Normally, the name South Africa brings to mind the glorious wild life, and some great wines. However, the lesser known fact is that it is home to some of the best Golf courses that most golfers would love to play in. So, my golfer friend Ravi and I, chose to venture and play in, what turned out to be an amazing experience.
To begin with, we chose a new and untested route to get there. We chose to fly Ethiopian Airlines, to Addis Ababa and from there on to Cape Town. Turned out to be an excellent decision since the airline was efficient, minimal layovers and cut down the total flying time significantly. The Addis Ababa airport is going through a face lift and may be in a few years will become a good transit hub.
One of the joys of travel is to meet and talk to people from various countries. During our layover at Addis Ababa airport, in the coffee shop, we shared a table with two colleagues (one man and one woman) who were heading back to their home in Somalia. What was really amazing was that they offered us the food they were eating since apparently it is a customer in their country to share food to people around the table!!!
Ethiopian airlines staff were very friendly and the aircrafts were reasonably new. We flew a Dreamliner from Addis Ababa to Cape Town and I must admit the seat pitch was pretty decent even for a tall person like me.
We made friends with a Norwegian couple (Per and Kari) sitting next to us in the flight from Addis Ababa to Cape Town. This becomes relevant as our story unfolds into a few days later.
Cape Town airport is a modern airport and we had no issues getting out of immigration and baggage clearance quickly. We then headed to the Hertz Rental counter which was quite some distance walking from the airport arrivals. We picked up our SUV which we would keep for the entire duration of our trip, which was two weeks.
South Africa has the same driving rules as in most of the Commonwealth, which is driving on the left (with the steering on the right of the car). Which made it easier. We picked up our SUV and drove into city to our hotel. The drive from the airport to city was a real breeze and we were at our hotel in less than 20 minutes.
The Hotel Cape Milner is a small boutique hotel just outside the CBD or newer part of Cape town. As we checked in, we noticed that we had amazing views of the Table Mountain, from our rooms. Given the fact it was just about late afternoon, we decided to head out to the see the famous Table Mountain. We took an Uber since it was really close and the hotel advised us so, since parking could be an issue in a major tourist attraction.
Table Mountain was an absolute delight. We got our tickets for the cable car which winches you in a matter of minutes. And the cable car itself rotates, giving everyone a 360 degree view of the ocean and the surroundings. Walking around the Table mountain inspires awe in the visitor since it is a matter of wonder how these mountains formed thousands of years ago. Table mountain provided several great photo opportunities, as does, actually, all of the South African countryside. One thoughtful implementation was availability of wifi at the taxi stand upon return enabling visitors to call an uber, even if they didn’t have data roaming or mobile data.
Back after an exhilarating evening on Table Mountain, the hotel informed us that it is not a smart move to walk around after sunset, in fact to even venture out, The only part of the trip that we felt could have been better was the ability to visit some of the cafes/bars at night and mingle with the locals.
Next morning, bright and early, we headed out to our first round of golf at the De Zalze Golf club. Even though it was over 50 km away, we could reach in about 40 minutes. Completing the check in formalities, we teed off, excited into our first round of the trip. The course itself was an absolute delight. Offering a combination of some tough approaches and well maintained greens. I must particularly mention the 18th hole, where we tee off from the highest point from a mountain and play downhill. With a lone tree in the middle playing spoil sport, along with a small rivulet behind it, it was indeed an exciting end to a great outing at the De Zalze Golf Club.
As I mentioned earlier, one of the other attraction in SA are their wineries, and alongside the golf course, was the delightful and quaint Klein Zalze winery. The wineries offer an amazing wine tasting experience, and though I am no expert on wines, it was truly worth it. Post the tasting, we purchased a couple of bottles to enjoy later on.
Headed out of the winery we offered to drop an employee of the club house up to her transport pick up point. The background here being that transport facilities outside of the city are very meagre/non-existent and all workers are forced to walk long distance to hail a minibus, or ask for a lift. Therefore, it is a common sight on the highways to see people asking for a lift and even offering money to truckers etc to drop them to their destinations. There are signs on the highway asking drivers not to offer a ride to the hitchhikers.
