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
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.
A view of the rice fields in the background. Beautiful!
These brown spots are ant hills. Thousands of ant hills. The earth is red, so it really shows on the grass.
Madame Sherry and Mr, Rick
Our foursome on Sunday. Stephen, me, Michel (Pro Golfer), Rick.
Michel in a photo frame! Doesn't speak good English, but we knew what he wanted!
A view of the village from one of the tee boxes.
A real nice rice field
Notice the gardens in from of the homes, beautiful
One little lonely Zebo
Another fun task. My putt was a little longer, and didn't do so good with the pool cue
Someone made this golfer out of 1 1/2" angle iron
This fellow was being initiated into the pond! (wet t-shirt contest)
Good thing it was at the end of the day!
This course also had a swimming pool with a picnic area. Very nice place.
Very nice golf course and fun was had by all. We were totally exhausted come Monday.
Keep on posting these types of articles. I like your blog design as well. Cheers!!!
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