Golf Safaris Newsletter Autumn 2008.

Greetings from the slowveld,

hope you all had a good summer and found yourselves regularly enjoying the great conditions on your respective courses brought on by the plentiful rain. For those of you who found it a little more of a "challenge", not to worry as autumn brings with it a whole bunch of benefits, from the rough thinning out, those pesky leaves falling and no longer getting in the way, 90% air, yeah right, the ball rolling that little bit extra on the dryer ground, every extra centimetre counts, think of every putt that you have ever left short, and my personal favourite, club champs are over and we can get back to playing good golf!

Here in Phalaborwa we have had very mixed weather this season, as with the early good rains bringing on summer, the lack of rain towards the end has brought on an early autumn. No one is complaining though, as this is where the Lowveld comes into its own, with daytime temps dropping into the upper 20's, and nights in the high teens making for a great winter escape, we are not called, "the town of two summers" for nothing! If the climate and all the fair weather activities associated with it is not enough of an attraction, there is always the fact that there is no better time to visit the Kruger Park, as the bush is not as dense as summer and the animals begin to spend more time around permanent water making game viewing easier and far more rewarding.

On the golf course side, we have the annual Maroela Tournament in early May and with this comes the eagerly awaited opening of the new half-way house which along with its restaurant upstairs, to be opened at a later stage, will offer a variety of dining options. For those of you who have played at Hans Merensky, you'll notice a number of small improvements on the course, with the construction of cart paths and the use of different tee and green placements being the minor ones. The major one being the addition of a large dam that awaits you tucked in next to the 18th green, making it an extremely challenging and a somewhat daunting approach, that is not made any easier by the gallery watching from the bar. The wildlife remains the same and you will invariably see impala, giraffe, warthog, waterbuck, monkeys, hippos and crocodiles during your round, and depending on how often you stray from the fairway maybe something a little more exciting, for further details just contact me!

At the lodge we have been very busy with converting all the chalets to self-catering so as to now offer you the option of dining in or out. To each chalet we have added a fully equipped kitchenette and braai/ barbeque facility. Our Lapa restaurant and bar is in the process of establishing a menu serving tasty traditional dishes and good old home favourites for those meals you don't fancy cooking yourself. With the waterbuck, duiker, warthog, bush babies and porcupine visiting daily we now consider them residents with guest appearances by Jackal, African Wildcat, Civet, Serval and Hyena. The birding has been very good and we are sorry to say goodbye to our summer migrants, but what we lose in variety we make up for in our many local residents.

So I hope this has whet your appetite and the next long weekend or school holiday you will join us for a warm weather escape combining game and golf.

Happy golfing,

Grant.

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