A dramatic day........adventure before the real adventure !

It’s been an exciting if slightly harrowing day ! Thank the Lord for John and Julia who managed, with the aid of a tractor, lots of salt and a shovel, to clear one route out of Littlebeck and then move my car for me up the snowy and icy hill out of the village ! It was with a sense of dread I opened the curtains this morning  and yet another layer of snow added to yesterday’s blanket. I truly thought that it was a fete accompli and Australia was receding into the distance ! Anyhow the miraculous Weeks’ got me out and on my way.

The roads in Yorkshire were adequate and the temp around 0 degrees, but the further south I drove the lower the temperature plummeted and the more the blizzards blew until it was - 7 on the lower section of the M1. My windscreen washing squirter was permanently frozen so it was often impossible to see out of the heavily salted windscreen, so stopping every 10 miles or so was mine, and hundreds of other drivers only option. Then to cap it all there was serious congestion on the M1 so we sat in a traffic snarl up for around two hours moving only 5 miles or so. At this point I had given up ever reaching the south !

By the time I reached Leicester Forest East Services Sara called to tell me that they were snowed in and in the process of sending all boarders home, and closing the school. It became increasingly obvious that I would not get to rural Sussex and that the hideous weather was dogging my entire journey ! After much discussion we decided that she couldn’t be sure that taking me to Heathrow on Saturday morning would be a possibility so it was best, though sad because I wouldn’t see the family, to book into a Heathrow hotel from now until my early start on Saturday morning. I stopped 

at a Starbucks with free WiFi and managed to find a hotel online which had some free rooms for tonight, and Thursday and Friday night. There were so many folk trying to find hotel rooms because of the weather so I was very lucky to grab a room ! As I was bringing my cases into the hotel the blizzard began again and the temperature plummeted yet further, but I knew I was warm and safe and very near the airport !

I noticed as I drove into the hotel car park, that a Polish shop was opposite the hotel, so tomorrow I shall explore that with a view to cheaper lunch and dinner options ! Three days of hotel meals is rather an addition to the pre planned holiday expenses ! That’s about it, it’s been a very tiring day but I can rest all day tomorrow if I choose.......Ah.

On the road from Whitby to Teesside A171 - quite challenging.......but I did it !

Salted windscreen in a traffic jam.......M1 around Rotherham