As a couple we have travelled the world, and now we have set ourselves the ultimate challenge – to play 100 African golf courses, across 13 African countries over the next 12 months – travelling in our ‘bush ready’ adapted Land Rover Defender.
Steve, my husband, and myself are lucky enough to have experienced South Africa a number of times over the last 30 years. Our last foray into this wonderful diverse rainbow nation country was taking a month out last year to play some of the Garden Route courses, which we loved. To whet our golfing appetite even more, we played The River Club – arguably the best and prettiest golf course in Johannesburg, before setting off for the Kruger National Park to play Skukuza; a wild golf course in the middle of the National Park; without boundaries, fences or security. You’re literally playing in the wild with any off target shots being left in the bush!
But I think the ‘why’ goes even further back than that. I can’t tell you exactly when the idea happened, or whether it was Steve or myself who came up with it, but the journey itself was certainly cemented when we bought our ex-military Land Rover Defender Wolf we call Andi.
Sarah with ‘Andi’ – her specially adapted Land Rover Defender
(Image credit: Sarah Forrest)
As if we didn’t have enough to do – with moving house multiple times, the enforced ‘time stood still’ break called Covid, we also now had the project of getting Andi ready, de-spec’ing the vehicle and making it our civilian ‘home on wheels’.
We’d already taken trips up to Shetland and bedded down comfortably in Andi. As Scotland allows wild camping, we found ourselves in some really wonderful desolate spots, and the golf was pretty good too.
With the benefit of hindsight, I guess our wanderlust is deeper ingrained after living in Papua New Guinea for four years in our early days together. We’d always been gearing up to do this without probably realising, and pledging to play 100 African golf courses was a natural add-on to us, as a couple who love to golf too.
Sarah and Steve with Andi at the start of their Africa 100 journey
(Image credit: Sarah Forrest)
Maybe we are the type that likes to challenge ourselves and convention. We set off and succeeded in our mission to play every golf course in Mauritius earlier this year, so 100 African golf courses seemed like a nice thing to do. But instead of talking about it, we shipped Andi to South Africa and propped up the South African…
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