Dinner by ice

So last night we popped out to town for an evening meal. Neil volunteered to drive and everything seemed hunky dory. Blizzards were forecast, but, you know, we’re pretty tough. Think Ray Mears and Bear Grylls with higher tea consumption.

On the way back, Neil claimed to have done his 50% of driving – (I think secretly the dark blizzard snow driving gave him the heebie jeebies) so I drove back.

Now, it might have been Fleetwood Mac’s ‘The Chain’ we played earlier or possibly the awesomeness of using every forward facing light OR being able to use the all of the empty road to take the straightest possible course, but I was feeling very Colin McRae. I could almost hear co driver Nicky Grist in his Welsh accent…. ‘hairpin right into hairpin left, into straight 100, crest into 10 left, rocks inside don’t cut.’

Of course, quite often, this resulted in the TV cutting to some late 90s home footage of a Ford Focus WRC car rolling end over end. He was nicknamed Colin McCrash after all. Least he gave it 110% every time. Perhaps he wasn’t the best person to have in mind.

Point was, not that you can fully appreciate from this video, occasionally (and often very suddenly), the snow came down so thick and fast that you literally couldn’t see anything. You’re already steering into the wind to stay straight. Someone may as well have put a dust sheet over the screen. The lights lit nothing but the snow directly on them. Now you’re steering left (for example) to stay straight but completely blind – just like a rally driver.

So there you go. If you come to Iceland in the winter and fancy driving in storms, give Mr Grist a call.