This lady whom we dropped to her taxi stand, was from Zimbabwe and works in and around Cape Town. The problems of poverty and migration, are global issues and was interesting to hear perspectives of people moving from one African nation to another in search of a better life.
Day 3, and our second round of golf was at the Pearl Valley Golf Club, designed by the legendary Jack Nicklaus. The signature holes of this course are the 4th and 13th holes. The fourth hole is a tricky par 5, where you need to cross the water three times to get to the green. And the 13th holes is a delightful par 3, with water cutting in from the right and a green side bunker lying in wait to make the shot really interesting. Overall excellent day out, and it was a bit hot given that it was an afternoon round.
Next day, we set out west of Cape Town and headed to the Arabella Golf course. As you may have realized by now, each day our experiences were growing headier than the previous one. Arabella is a superb course. With fabulous views of the coast, the signature holes, 4, 7 and 8 afforded breathtaking views and challenges. Up to this point we found Arabella an amazing and probably the best experience.
Having finished our round at Arabella at around 2 pm and after a quick bite, we decided to take a chance at watching a live cricket match at the Newlands Cricket stadium. England vs SA. Aided just by Google maps we drove to the stadium and were circling around the stadium looking for parking. We then spotted a person with a parking sign on the road. He directed us to a lane which was tucked away and at the end of the lane was a parking area. The parking attendant earned all our respect and praise when he told us he would refund the parking fees if we did not get tickets to the match. Talk about honesty!! Kudos.
Having parked we walked up to the ticket counter and surprise, surprise, he had two tickets in the west stand. Chairs with numbers et al. And the tickets were a real steal, with the prices being equivalent to our INR 1200 per head. We were headed towards our west stand when we noticed the grassy picnic area where people were relaxing on the grassy knoll watching the match. We decided not to go to our stand and stay back and enjoy the match from the grassy knoll itself. People were enjoying themselves with a glass of beer and basking in the afternoon sun, watching SA playing a fabulous game to beat England. The Newlands stadium also affords viewers a magnificent view of the Table Mountain, apart from the sporting action.
What is SA without some wildlife sightings? So on day 5, we headed out to Gondwana Game reserve from Cape town. Situated about 387 km from Cape Town it took us about 4.5 hours to get there. The Garden route (as the highway is called) gives you magnificent views with beautiful pot hole free highways with a permissible speed limit of 120 kmph.
We reached Gondwana (after a bit of getting lost), in the afternoon at about 1 pm and headed straight for lunch. Each room or huts as they called it, had a fabulous view of the grasslands with top class amenities. After a bit of rest, we set off on our first safari into the jungles. The vehicles were in top condition, and our guide Haney was young, knowledgeable and enthusiastic. In our very first outing Haney managed to show us Rhinos, Lions, zebras and Wildebeests. That exceeded our wildest expectations. Also here I must mention, we met up before the safari with Per and Kardi, who were on our flight with us from Addis Ababa to Cape Town. Small world indeed. What was even more amazing was having a drink in the designated areas inside the forest. Haney set up a bar and served wine, beers and distilled spirits right in the middle of the forest.
Being in the middle of the jungle, dinner was also at the reserve, but due to rains we couldn’t have the evening barbeque. Instead it was indeed an amazing experience to meet so many people from so many countries having fun (some birthdays too). We did a total of 4 safaris, each one distinct from the other but each one enabling all of us to enjoy watching the big 4 (we didn’t spot the leopard). Another amazing example of making friends during travel was the fact that Per and Kari from Norway are now considering India for their next holiday (of course, this was pre-corona).
Having spent an amazing two days at the Gondwana reserve, we bade goodbye to our friends and fellow travellers and headed out past the quaint town of George. Past that town, not far away, lay the Fancourt Hotel. Fancourt is a luxury hotel and plays host to four amazing golf courses, of which we played two. Having checked into the hotel, we set off to play at the Fancourt Montagu course. For some reason we opted to walk the course, which did make it a bit tiring since the distances between two holes was quite a lot, and full of ups and downs, but overall extremely enjoyable. Well maintained course, in good shape since it was hosting the SA Amateur tournament, the next week. We rounded off an amazing day, with a great bottle of wine and amazing pizza at the La Cantina restaurant at the Fancourt.
