Gowrie Farm Gowrie Farm
from those of the iconic Garden Route in the Cape to
the wonders of the Waterberg Biosphere in Limpopo.
Only an hour or so North of Pretoria in the Waterberg,
a golfer will be able to find a number of superb courses
including Zebula, Elements, Koro Creek, Legends and
Euphoria, all of which will offer the golfer a wonderful
bush-veld experience. are almost always state of the art.
Whether you chose to winter in Gauteng, Limpopo,
Mpumalanga, KwaZulu-Natal, the Northwest or the
Cape, each region offers a range of golf courses, resorts,
hotels and golf estates and once you are outside of the
peak summer season in December and the first week in
January, there will be many properties to choose from,
all of which welcome and cater for longer term vacation
rentals.
For those of you who have already taken the plunge and
own property in South Africa, then of course you will be
part of the summer season crowd which throng to the
superb beaches, game parks, cycling and walking trails
and fishing that the various regions offer.
The exchange rate, even with a resurgent Rand, is very
favourable both in direct exchange and value for money
terms.
The vacation rental market is vibrant and largely run by
professional people and the same applies to the estate
agents should you have decided to look to invest in a
property of your own.
For those first timers looking to buy into this market
place then the golf estates offer an excellent point of
entry.
Careful research will show that if you can find the right
estate then the properties are largely undervalued, the
build quality will be good and general maintenance
standards will be generally high coupled with security
controls, now sadly a reflection of a global trend, that
Now that property has gone back to being a 25 year
investment and not something in which you can buy and
sell in 5 minutes and double your money, an investment
in a holiday home in southern Africa or the Indian
Ocean Islands can be a very good long term investment
and loads of fun to use while your investment grows.
‘Getting there’ should be part of the fun of any vacation
and so the next step in our journey will be to explore
how to get here and what stopover options there might
be to take in on the way down.
The key part of this will be the airline and a number
of carriers service the region, for example SAA, British
Airways, Air France, Virgin Atlantic and KLM offer direct
routes.
Qatar Airways flies via the Gulf which provides the
chance to stop over and sample the new facilities at the
Qatar International Golf Club and use Doha as a base
to explore the golf in the Emirates and the Sultanate of
Oman.
Air Mauritius flies via the paradise island of Mauritius
off the east coast of Africa and is a destination which
is only a 4 hour flight from South Africa and where the
golfer is really spoiled for choice.
In part two of the Snowbirds we shall be exploring the
pros and cons of some of these options.
By John Cockayne
Destination Golf -
Southern Africa & Indian Ocean Islands
Email: [email protected]
Mobile: +27 73 8967931
Volume 4 • Issue 43
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