Bel Ombre

We are flying to Mauritius via Perth, so we overnight with the family, have an early birthday celebration for Neil and catch up with my lovely people.  The Air Mauritius flight experience was seamless, simple boarding, pleasant plane, we had very roomy emergency exit row seats.  It is an 8 hour flight, which after a 3-hour podcast on the history of Palestine and Israel negotiations plus 2 rom coms, we were landing.  It was 5:30pm and dark.  It was pouring with rain and very very hot and humid.  It was like being back in Sydney in February.

We were met by our driver who is taking us to our first resort in Bel Ombre.   As you can see in the map above, it is an hour-long journey.  The driver recommended that we take the inland road due to the rains, it made the journey a bit longer but the driver was a font of all knowledge describing what we were passing through as it looked pitch black to us.  he would describe the fields of sugar cane, vanilla plantations (I did not know that Mauritius produced Vanilla), then turquoise oceans.  We had to use our imagination...

Arriving at the resort we were introduced to Island time.  We have flown 8 hours been in an airport for 2.5 hours, waited for our luggage for 30 mins, and been in a car for an hour and a half - all we wanted was to check in and shower, get something to eat and go to bed....  Instead, we are greeted with a display of beating drums, don't want to be disrespectful - wait until the show is over.  Then we are met with a delightful host, who asks us all about ourselves, where we are from, and discusses the weather and all sorts of pleasantries.  Nothing about our rooms, shower, or bed!

Would we like a welcome cocktail or drink?  Oh okay if you insist, then we wait for our welcome cocktail to be made (on Island time) - still no sign of a check-in.  Then he comes back with an iPad in tow and does some checking and it results in us having to pay something.  So off we go and pay.  Then we get our room key and a tour of the hotel.  You can imagine, that John is demonstrating the patience of a saint.  Then we learn about the restaurants and the pools, the day spa, saunas etc. then eventually our room.  Yay, shower, eat, and sleep...

As you can gather we are completely knackered so sleep on the first night was not an issue, we woke up pretty early but we are well rested and ready to explore.  The plan for the day is to golf at 10 am and then swim, snorkel, and relax.  In an attempt to rush our host through the lengthy introduction, we skipped over a few details, like how to get ot the golf course etc.  So we had to clarify this.  It is all very slick and simple, breakfast at the buffet restaurant, with pool and beach views.  The sun is shining, it is still very hot and humid and we are sweating a lot!  It appears that the only air-conditioned rooms are the toilets, so you take extra long in there!

Breakfast is the usual with a splendid array of tropical fruits, taking me back to my youth with paw paw for breakfast.  As all Aussies will say when travelling - the coffee is bad! John managed to get a good cup, mine was bitter as hell and then the next morning, it was as if they heard me, they put 2 sugar in.  I kid you not, I am trying for the third time lucky this morning....

Golf is at the Heritage Golf Course, designed by Peter Matkovich, (a Zimbabwean) this championship golf course seamlessly integrates lush landscapes, rolling hills, and breathtaking ocean views to create a great golfing experience.  Peter, like Jack Nicklaus, is well known for not touching the landscape too much.  Peter's mantra is "God and nature shape our design". The land and nature must determine the shape, style, and direction of play. The design must aesthetically enhance the nature of the environment, not detract from it – as if time and nature itself have shaped the golf course. 

We turn up to the golf course, John and I have drunk 2l of water already, we look like we have played 18 holes let alone just about to start.  We are in a 4-ball, I jokingly asked the Course marshall if he had found us some nice people to play with and he said "That bloke" and pointed to a man on the terrace.  The man, who turns out to be Chris, says I hope you are nice!  You guessed it we had a great time with these two from Bloemfontein.  Chris and Megan, were chatting on the tee and John was saying how erratic his golf was Megan piped up "Well I do not want you as my partner" and that was the day set.  The chicks versus dicks and a lot of sledging and banter.

We all played great golf, the course was magnificent.  The day turned out a lot longer than anticipated as Chris and Megan were used to stopping in between 9 holes, so a full lunch stop with beers and cocktails it was.  Then back out onto the course.  Lunch took a loooooong time, as we forgot this is island time.  Still, we got to know our new friends better.  The girls won, after the boys took a commanding lead.  John and I played really nice golf.  Here are some photos.

Back to the resort, John and I can hardly keep our eyes open.  Chris keeps reminding us what time it is in Sydney - we are "shush - we don't want to know".  Anyhoo, back to our room, a shower and a siesta.  A 2 hour nap, where John achieved the impossible feat of snoring whilst awake, having not slept a wink!  Wink, wink!! We are groggy as hell!  There is a great South African word "dwaarl", it means to wander around.  We were in a complete dwaarl.

We go to dinner at the beach side restaurant, Chris and Megan went there the night before and said it was good.  It is a beautiful setting right on the beach, dinner with a cocktail or three.  Then back to the bar to make a dent in our "all inclusive" package.  We tried all sorts of cocktails, talking about being in a "dwaarl" I ordered this cocktail called Bel Obmre Beach, it had passionfruit, lime, mango + a thing I did not recognise - delish.  I had this on the first day and couldnt drink it as it had maraschino cherries in it.  Yugh!  We then order it again, not realising that we had already had it, this time it sounds so good John will have one as well.  Yugh!  Poor John had to drink them both - he doesn't like maraschino cherries either.

