So the last day and night has been bitterly cold. It hailed and thundered yesterday – very unusual for winter. No, I didn’t Instagram it, Cape Town-style. This weather is the ominous kind. The kind that reminds you of the snow. The snow that has started arriving every winter in the Midlands for the past few years. (As a child, I can remember it snowing only twice throughout my entire childhood, a sure sign that climate change is a real, happening phenomenon). With the snow comes many things: cold (obviously), chilblains, Hunter boots, no electricity, no running water. Hot chocolate, soups, gluhwein, wet dogs. And snow tourists.
They descend upon our tiny village in their hordes – rich and poor, black and white and green and purple, young and old, all in cars with ND and NP number plates. They cut through farm fences to make snowmen and toboggan down our farmlands, with no thought to the livestock that could escape or the crops beneath the white powder which they may be destroying. They infiltrate our little coffee shops and restaurants in the thousands, complaining about the slow service and lack of menu items (this is usually caused by the very snow they’re coming to ogle – the snow which has caused roads to shut, making the village inaccessible to staff; snow which has caused power lines to break and electricity lines and water pumps to stop working). These snow tourists rattle all the locals, who hide out in their houses, so fearful are they of the chaotic influx, and anger the farmers who are tempted to load their shotguns and patrol their boundaries.
SNOW TOURISTS – you do not add value to our village or income to our pockets. In fact, you mostly damage our community. Your measly order of a hot chocolate and toasted sandwhich does not make up for the thousands of rands of damage you cause our farmers. You are not worth the hassle you give our restaurant owners and shop keepers who are worried about the fact that there is no power and water at home, that their animals are freezing and hungry, that their staff are unable to get to work. You arrive in your big Chelsea-tractor 4×4’s, play for a day, wreak havoc, moan and complain at all our restaurants and shops, cause damage to our little Midlands area and then when the sun starts to set, off you migrate back to Durban where at home your lights are on and your toilets are flushing, where you can have a hot bath and a home-cooked meal and then get into your warm bed, grumbling all the while about how un-hospitable the Midlands area is when it snows. We, meanwhile, are going home to darkness. To cold houses. Hungry animals. We light the fire in the living room and pull our mattresses into that room so that we may sleep with some warmth. We fetch water from the swimming pool to flush our toilets. We can’t shower or bath. We light candles so that we may see, and if we’re lucky and have a gas stove, and aren’t too exhausted, we maybe cook a dinner on that. We do this for days on end – it’s not at all like a little load shedding or an Eskom outtage. It’s days and nights of cold – the kind that gets in your bones and forces you to wear two three pairs of socks and long johns to sleep. We go to bed hoping and praying that tomorrow – tomorrow we will wake up and have power, that the snow will have melted and that everything will have returned to normal.
Dear snow tourists, I hope this letter helps you understand our side of the story. I hope it helps instill some respect towards farmers and their property. I hope it teaches you patience when your R35 toasted sandwhich takes an hour to be made, because there are a hundred of you and only two staff members in the kitchen. I hope it makes you realize that for us, snow is not a fun time, or a getaway for a day. It is hard work. It is exhausting. And we don’t need your ugly attitude on top of it too. By all means, come and play. Snow IS a wonderful, magical thing. But please don’t ruin our lands or hurt our animals. Don’t shout at staff and grumble and moan when the food takes too long. Leave your nastiness at home. Smile, say please and thank you, be nice. Be compassionate towards our locals and our animals. Order a bottle of wine (that never runs out, even when it snows), relax. Give your children a glass too so that they can pass out and not destroy everything they touch. Think of others. Put yourself in someone else’s shoes. Mind your manners. And then, I promise, this snow season will be a pleasant one for everybody involved.
midlandsmusings.wordpress.com 
Ha a a a a a a a aa a a ! Chuckle! Giggle!
Giggggleeeeeee
I love it.
