Cycle to Shira Planteu

DAY 1: Londorossi gate to Shira Camp 1
The starting point for the Shira Route is the Londorossi Gate (same as for the Lemosho Route). It is a two to three hour drive to get there and on this first day you may well spend more time driving and waiting around at the gate than you will be riding.

Londorossi (name for the village and the park gate) looks like something pulled out of a cheap Western. The place is entirely made out of wood. The high timber fences you see are supposed to keep the wildlife out.

That already indicates another advantage of taking one of these lesser trafficked routes. You do indeed have a better chance to see some wildlife on the first days, though this applies to Lemosho more than to Shira.

But everybody does have a good chance of seeing the beautiful black and white Colobus monkeys, because some of them have taken up residence in the trees right next to the park ranger quarters. Check them out while you are waiting for the registration and permits to be organised - the usual start of a riding to shira Camp 1

What follows after the registration at the gate is unusual: you keep driving. The Shira Route is the only Kilimanjaro climb route that you can follow in a car, at least for part of the way on day one. Theoretically you could drive all the way to the Morum Barrier at the foot of the Morum Hill. (Only emergency vehicles are allowed beyond the barrier.)

This skips the first camp and drops you at a height of about 3500 m/11500 ft!

DAY 2: Shira Camp 2 to Shira Cathedral
The next day begins with a steady biking up the slope towards the Morum Hill and Morum Barrier. This is where the Shira Plateau begins (and half of the climbers begin their Shira trek). The road continues after the gate.

You now start heading south east on a mostly flat path across the plateau. In another two hours you reach the junction of the Shira and the Lemosho Route.

There is an alternative route to get here, a detour past the Shira Cathedral and camp at Shira cathedral

DAY 3: Shira Cathedral to Londorossi gate to Moshi
We have a sustained our Biking adventures on on well constructed morum road . Our route winds down to the National Park gate and We are met by our vehicle and transferred to Keys Hotel. A well earned shower is tantalizingly close!