We sat with Chris and Megan and got to know each other better.

The resort is amazing and the beaches are pristine.  So everywhere you look there is beauty on steroids.

Another okay night of sleep and an early start.  We are now playing the new course La Reserve.  La Réserve Golf Links at Heritage Golf Club is pure golfing drama. With panoramic ocean views from every hole, this exhilarating course plays hand-in-hand with nature alongside a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve. Co-designed by Open Champion Louis Oosthuizen, and Peter Matkovich.  La Réserve Golf Links has hosted the DP World Tour 2023 Mauritius Open, which John, Mum, and Neil watched on TV in December and couldn't stop raving about the course and how difficult it was.  I knew we were in trouble when I saw a message from John to Neil asking how many yellow balls he had in Perth!

When you arrive at the course at 8 am in the morning you are offered sparkling wine, we declined.  Everything is slick as, there is a massive practice putting green and range with the pyramid balls.  Then,  wait for it......  a 15-minute drive into the mountains to the first tee.  Yep you heard it right.  You take a 15-minute drive in your buggy up, up, up, and up til you arrive at the first tee. Quite an adventure.  What I noticed was that all of the cart paths were hidden by these grassy tussocks.  See photo below.

The land, former sugar cane fields has been sensitively planted with native grasses to create rich rolling grasslands, encouraging ecological diversity.  You would not know this unless you read it.  The grasslands look like they have been there for years and years.  The beautiful grasslands soon became the f.... grasslands and by the end, it was the criminal grasslands as they devoured copious amounts of our brand spanking new golf balls.  I lost 8 balls....

Now we start our 15 minute drive, we really thought the guys had exaggerated but No, it is a truly long way to the first tee.  But an enjoyable drive.  Again once you arrive you are met with that Mauritian charm and genuine joy at having you visit their land.  This course has a tradition that you have a shot of whisky before you tee off.

Now that we had had our shot of whisky we have the courage to tame the beast that is ahead.  We have beautiful conditions and because of our handicaps are recommended that we play off the yellow tees.  It goes Black tees which are called the Louis tees, then white then yellow, then blue and then red.

John has a handicap of 22 and I have a handicap of 7 - I should have seen the warning signs then, instead of feeling very happy at having 7 shots!

You cannot play the yellow tees without having a club that enables you to carry 165m and that is when the wind isn't blowing.

The course is real links style with mounds to bounce you into the fairway with a good shot and shitty grass to guzzle your ball if you are off target.  We did get a bit fed up with losing balls but to be fair the fairways are wide and we hit the shots off target even though John would say he was just off the fairway and the ball was gone - the fairway was pretty wide, so you had to be 30 m from the centre.  Below is a video of an approach shot that John hit, just shows you the elevation.

We were just the two of us, which gave us a lot of time to study the GPS map, trust me we needed it, trying to understand which bunker to avoid and which fairway option to choose - because often you had a choice of taking the high road or the low road.

The wind is starting to come up, I have had 18 points with my 7 handicap on the front 9 and am quite pleased with myself.  I did say to John at the start that he had 5 mulligans and for every negative comment he lost a mulligan.  I didn't know my husband, he was finding positive things to say about the ball-guzzling grass.  I on the other hand was starting to hit the ball off-centre and going through my golf balls at an unstainable and unaffordable rate!

Below is a chip that John had, as you can see - he just missed the green and is left with an impossible shot back.  Even Phil Mickelson would struggle with this shot. Still he remained positive and with 5 Mullys in tact!

As I mentioned we did travel into the hills to reach the first tee, so back down we go.  This is one of the journeys down.

Not my finest piece of driving but it was scary and I am the adrenalin junky in the family.  Then we get to our tee which is one third of the way down and how yes a 200m carry but 50m down hill. So only the 150m carry then.

After my 18-point first 9 with a near hole-in-one (resulting in a tap-in birdie) and one lost ball.  Then the driver went off the boil, the whisky wore off, the wind came up, who knows! I lost a further 7 golf balls, 3 on one hole!  Single swoosh titliest pro v1s into the grasslands.  John improved on the back 9, with his great attitude a pocketful of mulligans, and a rule where a mulligan could be traded for a golf fairy - he ended the round with 3 mulligans and 30 points.  I on the other hand crashed and burned with 10 on the back, so limped in with 28 points.

But as beaten up as I felt, I loved every minute of it.  The clever design, the difficulty, and the impressive design.  I would come back again and again - after I secured a sponsorship deal with Titleist that is!

Well worth the trip, but possibly the blue tees next time.

Back home, lunch on the beach, a swim, sunset cocktails, catch up with Megan and Chris for a cocktail (not the Bel Ombre Beach), and to bed.  This morning we check out and leave Bel Ombre and transfer to Victoria Beachcomber where we will meet John's brother Richard and his fiance Katie.

Below are some of the official photos from their website, they give you a very good sense of the course, its elevation and carries.