So today we were like a geriatric version of those crazy people - we didn't have a fancy van or a satellite dish, but we did have a camera and a whole lot of 60's music in our faithful Renault Duster, Feather. And we were chasing a weather pattern - but it was snow, not twisters.
Pete followed Snowwatch on Facebook all morning, and as we sat in our warm house, he kept updating me - "It's snowing on Sani Pass", "It's snowing at Himeville" "It's snowing at Impendle", "It's snowing on Bulwer Mountain." It was, too - see the photos on Facebook.
So after lunch we set off to chase the snow ourselves. As we drove up past Hilton, Pete remarked that it was lighter over towards the mountains, and sure enough, there was even a patch of blue sky.
Well, by the time we reached the Dargle turnoff it was even lighter, and as we got closer to Impendle, there were little gaps when the sun shone. Impendle mountain (can't remember its real name) was dramatic against the sky, but all the snow (if there was any) had melted.
As we came round a corner towards Impendle itself, the vista opened out into bright sunlight - breathtaking!
We drove as far as Bulwer, with the blue sky getting brighter and bluer, and not a flake of snow to be seen. We stopped at the Pickle Pot for coffee and scones and heard we were the last in a long string of snow chasers, who had given up and kept the cafe busy all day.
It made us think of the times we piled the kids in the car and rushed off to let them play in the sparse snow on the side of the road - such a treat for we South Africans, for whom snow is a rarity and something amazing and magical. We remembered a week we were staying with Jen in Dundee, when we took the 4 girls (Sarah, Nic, Vonnie and Nadia) to Glencoe to play in the snow. I remembered the first night I moved to Dundee (Pete was doing an army camp) - 7 months pregnant and fresh from the coast with no warm clothes to fit over the bump that was Sarah - and getting out of bed to see the snow falling - and going back to bed and crying! We remembered the holiday in Australia when we arrived in Sydney to hear that it had snowed in Pietermaritzburg, and Sarah and Nic were livid because we had missed something exciting at home - again! Then as we drove into the Blue Mountains the next morning, it started snowing and the kids were a little mollified! We remembered the day in London - just after our 25th wedding anniversary - when we came out of Harrods and wondered what all the smuts in the air were, before we realised it was snow.
Snow IS magical - and even though we didn't see any today - the photos are from Facebook - chasing it brought us lots of memories.
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