Kilimanjaro and the Great Rift Valley Volcanoes

What makes our treks so different?

The difference we offer our climbers is in direct relation to how we value and respect our guides and porters:

• We pay the highest porter salaries on Kilimanjaro. This allows us to demand and receive the best porters and attain the highest standards.
• We have a core team of porters on each expedition who are trained to perform specific tasks which are vital to the success of each trek. We pay these core porters high bonuses on each trip for these specialized jobs.
• We pay large bonuses to porters who perform their duties and carry loads to the Crater Camp.
• We feed our porters heartily with quality foods including meat, fish, fresh vegetables, and grains. We do not reduce this from their salaries.
• We pay our guides and porters' health care and injury costs.
• We have workers compensation insurance for our guides and porters.
• We provide a complete first-aid kit and treat our porters as we would our guests when they are sick or injured on the mountain.
• We pay all staff their full salary and bonuses, even if they have to descend early with a climber, or even if they are sick and must descend early.

• We ensure that each porter has proper mountain boots, a warm hat, gloves and quality sleeping bag. All of this is checked regularly, before each trek at the gate, and if the porter is missing any item he is not allowed to climb.
• We provide heavy-duty rain ponchos to each porter before each trek.
• We provide tents with floors for the porters to sleep in.
• We provide closed-cell foam mattress pads for the porters.
• We provide snow goggles for our porters at crater camp, to protect their eyes.
• We adhere to the guidelines of the Kilimanjaro Porter's Assistance Project (KPAP). Based at the foot of Kilimanjaro, in Moshi, they are a Tanzanian non-profit organization committed to improving the working conditions of the porters. We embody and practice their principles of porter ethics, and pay our staff above their recommended wages.
• We respect the weight limits for porters as instructed by the park and KPAP.
• We never send porters up the mountain alone without one of our certified KINAPA licensed guides carrying mobile communications.
• We provide vehicle transport from Marangu Village (where all our porters call home) to the gate for each staff member on each trek, and return transport home at the end of each trek.
• We provide annually professional wilderness first-aid training for guides and porters, including all costs (transport, accommodation and meals) during the course duration for all staff.
• We provide annually professional menu training for our cooks, including all costs (transport, accommodation and meals) during the course duration.
• We provide annually language courses for our guides and waiters.

• Nature Discovery, PO Box 10574, Arusha, Tanzania
• office phone: +255 732 971 859 | mobile/emergency: +255 0754 400 003
• e-mail: info@NatureDiscovery.com
• © 2003-2008 by Nature Discovery, Ltd.