Kilimanjaro · Tanzania

Come for the summit.
Leave with a friend.

Michael Thomas Balang'da has been on Kilimanjaro for more than twenty-five years. He started as a porter in 1999 and has been guiding clients to the summit since 2006. The mountain is the reason people come. Mike is why they come back.

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Mike smiling at camp with trekking poles

Mike at Horombo, where he started as a porter in 1999.

Meet Mike

More than twenty-five years
on the mountain. Still smiling.

Michael Thomas Balang'da was born in Arusha, Tanzania. He started on Kilimanjaro in 1999, carrying bags, pitching tents, and cooking meals as a porter. He did that for seven years.

In 2006, he became a guide. He trained at a tourism college after his A-levels, holds First Aid certification, and completed courses in business management. He runs Ambassador Trekking Safaris with a small team of guides, porters, and cooks he has known most of his life.

Mike has summited the mountain more times than he bothers to count. What he talks about instead is the people.

Start planning with Mike

A guide for every kind of climber

The range is the point.

Most guides can get a fit thirty-year-old up the mountain. The real question is who else they can get up. Mike's answer is everyone.

9 to 79

The youngest climber Mike has summited with was 9. The oldest was 79. Everyone in between is welcome. That range is the whole story.

10:24

Hours, up and down. Mike has run Kilimanjaro from gate to summit and back in ten hours, twenty-four minutes.

Days, on a bike. Mike has cycled Kilimanjaro up and back — and biked Meru and Lengai in a single day, each.

25+

Years on the mountain. Porter from 1999, guide since 2006. He knows every stone on every route.

Beyond Kilimanjaro

Mike guides all of East Africa.

Mountains, parks, islands, gorillas — he has a route for nearly every corner of the region.

Mountains

Kilimanjaro & beyond

Kilimanjaro, Meru, Ol Doinyo Lengai, Mount Kenya, the Rwenzoris. Mike has guided them all.

Safari

The great parks

Serengeti, Ngorongoro, Tarangire, Manyara, Mikumi, Nyerere. Maasai Mara, Amboseli, Tsavo.

Other journeys

Chimps, gorillas, Zanzibar

Mahale and Gombe for chimps. Rwanda and Uganda for gorillas. Zanzibar when you want the ocean.

Plan your trip

Tell Mike what you
want to do.

WhatsApp is the fastest way to reach him. Describe what you have in mind — dates, route, who is coming — and he will write back, usually the same day. Mike also works directly with travel agents.