I hear you! I come from Mtunzini, a gorgeous village on the coast, knowing full well how you feel. “Jislaaik dis lekker by die see!” – the December mad rush of holiday makers. Our one tiny Spar has empty shelves yet 1000 hot sweaty bodies cramming through it moaning at how useless it is, littering our beaches and devouring every last pizza base and slap chip in town. Yes we like the hustle and bustle, but forgive me when I throw a tantrum because you are like fleas invading my “tranquil” paradise!
I however have never seen snow, I have been to the midlands 3 years running hoping to have chosen the right weekend, and nothing… So this year I am glued to the snow forecast and as soon as it says there is heavy thick snow, I will be coming to make snow angels and snow men on some open piece of land, after reading this I will not grumble, just drink all the wine, and I will not (not that I would have anyway) be breaking down fences.
A pretty white wonderland to you.
That’s what I like to hear! When it snows (and it will, don’t you worry!) come drink gluhwein with me! X
I agree with Megan….when all you midlanders come and invade our seaside resorts or game parks. When I see you feeding the monkeys and throwing the rubbish next to the bin in the picnic spots. Letting your children run around or scream when watching the animals and frightening them away. I hate walking along my beach and seeing the trash you leave behind!
Do you think you are the only ones that have no lights/hot water? Every South African knows the hassles of not having electricity in their homes for hours on end. Be thankful you have water tight homes to go to many don’t.
This post is so blooming one sided and if I didn’t know you I would probably be even harsher!
You know, I’m pretty sure that if your sentiments on how the snow tourists should behave (in the last paragraph) were mirrored by everyone, the world would be a better place. Thanks Keri, although I’ve never had the pleasure of a snow day in the Midlands, I think this is an important lesson on being mindful of the impact of my actions and words. X
Thanks for your comment Claire, you’re welcome to come stay with me when next it snows – if you’re willing to sleep by the fire and not shower for 5 days! Haha! Have a lovely weekend X
Although I see your point, and since this is your forum for airing your own opinions I can’t quite disagree with you. But I must say that I found this post quite unnerving. If it snows and ruins the crops- that’s far from anybody else’s fault. Not only that, but I’m quite sure that farmers farming in such an area where the land is prone to such weather, they should be duly prepared.
Perhaps your complaint is more about people not being rude in the restaurants? Because I assure you that there are quite a few places, which are probably much smaller than the Midlands and rather embrace the snow; such as Hogsback and for those who are brave enough- Sutherland. If this is your opinion now- it should probably maintained all year around- because an understaffed restaurant that doesn’t serve well, will incite rude patrons whether it’s snowing or not.
Additionally, the ‘havoc’ wreaked by the giant cars etc, is only done due to the fact that snow causes damage to roads, which will be done regardless of tourists or locals. So while I’m sure that there will be people who are rude and go crazy, be aware that more likely than not- those people will be everywhere and returning that attitude with the kind of sentiments you just expressed- well. that’s pretty much bending to their level.
Thanks for your comment. I’m not sure if you’re a regular reader of this blog, but I don’t think so because I don’t think you quite understand my tone and sense of humour, but that’s ok. Just a couple of things I want to point out because I don’t think you read my post properly either before you wrote your comment:
a) The crops are not ruined by the snow – they’re ruined by the people tobogganing down them and building braai’s on private land. They’re ruined by the people cutting fences because they don’t want to get stuck in the barb wire and then tramping all over them. You are right though, the midlands is very unprepared for snow, because it never used to snow here a lot (as you would have seen, I’ve written that in the post, too) but I think from this year, farmers and business owners are all going to do thing very differently.
b) If you had read properly you would have seen that I said the staff and service at these restaurants is a bit slower when it snows, not because they are UNDERSTAFFED but because the usual staff CAN’T get to work because of the snow, leaving a restaurant that normally runs with 10 staff members with only 2.
c) As for the giant cars – I wasn’t meaning they ruin our roads – our roads are fine, I was meaning they block the roads and park in driveways, making it impossible for farmers to enter their own farms, or for anyone to just drive down the public road normally. Last year it took me half an hour to drive 5kms because the roads were so crammed with people parking in them.
d) And once again, if you had read properly I think you would have seen at the end of my post how I said people MUST come play in the snow and that it IS a magical thing to experience, but if they could please just please do it with compassion, kindness, patience and respect to private property.
