The Course That Was Never Played

Day 2 : 16 March 2005
Champagne Valley Golf Course

Rise and Shine!
'Tis is the first of their many golf games.

Planned Itinerary :
0800 hrs : Leave for Drakkensburg
1200 hrs : ETA Drakkensburg; Lunch
1320 hrs : Golf at Champagne Valley Golf Course
After Golf : Head for Durban

One thing I have to say, I was EXTREMELY impressed by everyone's sense of time. Punctuality is one thing that eludes a lot of people these days. But with these golf fanatics, that was the most important factor - time keeping. We left the house promptly by 0745 hrs! We were actually early! RESPECT!

Oh yes! I failed to mention something. AA has one peculiar habit - her morning toilet ritual. She wakes up 2 hours earlier than the stipulated departure time just to fulfil worshipping her beloved toilet. But that's fine. She does not disrupt anyone's plans. She does it in her own time. But still, her morning ritual is amusing.

Then there's TWG. He wakes up at 5 am every morning without fail. I am amazed. Apparently I am the ONLY non-morning person. And they are amazed this little piggy can sleep through anything... despite all the noise they were making. Yeah. That's me. When I sleep, I SLEEP. The only 2 things that can rattle me, alarm clocks and telephone rings. Ha!

Back to the story.... Drakkensburg. We arrived slightly earlier than anticipated and I was glad! I brought them to "Caterpillar and Catfish" for lunch. It is a cosy little restaurant at Drakkensburg, home-style setting. I warned everyone that it would take at least an hour for them to serve the food.... An hour. Sounds ludicrous eh? But it did take an hour! So even though we arrived early, we had to rush through lunch as they were starting to run late for golf.

Glorious Sky of SA


The Travellers : Guess who's who?

After lunch, we continued our drive to Champagne Valley Golf Course. Hell it was a long road! I panicked as I saw the time tick by. We finally arrived at Champagne Valley and at the security point, the guard told us that the course was close.

"Close? What ya mean close? I have made a golf booking and no one called me to inform me of the closure! It can't be closed!", I raised my voice at the guard."

“OK. You can go through and find out yourself.” replied the guard. And he let me through.

After driving two rounds and asking the hotel reception TWICE for directions, we finally found the golf club. We got out of the car and the place did look closed.... The door was not locked so we went through to the Pro Shop.

"Hello? Hello? Anyone here??

A lady appeared.

"Hi... we are here to play golf. I've made a booking but we were told that the course is close?"

The lady looked at us in amusement and said, "Yes. We are closed due to the heavy rain last night so the course is unsuitable for playing."

"What???? Why didn't anyone call me to tell me?!?!?!", I yelled.

I was dishevelled. Nothing worse than having the first plan in the itinerary fall flat to the face! I felt terrible for the golfers. I DID plan this. Why didn't I call beforehand? Damn it! I was all flushed from embarrassment, disbelief and anger. That couldn't be happening... not after so much effort in the planning! I apologised profusely for the hiccup and being as gracious as they are, they were real nice about it.

No golf. So we continued our journey to Durban. Bummer.

Champagne Valley Golf Course

"The Course That Was Never Played"


At least they had a chance to view the course....