South Africa Experience- Interrupted by Omicron!
South Africa November 2021 Welcome to Omicron
Pearl Valley Golf Resort
As a winter golf destination South Africa has to be one of the ultimate places to visit. With Dream Golf Holidays mantra of GOLF-CULTURE-CUISINE every sense will be exploited with the array of wonderful things to do in this beautiful country.
This trip was planned for 2020, we all know what happened there so as everything improved and the world reopened off we went to sample what we sell.
Our great partners in South Africa helped organise the experience so big thanks to Warren. A great ambassador for South Africa and an amazing person to have on the ground waiting for you.
The Waterfront - Cape Town
The plan was to soak up one of the best selling programmes, The Cape, Vineland's, Garden Route & Safari Package.
The first stop was Cape Town where we stayed at The Waterfront in the Victoria and Alfred Hotel. The views from the hotel were stunning looking straight out onto Table Mountain with the white cloud tumbling over the rock like a wave of water, quite amazing to watch.
The development of the waterfront over the last number of years has really brought to life what was once a thriving port and dock area into a fantastic social space with great eateries and watering holes, it is a superb place to meet friends.
Tour of Cape Peninsula
Warren very kindly took us on a drive around the Cape Town area to give us a feel of the place and how accessible everything is.
Clovelly Golf course was the first stop - it's actually Warren's club. There wasn’t time to play it, but this looked a really good track with great views from the elevated tees. A really friendly atmosphere was evident and a pretty relaxed feel about the place was a great take away.
The Cape Peninsula and False Bay area is extremely picturesque with a rugged coastline. Next stop was Boulders Beach for the Penguins.
Being with a local always has its advantages, to get to the penguins we went via a little-known route and had a great time observing these absolutely fabulous creatures. There are strict do's and don'ts when you are near the penguins and it is all fenced off to protect them, but it is still easy to see them up close.
Moving around the Cape we stopped at Steenberg Golf Resort to have a look at the rooms and golf course, and take in a wine tasting and lunch - why not? There is some great history attached to the estate, which you can find here.
What a wonderful place this is, a superb looking golf course! The photo is of the 18th green., where you have a narrow fairway, a lake and the clubhouse to one side of the green and, on the other side, some very nice properties! Keep your approach straight is the order of the day.
Steenberg Golf Resort
Keep your approach straight is the order of the day.
The vineyard produces some great wines which were extremely enjoyable to taste, and the lunch we had was pretty epic also. I would certainly recommend a visit here on your golfing trip to the Cape Town area.
Great food at Steenberg Golf Resort
Our short stay in Cape Town was very enjoyable, we will be back as soon as we can. It was too windy to go up Table Mountain, ( we hoped to do it at the end of our trip) but as we were leaving Cape Town the Table showed it's full glory and removed it's Tablecloth!.
Table Mountain with no ‘Tablecloth’!!
On we went to Stellenbosch to stay with friends but we broke the journey up with a round of golf ( my one and only due to the shortening of the trip). The course was Pearl Valley set on a wonderful estate with accommodation, spa and all the facilities required to have a truly brilliant time.
The course is a Jack Nicklaus layout and is a great test of golf. The scenery and views are spectacular. This course is a definite must as you start to make your way through the Garden Route of South Africa.
Par 3 @ Pearl Valley
It was really great to play golf in South Africa, a big box tick for me and I hope it will be for you as well! I would have played more courses whilst there and I will come on to those shortly in the what did we miss section!
Stellenbosch and Franschhoek, two names synonymous with the wine regions of South Africa. So when in Rome....... we had seen the Franschhoek wine tram on T.V. in England and wanted to experience that. Basically an old railway line which takes you up and down many of the vineyards in the area. You keep getting off and on, stopping for a wine tasting then going on to the next vineyard. All very pleasant and civilised.
Franschhoek Wine Tram
We didn't have too much time on the tram, which is probably a good job with Tiiu's nickname being Large Red!!
Just sitting in the different vineyards with wonderful buildings and restaurants was so enjoyable. The views across acres and acres of vines is extremely spectacular.
Large red drinking small white!
So a couple of days in Stellenbosch with some amazing friends and it was time to move down the coastline to Hermanus, but before we did there was one more wine tasting to be had, organised by our friendJames. This was a pretty extensive wine tasting so, thankfully I wasn't driving.
The journey to Hermanus along the coastal road is very dramatic with sheer drops into the Ocean and towering mountains along the road edge. We stopped a couple of times along the way to soak in the beauty and once again to see penguins at Betty's Bay.
And finally our journey in to Hermanus gave us a quick glimpse of South African wildlife as a group of baboons decided to have a stroll down the road.
Our accommodation in Hermanus was the Harbour House Hotel, with spectacular views of the coastline.
And this is where our short South African journey ended on the 25th November with the speedy decision to place South Africa back on the red list leaving us and lots of others, to navigate our way home hopefully before the 04:00 28th November curfew for not having to stay in a Government quarantine hotel! We made it, just, arriving in Manchester at 22:00 on 27th November having travelled through, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Kenya, France, Ireland and then England due to direct flights being refused entry in to the UK. all sounds sensible in the fight not to spread the virus doesn't it!
We will be back as soon as we can to finish our journey along the Garden route and take in the amazing sights we missed. So what did we miss?
Gondwana Game reserve to see the Big 5, we will definitely come and see you. Fancourt Resort to play the Links course and soak up the amazing scenery and Pezula resort at Knysna one of the most popular tourist areas in South Africa.
So lots still to do including getting up Table Mountain and going to Robben Island.
One last photo, this little fella is a Dassie and amazingly it's nearest relative is………… an elephant!
Our South Africa itineraries can be found here. We can’t go yet, but put it on your ‘must do’ list for 2022.
Farewell for now South Africa, see you again as soon as we can.
Paul
Dream Golf Holidays
