Zimbali Country Club

Zimbali is a Tom Weiskopf design cut through coastal forest on the KwaZulu-Natal north coast. For most of the round you are playing down green corridors between the trees, and then a fairway opens and the Indian Ocean is in front of you. Your caddie will tell you when to take on the trees and when to play away from them.

It is the easiest round of the trip to get to. After two nights at The Oyster Box, a short private drive up the coast brings you to Zimbali Lodge on the golf estate, and in the afternoon your caddie takes you out. You are staying on the estate, so there is no transfer at either end. Non-golfers walk the forest trails down to the beach.

The next morning you play Prince's Grant on the clifftops further up the coast, so the two north-coast rounds sit side by side: one in the forest, one on the open cliff above the sea. Then a Pilatus PC-12 flies you from King Shaka to the airstrip at Phinda for two nights and a morning tracking cheetah on foot. Our KZN journey runs in April to June and September to November.

Country: South Africa