And so it begins: April 2011

April 1-4, 2011 Colas Golf Tournament in the Capital city of Madagascar, the French name is Tana, and in Malagasy it's called Antananarivo (pronounced exactly how it's spelled).
Played 18 holes Saturday and 18 holes Sunday. Damn near killed me.
Colas is a company that works for Ambatovy and holds an annual Golf Tournament in Tana.

Picture from the plane. Landing in Tana. Very populated city.

more picrures

At the Tana airport, where you apparently are not suppose to take pictures. A Security stopped Rick from taking any more.

On Friday night, after we unpacked, George and Pat took us to a quaint French Restaurant. The owner collects everything antique. And I mean everything! Phones, telescopes, cameras, lanterns, cars, photo frames, just everything. It's amazing what is in there. The food is quite good as well. These are Zebo ribs. The round circles are - ummm, we're not sure. We think it was dyed potatoe/radish/shrimp discs, not quite sure. Not sure what was in the cup either, tasted like cream of celery soup. Whatever it was, was quite tasty. Very nice place.

The view from our hotel room. About 3/4 of an hour from the Golf Course.

Along the way to the course. Our first tee off was 7:50 am and had to be there 30 minutes before, then 45 minutes ride to the airport = very, very early wake up. Vendors along side of the street. They also get up early, as this was about 6:30 in the morning

More vendors on the sidewalk along the road. There is about 3 inches from your vehicle to the vendors items. Very, very tight road. Everyone is selling something. Lots and lots of produce.

View from our car down the road. People, scooters, vehicles, zebos, chickens, you name it, they all travel on the main road through town. You just have to be very, very patient! Two vehicles can barley pass side by side, and yet you need to watch out for people.

Our foresome on Saturday. Myself, Rick, Gerad, and Bob the Aussie

Rick and his caddy, Charles

My caddy Sweeny (I don't think he thought much of my golf, but that's okay, I didn't either) He was a super fantastic fellow

Bob the Builder! What does he say? Merci Bloody Beaucoup (he's Australian)

So many beautiful views, have to show you them

One lonely person amongst the rice patties

Another spectacular view. On this hole, if it didn't go down the fairway, to the right was another huge rice field. hmmm, I wonder how many balls the locals find, heehee (then sell them back to you, for a good price I may add)

On several different holes they had us do different things to make it fun. Gerald on Bob's back while he putts. Me thinks they liked it just a little too much (just joking guys!)

Mr. Rick

Notice the orange accents? Colas's colours are orange, so we had to have orange accents. Of course, I had no trouble finding orange.

Trucks

The lovely ladies serving us refreshments at one of the putting greens. We had to putt holding a cocktail in the other hand. Not quite as easy as you would think

Then we had to put a Football or as they call it, a Rugby ball between your legs while you drove

I'm thinking Bob's liking this just a little too much.

As you can see from the slant of the hill, this course had it's ups and downs (get it, ups and downs?) It was a very hard course. And no, we weren't looking for my ball...Rick

This course went from fairway to rice patties

Two little old Zebos

Now, that's a sand trap. Never had we had to take 5 steps down into a sand trap. Not quite as easy to get out as you may think, is it Rick?

I did manage to miss this sand trap (not quite sure how, as I'm pretty good at finding them and water)

On our way back to the hotel

642 Lotto - 700 Million airyairy = approx $3500.00 cdn (other signs read 775 ar, not sure which dollar amount it is)

see, they have hubcaps along their fences as well, just like Alberta!

Rice patties along the golf course. These caddies don't dive in the water for your ball here like they do at Foul Pointe

People washing in the river

More rice patties were on the way to the golf course

Along side the road (in the middle of town) was a canal. Quite scenic.

In the distance was a monument. We didn't get a chance to visit it. Only one small road on the other side to get there.

International Golf Club du Rova Madagascar. (this is a private club only) The layout of the 18 Hole Golf Course. This is probably one of the hardest courses I've ever done. The hills and valleys are unreal. It's also several thousand meters above sea level, so it's harder to breathe. You are either golfing up hill or down hill, very little flat land.