Rehana Rossouw
A group of Cape Town hikers are outraged by a local farmer’s wife who refused to help them after they were forced to abandon a hike on the snow-capped Overberg mountain range two weeks ago.
The party of 17 had slept overnight in a hut owned by the Burger family of the farm Protea, near Montagu. But when they turned to the family for assistance after discovering they could not proceed because of icy conditions, they were snubbed.
“Although we can’t prove it, we had the gut feeling that the only reason they would not help us was because we were not white,” said Brent Williams, an Athlone attorney.
Elize Burger said although her family provided accommodation for hikers, it could not be expected to take responsibility for every group.
The two-day hike on the Arangieskop Trail began without incident and the hikers — who traverse mountains together at least twice a year — walked up the mountain in sunny conditions and spent the Saturday evening in the luxurious hut built by Neil Burger and leased to the Robertson municipality.
By noon on Sunday, the group decided they could not continue as the snow on the peak of the mountain had turned to ice and obliterated all signs of the path leading the way down and back to their cars in Robertson.
“We decided to go back to the hut because some of the less experienced hikers in the group were getting nervous and it did not look safe at all to continue,” said another member of the group, Craig McLeod.
“Before we went down, one of the guys called the Burger farm on his cellphone to ask if they could help us get back to our cars if we climbed down to their farm.
“We could not go back the way we came because the guidelines for the trail supplied by the Robertson municipality warn explicitly that we should not do so. That route was also too steep to attempt in the icy conditions.”
Curt Warrin called the farm and said he was surprised by the cool reception from Elize Burger. “She asked me why we didn’t go back to where we came from.
“When I explained that the route was snowed under, she said she would have to ask her husband if they could help us. But she said we should come down anyway.”
Another member of the Burger family met the party as they arrived at the farm, and Williams explained their predicament. “He told us Robertson was about 40km away and we should start walking to our cars,” Williams said.
“We weren’t asking for charity, we would have paid for the cost of the petrol if the man had helped us, but he remained completely nonplussed. All he did was show us the direction of the main road.”
The party hitch-hiked and was eventually helped by a family who had just left the Burger farm.
“What outraged us completely was that we had paid to do the trail. Besides the fact that one would expect some help from a fellow human being,” Warrin said.
Burger said she had suggested to Warrin, when he called her from the top of the mountain, that they went back the way they came. She was surprised when they did not do so and arrived at the farm.
She said it was her son who directed them to the main road. He could not take them to their cars as he had a previous appointment.
“I will help anyone in an emergency situation. My judgment was this was not an emergency, so I had no responsibility towards these people.”