ALLOW THE URBANITES TO BREATHE AGAIN

As a plattelander, I’m really very pleased that we finally have our own magazine – one that fills everyone who reads it with nostalgia.

We live in Breyten, Mpumalanga, near the source of the Vaal River, but the cows and chickens that scramble out of the way of cars here are more of a nuisance for us handful of gardeners, as they damage our gardens! Nothing around here looks quite as romantic as the spreads in Platteland, except when Ben and Winnie Oelofse put up their Christmas lights every year…

We do, however, have the most beautiful sunsets and one of the most beautiful landscapes in South Africa, but it is difficult to open it up to the public, as so many people don’t respect your property.

For a long time I didn’t really understand why people from the city would book the chalet and stone house next to our dam and then drive 230km to come and find peace under the night sky, but you only have to experience rush-hour traffic on a Friday afternoon in Pretoria once to be reminded that open spaces, clean air and peace are actually free.

We plattelanders should try harder to give city folk access to our secret treasures. Make sure your accommodation is comfortable and keep your rates affordable, because then they’ll return – this time perhaps with friends and family. It is platteland hospitality and God’s cathedral – the blue sky by day and the stars at night – that allow those urbanites to breathe deeply so they can return to the concrete jungle with renewed vigour.