The Great Escape

We woke up to more snow this morning. The cottage doesn't have a Tv, working radio, or mobile phone reception so we felt really cut off from the outside world. The last forecast we saw before leaving home was for sleet today but the snow had been falling all night and was still falling and the high winds were making it drift and bank up steeply against the cottage. I started to feel a bit panicky that we were going to get trapped with very little food and a dwindling supply of firewood in a freezing cold cottage!

The bathroom in the cottage is practically outside as you have to go through the barn attached to the house to get to it. It was the last straw when I opened the kitchen door to find that the snow had drifted in under the barn door! We decided to cut our losses and head home, but the road leading out of the village was looking dodgy and a neighbour advised us to wait until the afternoon when the snow plough would have been through. All the time the snow was falling!

The postman attempted to get up the lane but started to go sideways as he was passing our car and got stuck. Mr EG is unable to drive after his operation so I had to try and move our car so he could go past safely. It was skidding everywhere and I really struggled to get it back off the road - it was really scary and I started to feel panicky about getting out.

We rang a friend to check on travel news on the house phone and he advised that the M6 was shut and the A1 was shut which pretty much scarpered our plans to get home. We didn't fancy getting stuck in the car on the motorway, but we didn't want to be trapped at the cottage either as it is just too remote and we didn't have enough food or fuel for the fire for an indefinite period. Thankfully our friends Paul and Fi offered us a bed for the weekend an hours drive east, where there was no snow at all. We managed to get the car up to the A66 and then 10 mins on from there the snow cleared. What an adventure!

We stopped on the way over at Allen Banks - and had a very cold but beautiful walk with the dogs along the riverbefore arriving at Paul and Fis and a nice warm welcome. Toby loved this suspension bridge over the river.