Walking holiday on Kilimanjaro 'has majestic appeal'

A walking holiday to Tanzania will allow travellers to marvel at one of the most "majestic" sights in the world, if one commentator is to be believed.

The summit of Mount Kilimanjaro has a shimmering quality, Guy Adams suggested in a piece for the Independent.

He recounted a jaunt up the peak under the cloak of night, stating it has a translucent appearance that glows "in the reflection of thousands of stars".

"By day, it looms surreally over the parched Rift Valley and dusty plains of the Serengeti," the travel columnist said.

Mr Adams mentioned how author Ernest Hemmingway was also in love with this corner of the planet and felt inspired to publish a book on the subject, The Snows of Kilimanjaro.

However, he framed this reference by noting that some of the glaciers Hemmingway would have seen last century have been melted away due to climate change, claiming some of it is "remote and shrivelled".

A recent study by scientists at Ohio State University found that global warming could see the mount's ice disappear completely.

Mr Adams said such a happening would be a "terrible pity".