April 7-8
As part of the Great Malawian Golf Tour (also known as ‘We
Had Nowhere To Leave The Dogs So Had To Bring Them With Us Holiday’), we
visited arguably one of the stranger spots in the country. I don’t know
anywhere else where you can almost accidentally hit a zebra with a golf shot…
Game Haven Lodge is a relatively new location in Malawi, having only opened in 2006. The idea of it is to offer something completely different from Blantyre whilst being easily accessible from the big city.
Surrounded by farmland stretching for miles with yellowing
maize when we arrived, it certainly is a world away from the traffic and noise
of Blantyre. The residents are a bit different as well…
There are ten different species of large animal here, none
of which are seen as particularly dangerous to humans. I wouldn’t want to get
in the way of a wildebeest charge, mind…
If you stay at Game Haven, you can go on safari-style drives to find the different animals dotted around the grounds. You can also just sit in the restaurant and wait for some of them to come to you, like the giraffe did as the Sun dipped behind the acacias…
There are signs which suggest you can’t get too close to the
animals. They don’t seem to make much sense when you can arguably get as close
as you like when wielding a large metal club…
The reason we had come was to play golf. A bit different to your usual nine holes, what with kudu walking across fairways and greens which have with ropes or steel cages around them. If you hit the metal of the cage, you at least get to have another go.
Whether the greens actually need protecting from the
antelopes is questionable. Putting was quite a lottery, with one attempt
rolling along the floor and then inexplicably leaping up about six inches into
the air, having hit a rather large divot.
The animals are clearly used to humans walking around in
close proximity. They also seemed oblivious to golf balls flying around. One of
my better shots careered towards two unsuspecting zebra, luckily bouncing up
high off the hard ground and going over their striped bodies. Neither moved.
The animals seemed less used to two Jack Russells who were
straining at the lead to introduce themselves. We had asked multiple times
about whether bringing our two dogs was a sensible idea. Unexpectedly, we were
told that it wouldn’t be a problem; the only issue might be that young male
zebra may charge at them, at which point we simply pick up the dogs and move
away.
This duly happened, of course. Did Mini and Maxi instigate
it by desperately trying to run at them, panting wildly as if they were taking
in all the oxygen in the air? Undoubtedly. Did they, for a lack of a better
phrase which doesn’t have a swear word in it, ‘brick it’ when two young bulls
lowered their heads and started getting a bit of a trot on towards them and
their slightly concerned owners? Absolutely. Did it stop them from trying to
say hi to other zebra we walked by? Of course not.
We ended up coming to play this course three times as we knew different people who were staying at the lodge. The place itself looked lovely and must be a wonderful place to stay. We were told of zebra putting on a synchronised tail swish as our friends ate their breakfast.
Playing golf here was also lots of fun. From clambering
through chest-high grass in (many) fruitless attempts to find stray golf balls
to hearing the braying of zebra as we hit our shots, it was constantly
entertaining. A world away from the big city and an interesting day trip on our
tour down south.
Love you all,
Matt
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