In a recent Letters from Africa (writes John Cockayne), I wrote about the greatest races on the continent, and these included, in no particular order, the Dusi Canoe Marathon, the Comrades Marathon, the Durban July and the sardine run.
I had also recently written about how inland South Africa virtually empties out through December, as South Africans make their way ‘home’ for the year-end vacations, or to the sea!
Of course, and notwithstanding the valiant efforts of all of our traffic enforcement bodies in South Africa, this migration could well be considered, as the 5th ‘greatest race’, with the primary routes between Gauteng and Zimbabwe, KZN, and the Western Cape.
The influx of huge numbers into the coastal areas is a major economic boost – despite the long-suffering looks, eye-rolling, and shoulder shrugging of many who live in these areas all year round – the denizens of destinations like Bournemouth, and those who live along most of the coastline in the Southwest of England, will know exactly what I am talking about!
It is fair to say that without this regular influx, the ‘king’ of which is over December in Southern Africa, many of these destinations would become economically unviable.
Naturally, everything will be packed – including the golf courses, which take a veritable ‘pounding’ between the beginning of December, and the end of the first week in January.
It gets so busy at times on the coast, that a friend of mine recalled an occasion when they were waiting to cross the road to get the Shelly Centre in Shelly Beach (a small coastal village on South Africa’s Indian Ocean coastline), because they had been forced to park in the ‘burbs’, as the shopping centre’s parking was full. After a considerable time waiting for a gap in the traffic, my friend’s father-in-law remarked – ‘the only way you get to be on that side of the road in December, is if you were born there!’
They say that there is never a truer word spoken in jest, so having just semi-grated to the South Coast mid-2024, we reversed the natural flow and order of things, by driving back up to Gauteng for Christmas and the New Year.
Other than exchanging a month of queuing to get near a shopping centre, for – park wherever you like, and 15 cars per hour on the inland drive, as opposed to 1500 cars per hour going to the coast, there were several other factors which prompted this decision.
IOL – News that connects South Africa / www.iol.co.za
The first was that I had recently paid a visit to the Grande Dame of the Southern Sun hotel group – the Beverly Hills.
As a family, our personal connection with this hotel (the late great Sol Kerzner’s first hotel – he also being the visionary behind Sun City), goes back to a first visit in 1969, and we have over the intervening years, been back on many occasions.
Properties must evolve but also maintain a balance between the needs for change, and the need to preserve traditional features, and services, which have become loved and familiar to regular patrons, and this process is alive and well in the hands of the property’s newest GM – Andrew Lee.
The Beverly Hills visit was a very enjoyable precursor to staying at the Sandton Sun & Towers, and my looking forward to seeing the newly refurbished Sandton Towers, which underwent a major upgrade during the year.
Tens of millions of Rands were spent on this reinvestment, and the hotel’s resident manager – Jacques Heath – gave me a run down on the key aspects of the refurb. These included a whole re-set in terms of ‘back of house’ for the sprinkler systems and the plumbing, which, when they are working properly, are those areas which light up the eyes of management and bring a smile to the faces of the guests – even if they are not quite sure why!
The public areas, and rooms were all refurbished, and are the first thing that ‘hit’ you as a guest – smart, modern (but not so contemporary, as to be rendered out of fashion in 10 minutes!) and functional. In terms of the latter, a perfect example would be the greatly extended comfortable seating areas, especially in front of reception, where international aircrews mingle and exchange news, as they changeover and swap duties and hotel guests can kick back, while waiting for a taxi, or their own guests to arrive.
All in all – money very well spent, and the results of which can clearly be seen.
Oddly – the thing that took my attention most, especially in an era still typified by over-consumption, was the recycling of the old boilers deep under the hotel. Cleaned out and relined with a ceramic surface, these old servants of the hotel now hold 38 000 litres of reserve water – ideal as Johannesburg, among many of the world’s cities, faces rapidly increasing pressure to ‘water’ a burgeoning population.
As a complete aside, for those who have yet to visit us ‘down south’ – Johannesburg is the largest city in the world which is not built on a river. Actually, perhaps that is not strictly true, in the sense that there was a river, albeit not one of water, but rather one comprised of gold!
Staying for the first portion of the trip at the Sandton Sun, reminded me just how well Sandton City is located for golfers to get out to the region’s fantastic golf courses – the conditioning of which is superb, due in no small part to the climate (which is not intended in any way to diminish the sterling efforts of the region’s course management teams!), and which, in course maintenance terms, is simply sublime.
That said, the non-golfers in the family have the delights of Sandton City, and Sandton Square to explore, both of which can be got to, with little more effort than rolling out of bed in either the Sandton Sun or Sandton Towers!!
Also, not too far away is Sun City, where golf and game can be combined, although not quite as one unsuspecting America tourist had anticipated.
Some years ago, the aforementioned American had hit his golf ball into the water hazard (front and left of the putting surface), down into which he had happily climbed to retrieve his golf ball, which was lying on a mud, bank some meters away from what he took to be a couple of large, but quite realistic looking, artificial crocodiles.
He was only alerted to the dangers by the group behind, whose voices finally carried down the hill from the tee, as they shouted what sounded remarkably like – ‘get out heck of there, those crocs are real!’
And of course they are, but in this instance, they were inert and disinterested in the presence of a loudly dressed golfing tourist in their ‘space’, because they had just been fed about 500kg of chickens, and were stiffly inert, while they basked in the sun!
Having shared this tale with the parents (out from Ireland) of a friend, we proceeded to the 14th.
Having seen the crocs for themselves, they then asked if there were any ‘hidden’ challenges with this hole’s tee shot, to which I replied – none, other than a couple of dongas, which run across the fairway.
The look in those Irish eyes, which were not smiling at this stage, but were rather filled with a mild dread, all of which prompted them to ask what ‘dongas’ were. At this point, in stepped our 4th to calm their nerves, with which intent, he announced – ‘agh, don’t worry, John is just referring to the sloots!’
Order was finally restored (my partner was referred to thereafter in a golf context as – ‘sloot Jordan’), after we had explained that these were local vernacular for ravines and dry watercourses, and eventually we teed off.
However, I sensed for the rest of that 9 holes that our guests were still not entirely comfortable – no doubt wondering how big sloots and or dongas actually grew, and if they might be able to outrun a golf cart being driven at full speed!
Ah well, golf in Africa is not for the faint hearted, as this video taken on the terrace at Skukuza Golf Club in the Kruger National Park, will show:
John Cockayne
Managing Editor, The Business of Golf – Africa’s Premier Golf Business Publication. www.thebusinessofgolf.com
Email : cathco@mweb.co.za
Mobile: 0027 73 8967931
Skukuza Golf Club in the Kruger Park in South Africa – has hazards you will not see on any course in deepest darkest Surrey, as the clip at the end of this column will show!