Thanks again for your comment, and happy snow season in Hogsback!
Kez,
I hear you! I just feel that your basic tone and insinuation to the post was that sight-see-er’s should back off and have their holiday fun elsewhere which found a pretty shocking expression for any South African who is proud of their country.
As I said first off- I see your point, and I can’t quite disagree with you, but I was merely pointing out a few additional considerations as well as facts I thought you had perhaps been biased to- just as I could see that my response was probably pretty biased too. Indeed I wholeheartedly agree that people should be considerate. They should indeed not be cutting into fences and ruining the lands with braai’s and littering and general bad behaviour.
I in fact do enjoy your humour but I think we can both agree that this post was anything but humorous or sarcastic. (Although it might have been sarcastic?)
As a point of reference, Hogsback is where I have lived for many years now, and I’m sure they would actually agree with so much you said in your post- I however cannot speak for them since I do not own a farm, or a restaurant and I generally try to avoid making generalisations and speaking for those who can speak for themselves.
If the snowy season leaves so many people ruffled and unhappy, I clearly stepped into this on the wrong foot. Most people do not know the damage they are doing, they don’t know that people cannot get to work- but again- more likely than not- these people will be everywhere.
I see that my comment may have offended you or at least put your back up against the wall (by your “if you had read properly” comments), however putting your opinions in the open leaves them free to disagreement and criticism, which I’m sure you know in any case. Nevertheless I do apologise if I did offend you. Since the Midlands is where you live, you do know more about it, and I on the other-hand do not. And so from my end I wave the white flag- even though I had not intended to argue, but rather point out what I thought to be relevant.
.
X
I just want to add to this thread quickly..
Firstly, I know that most farmers and midlands locals don’t get the CHANCE to go away and invade seaside towns in holiday season/s, we are lucky if and when we get a break because quite honestly we are too busy growing crops and raising animals to put on YOUR tables during those holiday seasons. when we do go its usually in the middle of the year for a little weekend break. There is absolutely NO proof that “littering, feeding the monkeys and having our kids run wild” is MIDLANDS people.. perhaps you should point these fingers at your JHB friends (we have enough monkeys on our own farms and we(and our kids) know better than to litter because we wouldn’t want OUR cows/pigs/chickens eating that litter!
Secondly, being a very close knit and tight community, during snow time we try our best to help one another out! As magical as it is for ND and NP tourists, its tough, hard work and scary for us. Pulling calves in the snow, pulling dead carcasses OUT of the snow, trying to get food to our animals when we’re snowed in- a metre deep in snow, with no warmth, hot water, phone lines etc. is not easy at all.. but you know what. We do it because we have to, because this is OUR livelihood because we put food on your tables- yes that beautiful steak/chicken/lamb shank that’s in your oven probably comes from one of our farms( and was probably a calf/ lamb delivered in the snow or kept warm by a farmers body heat so that it could hatch when there was no power.
Thirdly, when we are. dealing with snow damage-which yes can be extensive for weeks after snow, the last thing we need to be doing is fixing fences that tourists have cut to get into our lands, trampled on and braaied on. also trying to herd cattle away from the main road so that there are no vehicle accidents( as we midlands habitants know-tourists don’t drive very carefully on our snowy roads).
Go leave bitchy comments somewhere else..
Id like to see how you people would react if we all decided on a hot day to park on your lawns and flower beds, set up deck chairs in your gardens, braai in your lawns and let our children reek havoc in your pools. then pack our shit and leave a mess of bottles and litter so sour pets could eat it and get sick.
Not to mention go bitchin at management staff of restaurants when aircons don’t work in humid Durban summer heat.
ALL WE ASK IS CONSIDERATION! By all means, come play in the snow, but understand that its not all winter-wonderlandy for us, its tough, for famers, locals, our labourers and staff of small establishments.
UNDERSTAND that we are in CRISIS! not here to purposefully make your lives “difficult”!!
Realise that ALL actions have consequences!
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