Caught out

Looks rather pretty doesn’t it. And I might have thought so, except that this photo was taken from our car . . . which was stuck in the snow.

We had planned a trip into Lancashire for a few reasons. There was no snow at all at 9am when we set off and the only forecast was for light sleet showers . . . maybe. It was when we drove over Orton and realised there was a fair bit of snow around, that we decided this was not a good idea. So we made for the M6 and headed home. This bit of the M6 between Tebay and Penrith is a bit we never use, so we thought we would stop and get coffee at the wonderful Service Station that we hadn’t been to for a very long time.

That was when it actually started to snow. We hastened up to Penrith and the A66 home. The snow continued and was even laying on the A66. As we tried to get from Appleby, the snow was getting deeper, traffic almost non-existent, and eventually we realised we could get no further. In the photo you can see a hill and two cars stuck at the bottom. We were about a mile from home and were thinking we had no choice but to attempt to walk there. We had the right clothes, but not footwear, for walking through snow, but also no choice. Then a car came behind us and stopped. A four-wheel drive vehicle and a guy who was going in our direction. We abandoned the car and he gave us a lift home.

By the time we got home it had stopped snowing, but there has been about 4inches (kids were sledging in the field). Then a Gritter truck came by and cleared the road, so Gordon walked back and picked up the car.

Snow is great when you’re at home; not great when you are travelling.