Escape to the Costa del Sol

After another long 3 months on site the time has come again to get on the big bird and start the journey home to see Joan and the girls again - this time is slightly different though as I headed for Spain for Hursty and Shemiah’s wedding. Because of the flight times I was only able to get into Malaga 2 days before the wedding direct from Doha, so it would have been rude not to take the opportunity to play a bit of golf and relax for a couple of days. Given Saudi was really warming up a few degrees of respite was going to be amazing, but it was actually hotter in Spain than it was in Saudi when I left, couldn’t believe it – ha ha

After arriving at the hotel, a coupe of lovely ice cold San Miguel’s next to the beach and an amazing steak dinner I hit the pillow pretty exhausted. Next day I was up and at it relatively leisurely before heading out to Calanova Golf Club, for the first of two rounds I had booked through Golfmates Travel (who were excellent to deal with). Calanova was perched up on top of the hills over looking the coast and the course itself covered a huge amount of ground with massive elevation changes – was so glad of the cart I was in, no way you could walk this place. Golf was OK on day 1 and I played with an English couple from Bristol who were really nice. Great to be back on course after not playing any golf since Taupo earlier in the year. That night I wandered into Fuengirola a little bit more and came across a beautiful spanish restaurant in an old paved square with a lovely church in the middle of it where I treated myself to some incredible local seafood and a couple of glasses of Rose to finish the day off.

Day two started bright and early as I had a big day ahead. I had an early tee time at the beautiful Torrequebrada Golf Club, the couple I played with at Calanova had told me that Torrequebrada was on a different level to Calanova, and they weren’t wrong. I really enjoyed Calanova but Torrequebrada stacks up with the best courses I’ve played. The day was made even better by playing with a Danish legend called Kasper who was a member who looked after me and the other guy who played with us like we were long lost friends, not just 2 random golfers he only just met. Golf was pretty solid on this day and shot an 86 which I was very happy with given I had a few blow up holes along the way. After a great clubhouse lunch and an ice cold Cruzcampo I jumped in my hire car and started the next leg of the journey – 2 ½ hours inland to Arcos de la Fronterra and the main event of this part of the journey – the wedding.Read more