The park's rule is simple: climbers must be at least ten years old to attempt the summit. Our view, from watching families on the mountain, is that the comfortable sweet spot starts around twelve: old enough for the walking days, old enough to communicate clearly about how they feel, which matters enormously up high, and old enough to bank the achievement as a permanent part of who they are.

The final comparison in this series is the closest to our hearts, because these two mountains share a horizon. Mount Meru stands barely seventy kilometres from Kilimanjaro, close enough that from Meru's summit ridge at dawn you watch the sun rise directly behind the Roof of Africa, floating on the clouds across the plain.

The Shira Route suits the experienced trekker who has been to altitude before and knows how their body responds, and the climber who wants the plateau's vast early wilderness more than anything else on the mountain.

If you are at the stage of researching major peaks, you are probably comparing these three. They are the dominant names in accessible high-altitude mountaineering for people who are ambitious but not yet technical climbers. They are frequently compared. They are very different mountains.

Kilimanjaro is not a technical climb. It does not require mountaineering experience. It does not require exceptional fitness. It requires the ability to walk uphill for six to eight hours per day across eight consecutive days.

Kilimanjaro is not therapy. But what it does to the mind — the clarity, the presence, the self-knowledge is something most people have not experienced since childhood.