Southern Africa's Golden Triangle

Charles McLaughlin shares his experiences from a recent trip of a lifetime to the "Dark Continent"

The hole’s famous ‘croc pit’ features more than one of these rather unfriendly residents

We sampled some of their great cuisine in the company of Golf Manager Carl Krog and Head of Sales Pamela Warrington and they walked us through the story of the stellar rise of this course in such a short period of time. It’s been a remarkable ascent and there is more to come.

Back to Cape Town and we received a reminder of exactly where we are as strong winds forced us to put off our planned trip to the top of Table Mountain. A visit to Signal Hill gave us the chance to get some remarkable photographs of this iconic landmass, but my ascent to the summit will have to come on my next visit.

Returning to Table Bay Hotel, we embarked on a tour of South African wines led by resident sommelier David Hendricks. A Meerlust Rubicon and a Kanoncop Pinotage were the highights of a wonderful sampling. Perhaps unwisely, we moved out to the terrace overlooking the harbor, where David then allowed me to undertake my first act of sebage. For the uninitiated, this is the act of removing a champagne cork using a metre-long sabre. Enormous fun, but not for the faint hearted!

A superb meal in the hotel’s Camissa Brasserie followed. The restaurant is named after the Khoisan word for Cape Town and specializes in native produce. Chef Jason Franco took us to the kitchens to show us the dinner he had created for us featuring entirely locally-sourced ingredients, even down to the wild herbs picked from the hotel gardens and surrounds.

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