Our 8th day turned out to be one of the best days, from a golfing standpoint. We played at Pinnacle Point, which provided some unbelievably stunning view of the coast line and therefore some very challenging golf too. In fact the name of the 4th hole was just called “Wow”, and the 10th (enough to chill the amateurs) was called Impossible. We were paired up as a 4 ball with a couple from Sweden, Jorgen and Jette Hanson and had a wonderful time. Sidebar: Apart from wines, SA also makes some amazing Gin. The Inverroche, in particular needs a special mention, if you happen to be in SA.
Day 9, and we had our golf round at the immaculate Fancourt Links course, which as they like to call it, the Links in SA (considered the best course in SA). As always, the golf course was truly breathtaking and challenging. They don’t allow buggies here, and therefore we set off on the walking course, aided by two caddies to help us with the lay of the course. In a move that makes a small difference, the course provided us with water bottles which had the Links branding with drinking water provided at various holes to fill chilled water. A nice touch indeed.
After lunch, we checked out of the Fancourt, and headed to Knysna, a small quay town with some amazing sights to look out for. Walked round the Quay which was quite deserted at that time of the evening. The Protea Hotel by the Marriot was situated right on the quay making it convenient to walk and enjoy the small town delights.
Day 10, we headed out to the Pezula course. The Pezula is truly scenic (they claim one of the most scenic in the world), and offers a great golfing experience, with great views of the fairways rolling through the landscape of the Southern Cape. Though I must admit the club house changing rooms facilities were a tad disappointing compared to the others that we had been thus far.
Next day, we had our final round of golf at the Simola Golf course. As always we really enjoyed our round of golf and played with Ozzie, a Golf tour organizer from cape town. We had to complete our round, grab a quick bite and hit the road, since we were planning to drive back to Cape Town the same afternoon. The distance from Knysna to Cape Town was almost 500 km which we covered in a superb time of 5 hours and 20 minutes thanks to some amazing driving (within speed limits) by Ravi and some truly spectacular road and views, the Garden route.
Back in Cape Town, we checked into the Cape Hollow Boutique hotel. Located very centrally it was a nice place but did not have its own parking which means we had to shell out more money each day for parking. Also in a bizarre design, the rooms were spacious but the bathrooms were really small and uncomfortable.
Next morning, we requested the hotel to hire us a driver to take us around to show us the sights around Cape Town. Best decision ever. Our driver’s name was Blessing (which he truly was). We proceeded to Sam’s bay (a delightful little beach), Nordhook, Chapman’s Drive (spectacular views), and then on to Hout bay. At hout bay, we took the cruise which took us to view the seals in their natural habitat in a nearby island. The cruise lasted about an hour and provided for some magnificent views of the Lion Mountain and of course, hundreds and hundreds of seals. Having had our fill there, we headed to Cape Point. One of the southern most points the attraction was a lighthouse, 203 meters above sea level. Built in 1860 the climb to the light house can be a walking trail or a quick cable car ride. Truly breathtaking to imagine its working so many hundreds of years ago.
From Cape Point, we drove to the Cape of Good Hope, which we had studied in school as a place where Bartholomew Diaz, the explorer first went around. Today it stands as the south-western most point of the African Continent. Delightful way to spend the day, taking in all the good sights around Cape Town.
On the penultimate day of our trip, we walked around the nearby market square, called the Mandela-Rhodes square meant for shopping for souvenirs and the like. After a recon, we decided to drive to Cape Point Vineyard for some wine and some lunch. One cannot imagine a better end to an amazing vacation with the views, the service, the wine and the outstanding food. Truly a great way to spend the last day our stay at Cape Town.
We bade farewell to some of our most amazing memories boarding the Ethiopian airlines flight to Addis Ababa and then back to Bangalore. Cape Town, you shall remain in our memories forever. Thank you for the great experiences.
