Elephant Hills - Victoria Falls

[Padraig Dooley]

While on the way to see this



I also had a look around Elephant Hills



Speaking to the guy in the pro shop, they were only getting around 10 rounds a week. The situation is very tough there. Only one mower for fairway and rough, greens looked a bit on the slow side but reasonably smooth.

1st tee shot



Impala behind the 8th hole



Of the holes I saw the 8th looked excellent, around 320 metres, angled green from back left to front right, a well placed crocodile-filled pond on the left hand side of the green and another well placed tree short of the pond.



View from the 8th tee



The palm tree on the left of the tee has an interesting story, they are not native to Africa, were introduced to Mozambique by the Portuguese and the fruit are really favoured by elephants, who eat between 150-250 kgs of food a day but have very poor digestion and digest less than 50% of their food leaving a lot of dung behind which includes a lot of the fruit seeds and the palm trees have moved across the continent following wherever the elephant goes. The overhead of the course shows how much the trees have proliferated.

Tee markers




9th Hole

[Lou_Duran]

Padraig,

Thanks for the pictures.  We only had time for a quick peek from the terrace out back.  The course itself appears relatively flat.  Is it that way, or just how it comes across in the pictures?

We were there some 10 years ago and the course was not getting much play at that time either.  It seemed a bit shabby maintenance wise, but the clubhouse and resort was pretty impressive.  Prices in Victoria Fallls were really cheap, a beer for under a US dollar; tea service at the beautiful Victoria Falls Hotel for about the same.  Were there a couple of large tuskers ambling about the hotels?

I hope you did the Zambezi.  We did the second half (the afternoon portion), and both my wife and I flipped out of the raft twice.  It pretty much cured her of ever doing class 5 rapids again (rats!).  Great fun.

The political situation aside, Zimbabwe is a wonderful, beautiful place to visit.  We spent some time at a place called Giraffe Springs in a tented camp where the wildlife was plentiful, the food outstanding, and the hospitality second to none.

One of the guests had spent a few days in the capital city of Harare, and except for having to dodge a few food and gasoline riots, he said that the golf there was outstanding and very affordable.  Apparently there are two or three colonial era country clubs that were well designed and maintained and available to hotel guests.  Hopefully things have not turned to the worse since then.

[Padraig Dooley]

Lou

Yes, the course is quite flat, very minimalist.

I got stranded in Zimbabwe, so ended up staying at Elephant Hills the night after taking these pictures. The resort is still impressive, lacking business though, quite a lot of people are waiting to see the results of the elections. Prices are not as cheap as South Africa, still not too expensive, the main source of foreign currency is tourism, so visitors are expected to pay in foreign currency.

I went rafting on the Zambesi above the falls, there has been a lot of rain in Southern Africa since december, so the water level was too high for white water rafting which I really wanted to do.

As for wildlife roaming around the hotels, I saw mainly warthog (much nicer then pork), buffallo, impala no elephants or giraffe.

I haw quite a few friends from Harare and they talk highly about Royal Harare, redone by Nick Price in 97, and Chapman. Leopard Park in Mutare gets good reviews as well. Hopefully, will get to play them at some stage.

[Brian_Ewen]

Padraig
Thanks for posting , I like seeing courses like this .