Saturday 19 November 2011

A Jurassic Encounter


My memories of crazy golf date from childhood. It was one of those things you found in slightly worn English seaside towns and spent half an hour running round when it was too cold and windy on the beach.Crazy golf has since gone up in the world - at least in southwest London.
If you drive south along the A3 from Roehampton and look out very carefully, you might just spot a few dozen life-size dinosaurs, with a stegosaurus, a triceratops and some velociraptors among them. Some of them are animatronic, some of them roar, and the quality of craftsmanship would not look out of place in the Natural History Museum.This is crazy golf for the 21st century.
We turned up at Jurassic Adventure Golf late on a Saturday afternoon. It was already almost dark but we wanted an outing and B&Q just wouldn't cut the mustard. Floodlights and the giant dinos caught out attention from the dual carriageway, and we found ourselves queuing with excitable families and their miscellaneous small children for what has to be New Malvern's funkiest attraction.
The golf itself isn't particularly challenging (at least not for anyone used to wielding a club) but the dinosaurs add a certain je ne sais quois, as does the fluorescent green water that glows in a river and waterfalls around much of the site. A bellowing triceratops will make you jump if it catches you unawares, and the prehistoric cave paintings are charming, if several million years out of date.

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