St. Francis Bay
For the ultimate in a golfing holiday in South Africa, or a romantic getaway for two, staying in St Francis Bay is idyllic. Touted as the country’s answer to ‘little Venice’, St Francis Bay lies just 90 kilometres west of Port Elizabeth - a series of little man-made canals and waterways that lend themselves perfectly to boating, swimming and other water sports.
It gets pretty tricky around here to remember just which St Francis you’re in. The bay includes Port St Francis, St Francis Bay, Cape St Francis and Oyster Bay. St Francis Bay lies alongside Cape St Francis at the estuary of the Kromme River, navigable for about 10 kilometres with many twists and turns that make it an amazing stretch along which to boat.
The St Francis Lighthouse, erected to warn ships of the reef that juts out beyond Sea Point, almost a kilometre out to sea, now marks one of the ‘corners’ of the African coast. The Irma Booysen Flora Reserve lies close by and offers some wonderful opportunities to see local fynbos. Otherwise, your time is given over to pleasure, eco and river cruises, surfing, swimming and generally enjoying the good life. Standing 27.75m off the ground, it is one of the tallest lighthouses in South Africa. Its focal plane is 36m above sea level giving it a light range of 28 nautical miles.
St Francis Bay is the playground of dolphins, whales and the wealthy, the bay magnificent with a white sandy St Francis Bay beach that offers some of the
safest bathing on the coast and some fine opportunities to fish on the rocks. Surfers flock here, as they do to most of this part of the coast, and the fabulous beaches are surrounded by nature
reserves, making them alive with the calls of birds and an incredible escape from the city lifestyle that ensnares most of us. Essentially a little holiday village, St Francis Bay includes a marina and a wonderful collection of white-walled thatched homes set right on the
waters of the canals. The small boat harbour here offers sheltered anchorage for fishing vessels and other ocean going vessels.
No list of South Africa’s most beautiful golf courses would be complete without St Francis Links, one of the country’s few genuine links
layouts.
Like most links layouts, St Francis Links hardly plays the same from one day to the next. For one thing, the course is exposed to the elements, so
the strength and the direction of the wind have a tremendous effect on how each hole should be approached. For another, the vagaries of the golf ball bouncing off heavily mounded fairways makes it
unlikely that a similarly struck ball will come to rest anywhere near where it ended the last time you played. Even if it did, it is likely that you will be faced with a different, uneven lie.St
Francis Links tests every level of golfer in any number of different ways.
