans to "leave the ideological battles of the past behind" and to define themselves not through their opposition to the US but just as Cubans.

Image caption Raul Castro (center) was in the audience listening to Mr Obama's speech

"For all the politics, people are people and Cubans are Cubans," he said.
He said the time had come for US policy towards Cuba to change because it had not worked and was outmoded, a remnant of the Cold War.
He also called for the lifting of the 54-year old US trade embargo against Cuba, a remark which was met by loud applause.
The embargo remains one of the main sticking points in US-Cuban relations but can only be lifted by the US Congress.
He insisted that the United States would respect the two nations' differences and would not attempt to impose changes on the communist-run island.
But he also said he believed that citizens should be free to speak their mind without fear and to choose their government in free elections.

---

At the scene, Tara McKelvey, BBC News White House reporter

 

"I know the history, but refuse to be trapped by it," Mr Obama said

The speech in the theatre was vintage Obama - it had a narrative, starting with the earlier, dark years of US-Cuban relations that date back to the 1950s.
It also had personal elements - he said he was born in the year of the Bay of Pigs, and that afterwards the world nearly came to an end.
Finally it had evocative language - "I know the history, but refuse to be trapped by it" - and a few jokes. And it built up to his larger point, which was his message for the Cuban people - choose democracy. It isn't perfect but it's the best system there is.
He was a powerful speaker in the theatre, and he gave a speech that was eloquent and moving.

---

He said it was no secret that the Cuban and US governments disagreed on many issues.
Mr Obama acknowledged that there were "flaws in the American system: economic inequality, the death penalty and racial discrimination".
He said those were just a few samples and that Raul Castro had "a much longer list" of US shortcomings and had reminded President Obama of many of them.
"But open debate is what allows us to get better," he said. "Democracy is the way to solve these problems," he added.
After the speech, Mr Obama met in private a group of prominent Cuban dissidents, the most controversial part of his itinerary in the eyes of the Cuban government.
President Castro was visibly angered on Monday when a US reporter asked him about political prisoners held in Cuba.

---

More on Mr Obama's visit to Cuba

Media captionYoung Cubans: "We don't want a lot of McDonalds and Starbucks"

Six sticking points to better relations - Guantanamo Bay, human rights and media freedoms are among the unresolved issues
Cuba's DIY economy - A new generation of Cuban entrepreneurs are launching private businesses
Internet access still restricted in Cuba - Only about 5% of Cubans have web access at home

---

Not accustomed to probing questions from the media, President Castro challenged the reporter to give him a list of political prisoners and denied Cuba was holding any.
Just hours before Mr Obama landed in Havana on Sunday, Cuban security arrested dozens of members Ladies in White, a group which campaigns for the release of political prisoners.
President Obama ended his three-day visit after joining President Castro at the Latinoamericano stadium in Havana.
The two leaders observed a minute of silence for the victims of the attacks in Brussels and watched an exhibition baseball game between the Cuban national team and the Tampa Bay Rays, which won 4-1.

Imag

e caption Baseball and diplomacy went hand in hand in Havana

From Havana, Mr Obama has travelled to Argentina.
His presence will coincide with the 40th anniversary on Thursday of the military coup that brought to power of the most brutal military regimes in the region.
Some groups are planning protests because of the alleged support American governments gave to the military coup of 1976.

UEFA Champions League - Quarter-Finals

Champions League Fixtures

Tuesday 5th April 2016

UEFA Champions League - Quarter-Finals

Show last 5 matches and coverage Fixture Kick-off Status

     -Barcelona           V      Atl Madrid              19:45

       -Bayern Mun V Benfica               19:45

 

Wednesday 6th April 2016

UEFA Champions League - Quarter-Finals

Show last 5 matches and coverage Fixture Kick-off Status

                -Paris St G   V       Man City          19:45
 
         -VfL Wolfsburg V Real Madrid    19:45

 
Tuesday 12th April 2016

UEFA Champions League - Quarter-Final

Show last 5 matches and coverage Fixture Kick-off Status

      -Man City       V            Paris St G        19:45

   -Real Madrid     V    VfL Wolfsburg    19:45

Wednesday 13th April 2016

UEFA Champions League - Quarter-Finals

Show last 5 matches and coverage Fixture Kick-off Status

     -Atl Madrid    V    Barcelona 19:45

          -Benfica   V       Bayern Mun           19:45

Latest Football

Wed 16 Mar 2016 - Champions League

Barcelona 3 - 1 Arsenal

(agg 5 - 1) FT

Bayern Mun 4 - 2 Juventus (agg 6 - 4) FT Tue 15 Mar 2016 - Champions League

Atl Madrid 0 - 0 PSV Eindhoven (agg 0 - 0) Atlético Madrid win 8-7 on penalties FT