Mark Upfold – Page 5

March 24, 2022

Episode 3 – Malta Marsaxlokk

A small traditional fishing village in the south eastern region of Malta. Known for its traditional Sunday market, of fresh fish caught by the many fishermen of the area, from their brightly painted small boats. The walkway promenade has many restaurants and across the bay one can see Malta’s power plant complex at Delimara.

The name Marsaxlokk comes from the Arabic word “marsa” which means “port” and “xlokk” is the Maltese word for “southeast”. The word is related to the name for the dry “sirocco” wind that blows from the Sahara desert. (wikipedia.org)

March 20, 2022

Episode 2- Malta Mellieha

Mellieha a large village in the northern region of Malta. It was one of the first of ten parishes. It existed in 1436 but was abandoned after the 15th or early 16th century, as the north of Malta was no longer safe due to raids by Muslim corsairs.(wikipedia.org)

From the tower looking north. End of the main land with Gozo across the water. 30 min ferry ride.

Ex World war 2 bomb shelter. Now used as a prayer area for very sick children.

Mellieha Parish church. First stone laid 1883- Byzantine style fresco

March 16, 2022

Golfari in Malta

For the next 3 months Golfari will be posting photos and blogs from Malta and some other EU countries where possible. A marketing campaign at the only golf course in Malta- Royal Malta, will be one of the first port of calls.

KLM flight from O R Tambo Johannesburg to Schiphol airport Amsterdam

Flying over Gozo, Malta’s other habitable island.

The journey started in June 2021, and postponed 3 times because of Covid, eventually materialised.

August 30, 2021

Golfari in Pietermaritzburg.

What with bitterly cold and rainy weather in Durban on the Saturday, with even snow falling in just north of Hillcrest, many thought Sunday’s venture to Maritzburg golf course on Sunday, may not happen.

Well arrival at 07h00 to a 2 degree greeting, was not enough to stop the Badger and Golfari members from teeing off, on time. The course was surprisingly green and in very good nick. Dave(New Zealand) and Dylan(Mtunzini) Upfold, some of these pics are for you, to remember the club, at least 20 years ago. That pie, chips and gravy and the golf will surely entail a return.

4 down the menu- famous Pie, chips and gravy. Note Dylan and David.

Absolutely delicious as it was 20 years ago.

August 21, 2021

Golfari on Safari

In early July Golfari members and family spent 4 days in the Umfolozi / Hluhluwe game reserve.

Peaceful, tranquillity, rather cool mornings and evenings with a continual wind chill, made animal sightings rather rare.

Umfolozi Game Reserve – originally a royal hunting ground for the Zulu kingdom, was established as a park in 1895, making it the oldest proclaimed game reserve in Africa. The reserve combined is 96,000 ha. In the 1950’s 60’s a huge drive was undertaken to protect the endangered white rhinoceros. (https://en.wikipedia.org)

April 12, 2021

Mtunzini Beach clean up

Golfari supporters assisted this weekend with Sky’s Mtunzini beach clean up.

Skylar’s beach clean up. Main organiser along with her mom.

Chips and water time out. Task completed.

900kgs collected in a two hour period. Thanks to the organisers and a big thanks to all who gave up of their time to help this worthy cause.

January 29, 2021February 2, 2021

Royal Durban

This week on Thursday a very early tee off, 05h30 at the Royal Durban golf club.

History tells us that in 1892 a golf course was formed on the current site. On the 8th April 1932, the Durban golf club was granted permission to add the ‘prefix’ Royal by his majesty King George V. The other ‘Royal’ courses in South Africa is the oldest course in the country Royal Cape, opened in 1885 and Royal Johannesburg 1890.

There are just 64 golf clubs in the world with the bona fide right to a ‘royal’ title, bestowed by a member of the United Kingdom royal family. Of these 34 are in the UK, 26 throughout the Commonwealth and 4 others (2 in Ireland, 1 in the Czech republic and the other in Germany).

Royal Durban is also one of the few courses, situated within a horse racing track, being Greyville race course, home to South Africa’s favourite July Handicap

Flat fairways with the main stand of the race course on the left. Moses Mabida soccer stadium in the middle. Clubhouse mid right of stadium.

January 23, 2021

Windsor Park

GolfAri’s different venue this week. A visit to probably Durban’s first Municipal golf course, Windsor Park, situated alongside the Umgeni river.

History tells us that in 1849 this was the original site for the Durban Botanical Gardens (crops and vegetables etc) which relocated to its present site in 1851. The reason being, that the staff in those days kept being attacked by hippos and crocodiles. Lucky for us golfers it’s 2021 because we never saw any ‘wildlife’ except for the noisy hadedas. Not much documented history is to be found other than in the early 1930’s the Athlone Golf Club was formed.

Many Durban golfers still refer to it as “Windsor” and from an early or middle age, used this course as their practice ground, before venturing into memberships of local and country private golf courses.

Umgeni River with The Riverside Hotel in the background

The course is parklike, with trees down the sides of the fairways. If you hit it straight then no real problems, however anything slightly off the mowed surface, the tough kikuyu grass made hunting for the ball an additional “hazard”.

Author: Mark Upfold