Day 87 was a game of two halves. The first was spent at Port Fairy in Victoria, the second over the border in South Australia, at Millicent. Both were rural experiences; both equally rewarding.
Millicent??s a wee town 3 hours or so from Port Fairy and 4/5 hours short of Adelaide. Mick and I were scratching our heads this morning to figure out how it had come to figure in our plans. We??re still not sure. Probably a combination of expediency (it??s well and truly on the way from Melbourne to Adelaide) and of the fact that it??s a quality golf course (maybe top 100 in Australia on some lists?). Anyway.
Due to the imperative of getting ourselves to Sydney by 5 April to spend as much time with the girls ?? who are flying across from NZ to join us for a week ?? we??ve cut a few days out of the South Australia itinerary. Such are the pressures of life. To be fair we??re on thin ice so it was the least we could do!
However puregolf2010 has a funny way of taking us places we didn??t necessarily know we were going. Although Millicent no longer had a day allocated for golf, in the end we zipped round 18 in a cart on the back of the drive through from Port Fairy! 36 holes on the back of 18 on Saturday and 28 on Friday ?? we??re certainly living and breathing the game. And why not?
Mardi and Graham ??Archie? Sunderland had kindly contacted us and offered to put us up for a night, on our way through. Given they??re keen golfers ?? and we came into contact with them through the local golf club ?? the least we could do was go out for a hit with ??em. Archie??s son, Kim, joined us, along with his mate Chappy and Archie himself. In 3 carts we sped ??round Millicent GC ?? which sits atop a hill in the bush some 14 km from the town ?? playing Ambrose as we went. Kim & Mick took on Chappy & I; Archie was the wildcard, and swtiched teams each hole.
The golf was very mixed but we had an absolute ball. Chappy (pictured above on the left) hit some colossal tee shots the likes of which I??ve never seen before ?? the ball seemed to go down before it went up, and never reached higher than 10 feet above the deck. The combination of his darts and my good fortune on the greens was a deadly one, and our score of 5 under ended up being too good for The Pretenders, who carded 2 or 3 over. The match was played in good spirits though; by the 18th green Mike and I had made 3 new friends (roughly one for every 3 balls that Mike lost). Had it not been for sage advice from the locals, Mike would??ve seen more bush hunting for his tee shots than your average tramper sees hiking for a week in the mountains.
Mardi God Bless Her prepared ?? with the help of Kim??s and Chappy??s wives ?? a meal fit for an army. About 10 of us sat ??round the kitchen talking smack and feeding ourselves Roman styles. What a great way to finish a Long Day! The Sunderlands showed us some famous South Australian hospitality, and we hope to repay it when they venture across the ditch (maybe next year?). We tried talking them into visiting, but NZ is a tough sell as you all know ?? all those beautiful mountains, beaches and golf courses. Terrible place.
Anyway we??re now en route to Adelaide. Mike just got a speeding ticket. The roads are long and straight, and hopefully our tee shots this afternoon turn out the same.
Peace, JP
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