Mahali Mzuri via CMB
 

Following on from last years trip to Ulusaba in South Africa this year the wife and I decided to try Sir Richard's other safari resort in the Masi Mara called Mahali Mzuri which apparently means beautiful place - we'll see about that.

There's a link to the resort here:

http://www.mahalimzuri.virgin.com

As ever life as a flyer talker means we aren't going straight to NBO, that's right we are taking a slight detour via CMB! A decent J fare from CMB was enough to convince the wife to have a nice weekend in CMB before our Safari. Now when you cost up the hotel and the F flight to get to CMB it costs way more than the saving but it's definitely not as much fun and we get to go to Sri Lanka twice which is no bad thing and get to earn a few more Skywards miles we can never use.

Trip itinerary is as follows:

Ek348 EK First class to CMB

2 nights at casa colombo (boutique hotel in CMB), lunch at the ministry of crab

Ek651 CMB to DXB EK J, then EK 721 to NBO EK J

A night at the ole serini hotel before the transfer on Air Kenya to Mara North Airstrip

5 nights at Mahali Mzuri

Transfers back to wilson then to NBO for our flight back to dubai on EK720 on the old a330 in business class.

This all starts on Friday, pictures as I go fingers crossed...

Here's a link to my last safari last year at Ulusaba: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trip-...l#post21344860

Getting ready for tomorrow, car is coming at 5am photos as we go inshallah!

:)

So the car arrived to our place in downtown dubai early by 15 mins as ever and we were promptly dropped off at the dedicated business and first class terminal.

The queue at the f check in was busy but soon cleared and we were soon through the formalities and off to the first lounge at b gate. The wife and I decided on a quick massage and then I went for the kippers for a light breakfast before boarding.

The f al la carte breakfast menu...

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I chose the kippers which were good, I should have ordered and egg with them though...

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After breakfast we both took advantage of the complimentary spa and had a "free" 15 minute massage which was actually very good. It was quickly time to board and thankfully there was a dedicated F air bridge to L1 and into suites 1e and f we went...

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Obligatory dom shot

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The wine list... The stand out being the Penfolds which unbelievably they did not have which was pretty disappointing.

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Fruit for the breakfast starter...

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I chose scrambled eggs for my second breakfast!


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First class legroom...

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What can I say about EK F that hasn't been said before? It's expensive, full of gold bling yet sophisticated and it works very well. It's a shame they didn't have the Penfolds grange that was the only sour note of a great start to our holiday. If it's not there don't put it on the menu! We weren't the only dissapointed pax on the flight...

So we arrive at casa colombo in CMB to find out we are the only guests in the whole place aside from a private party happening this evening! Brilliant...seems as if everything is shut in the hotel however we have been invited...could be an interesting evening except I'm feeing pretty worse for wear from the flight and all I want is a decent sleep!

That's it for now more on casa colombo and the party later!

Looking forward to reading the rest.

Was at the Ministry of crab twice in September. Chilli crab is fantastic, butter crab is well worth pre-ordering. Also order what appears to be a ridiculous amount as you will eat it all :D

I'm now back and hoping to get this report done soon! Ministry of Crab was awesome and Mahali Mzuri was out of this world...

Looking forward to reading your report.

Who was your guide? We just got back a few weeks ago from a magical trip at Mahili Mzuri. Our guide was Vincent.

So we went to Ministry of crab and boy did this place not disappoint!

We ordered 2 800gram grabs one chilli crab and a garlic chilli crab - they were amazing!

No pictures of the crabs as my iPhone died but it was one of the best seafood meals we've ever had. It wasn't the cheapest £100 for 2 but we did have a bottle of prosecco to wash down the crab.

I highly recommend this place for anyone in cmb and to be honest it was the best thing about our trip to cmb as casa colombo was terrible! I'm not even going to bother discussing it on here - if you are really interested there is a review on trip advisor!



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So Colombo is not the worlds greatest city but we had fun at ministry of crab, a few too many drinks and I woke up the next day with a mouth tasting like the Sahara desert, my eyes sunken and having to check my passport to remember my name.

Today would be a long travel day, the airport was only 40 or so minutes from our hovel, I mean hotel. The airport is a funny place, saved by the excellent ek lounge. I'm not going to bore you with 2 4 hour business flights, suffice to say they are pretty uneventful except for the huge queue at transit security something I don't experience often as living in dubai I tend to go straight to the destination.

We arrived in Nairobi And I was feeling loads better helped by a few glasses of red (the excellent st julien) so when we arrived at out hotel for the night (ole serini) I was ready for a few Tuskers. No I don't learn.

The hotel was ok for a night, we had to go through airport style security to get in as is the norm in Kenya with the current unrest in the costal region near Somalia. We had arrived about 9pm and were due to leave at 6.30 so what else to do except have a beer or four. This was a bit of a mistake given the pollution, roads and the fact I would be taking a guy wrenching flight on a twin otter to Mara North!


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The little otter :)


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I got an extra leg room seat :)

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So after one stop somewhere I've no clue where we finally arrived about an hour after take off. The girl to the right of me in front of my wife was throwing up and I was almost sympathy puking so I was relieved when we finally landed at mara north.

We were met by a driver from Mahali mzuri who had some champagne on ice ready! After a couple of glasses I felt much better and we were on our way to the camp. It took about 1.5 hours although he did drive very slowly as we saw lots if animals on the way - this was almost a game drive in itself.


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We arrived and it was incredible. The view from the deck is absolutely amazing something out of a film, well maybe the champagne has gone to my head but the view was very special indeed.

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We were in tent number 4

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Bathtub with a view...


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The deck outside our tent

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Welcome gift which was left and left untouched!


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More seating outside our tent

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Down some stairs near the main camp lounge area was the pool...

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Each day consisted of an early start at around 6.30 for a quick coffee and then to head into the park or the first of two daily game drives which lasted around 3 hours.

You'd then go back to the camp have lunch / relax before the afternoon drive that left around 3/4 ish.

The cars had a max of 6 people plus the driver but we only ever had one other couple so it was a very personal and private experience.

We saw a lot of giraffes which are beautiful and graceful creatures one day there were a tower of thirty plus


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Lots of lions ^


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We actually saw the cheetah kill the baby gazelle and proceed to eat the lot!

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Leopard - one of many highlights

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An amazing sunset

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Dinner - as you can see there were only 6 of us. Dinner was fantastic every evening and was 5 courses plus as much amazing wine or champagne as you wanted.

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The vehicles:

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One day between drives we went to the local shopping mall...the Masai mall :D


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The five days at the camp went by in such a blur - we were genuinely sad to leave.

The lovely hostess arranged a private dinner for us on the last night and raided the wine cellar for a bottle of Dom 2004 which tastes so much better in the ground than in the air. We also had a massage whilst there which was right at the bottom by the pool so you could see all the animals whilst waiting/ relaxing.

I've stayed in some nice places but this is by far my favourite - the animals the tents the service the people and the place truly incredible.

I'm not going to spoil the rest of the report by mentioning NBO the lack of a lounge (it's a cornered off area of the departure gate!!!) or the terrible a340 j product suffice to say the journey back whilst no hardship was not the most pleasant.

The EK F food & its presentation looks somewhat underwhelming.