Journeys to remember as we wait for the light to return
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For the first time in many years I won’t be making the usual January trip south to cheer mum up in the darkest days of winter. She passed away in October at the grand old age of 100.
She lived until she was 95 in the little village of Winton, just a few miles as the curlew flies from Ravenseat, the Yorkshire farm of TV fame.
I’d usually take the car down as she liked a run out, even when she had moved to a nearby care home. I’ll miss those wintry drives over the Durham moors to Middleton-in-Teesdale for a coffee and a slice of carrot cake!
I’m usually fairly savvy with weather, and would try to choose a time when there wouldn’t be any major road difficulties. The only time I had to spend an unplanned night in Edinburgh was when I’d taken the train and, on the return journey, the west coast line was shut because a freight train had failed on Shap. But there were still some interesting journeys.
On one occasion I set off north in the late morning, planning to stop in Edinburgh. I wasn’t too worried by a snowy forecast as there was nothing more than a downpour of rain and even high on the fell early that morning it had only been sleeting. But I hadn’t realised that a little low pressure centre was crossing Carlisle and so, to the north, the air was much colder and the rain was falling as snow.
My second mistake was to turn off the motorway onto the A7, thinking this might give an easier drive in the heavy snow. It got slower and slower and I only just made it over the big hill out of Hawick, a lorry stuck just ahead of me but I managed to squeeze past with spinning wheels. The journey took over five hours.
Another time I set off north knowing well the weather was worsening, I had winter tyres, sleeping bag, shovels, food and hot drinks but did not know how long Drumochter would remain open. Staying in the fast lane I hurried, overtaking long queues of slow traffic between Stirling and Perth.
Beyond Bruar the road climbed towards a layer of haze where falling wet snow became dry spindrift blowing like dense fog over the higher stretches of the road as gritters worked to keep the drifts from building up.
With number-plates caked in snow there was no worry about speed cameras, if indeed it had been possible to do more than 40! It was still snowing hard in Inverness but I could now risk stopping for my first break since leaving Cumbria. Further north came vicious squalls of hail which almost risked shot-blasting the paint from the car.
A few years ago I chose a fine, frosty day for the drive down, an interlude between days of falling snow. The screenwash had frozen but it always soon thaws out – except this time when the temperature stayed below -7 till south of Glasgow.
It was a nightmare journey of sundazzle and spray coating the windscreen needing frequent stops to wipe it clear with snow. Beyond Penrith and just 20 miles from my destination, I stopped for the last time in a layby and discovered there was, at last, a trickle of water from the nozzles.
I’ve turned off to visit Arria, the angel of Cumbernauld, on a January morning of gales and heavy rain which had blown cars off the road on Beattock. One sparkling day I set off southwards early enough to allow a detour off the M74 to Tinto, with a climb to the 2300-foot summit in crisp frost and miraculous views over the border country lit by low winter sun.
On another lovely morning of frost with snow on the tops I made it up 2700-foot Ben Vrackie above Pitlochry on my journey north.
Train journeys would begin with leaving home at 5.30am for a four-mile walk in the dark to Georgemas, to doze on the 7am train till it got light around Lairg. I’d nip out for a newspaper at Inverness, read it up the Slochd, eat my sandwiches around Perth and then doze again through Fife before a quick walk around Princes Street Gardens ahead of the fast train down to Carlisle.
Likely I’d look out at blowing snow or rain and spray on the motorway and be glad I wasn’t driving!
Of course, this January nobody much can travel. But hopefully I’ll find some excuse to get away again in future years during the darkest days of winter!
