The logistical challenges of snow

Our minds last week were preoccupied with snow logistics. How to reverse out of the garage without sliding sideways down the driveway, for example. Or if we got out and down the road, how would we get back? Would Vinces Saddle (the highest point of the highway between Hobart and the Huon Valley) be closed or have black ice? Maybe we could walk down the hill and get a lift or catch the bus? Who gets to take the 4WD?

I am certain that the people I mentioned this to thought we were pathetic mainlanders* or just making it up. It last snowed a few days ago and down in the valley life has returned to normal. It has been sunny and warm(er). But up here, very little of the snow has melted. Instead, overnight frosts and sub-zero temperatures have turned it into hard, slippery blocks of ice.

So this afternoon I drove the two-wheel drive car back from Hobart in the glorious winter sunshine. As I came over the last hill, there was our place, still completely white! I stopped the car in the driveway and David made a couple of attempts to get the car in the garage for me, but the ice was too slippery. We parked the car and started to unload the shopping, when the car started moving! It slid backwards down the driveway to its current resting place in front of the water tank. There it will have to stay until the ice melts.

I think our caution and conservatism on snowy roads is a good thing. As I ventured into Hobart on Wednesday afternoon, only a few hundred metres down our road we encountered a woman in a two-wheel drive Camry who had slid backwards into a ditch and was unable to get out. What was she thinking? And to all those people whinging about the road to Mt Wellington being closed at Fern Tree - get out and walk if you'd like to see snow. It will be safer for you and your family.

* A term used by Tasmanians to refer to Australians who live on the 'north island' :-)