We dashed out of our tent into shoe-deep snow to find that nothing had fallen on their tent, but the snow had weighed so heavily on one wall, that it had collapsed. She had gotten a huge fright but thankfully, wasn’t hurt.
Now we had 1 tent out of action and 2 homeless kids. Our tent could only manage 1 more person and, since Z2 refused to sleep in another tent, she opted to sleep in the car while Z1 moved in with us. After eventually settling down – Z2 at one point called for her dad as she was scared and needed company, but he couldn’t leave me with 1 less blanket, so we tried to get some sleep. It was now around 10 pm and the snow was falling fast.
All this excitement was too much for my bladder so, at just before midnight, I made a trek to the ablution blocks through what was now ankle-deep snow. Thankfully the bathroom had hot water so I could at least warm my hands while I washed them, but I seriously don’t recommend using the loo under those conditions.
Of course, the snapping and thudding continued the rest of the night so, by around 6 am, I had had enough, and we started getting our things together thinking we would leave as soon as the sun rose.
Little did we know how wrong we were.
We did what we could to move the warm stuff into the car but after all the drama, it was chaos. Things were piled on the seats, everything was wet and cold, and there seemed to be MORE STUFF than we started with.
Between Anton and Z1 trying to take down the tents in the dark and realising that frozen tents take up a lot more room than unfrozen ones, it was an absolute nightmare. We pulled together and ran back and forth to the bathrooms to get hot water to pour over the tents and through sheer willpower, managed to get the tents and other paraphernalia back into the car.
The snow was now knee-deep, but I was still delusional enough to believe that our little VW Polo Comfortline would be FINE. Of course, it would get us out of there and back home. We had planned to stop in Ceres for breakfast, so we were just trying to leave and celebrate Anton’s 50th birthday. LOLz.
Suffice to say that despite me basically just steering the car while it was coasting down the hill, we got stuck. Under a tree. That was leaning more and more to one side as the snow piled on.
After running back up the hill to the other camper who had also camped overnight but had a caravan and 4×4, he managed to organise a tow, but the guy didn’t have a rope. So, Anton ran to the farmer’s house to arrange a rope and take it back to the camper. But then the camper couldn’t get traction either, so he couldn’t help us.
While Anton ran back to ask the farmer if we could at least shelter in one of the empty cottages, while we waited for a tractor to plough a path out of the snow (he said no), I got onto the phone to Outsurance to see if this emergency qualified as roadside assistance.
What we didn’t yet realise is that during the night, the power went out and that took with it a few surrounding signal towers. It was only when I tried to call and couldn’t get a connection that I realised that this was going to be more difficult than I initially thought. As if it wasn’t difficult enough already!
Outsurance was amazing. Once I got through, I managed to speak to someone long enough to explain the situation and for them to send me a location link so that they could send someone to me before the call cut out again. I used the link but had no idea whether it worked because it looked like it was just loading but it was only once we reached the road that I had confirmation they had received the information they needed.
While we were waiting, I headed to the bathroom again and, just as I came out, I had an huge crack and looked over to see 2 massive pine tree branches crash onto the spots we had just removed our tents. This was about 20 minutes after we had left our camping spot. We are so thankful to God for keeping those branches where they were until we had safely moved away.
I had never been towed in this car before, so I had no idea that my tow hook in the front of the car was hidden by my bumper. So, after the tractor cleared a path, the guys had to attach a chain to the hook at the back of the car and tow me backward through the snow to get me to the road. What a hair-raising experience. I do not recommend learning how to steer backward using your side mirrors mentally calculating which way you need to turn the wheel while being hauled up a hill.
We made it to the farm’s electric gates only to have to stop again since boiling water was needed to unfreeze the lock, to switch the gate to manual, so that it could be pulled open.
Once we finally made it to the road, we got the fright of our lives when it became evident that our problems had not come to an end. You see when you watch movies about snowy locations, there are usually snow ploughs that come to clear the roads. There was no such thing on Bo Swaarmoed! The only cars that could make it through were ones with the clearance to follow the path created by the 4x4s that had come before.
Fortunately, the Outsurance guy was there but, instead of the tow truck or flatbed I had requested, he was standing there with his Isuzu! I had been hauled backward up a hill by a tractor but could not do the same down a pass with a bakkie!
He came to my window and said that he needed to get a gadget out of my boot so that he could access the tow loop at the front of the car. He wants to access the boot of my car where the boot lock doesn’t work, in a car piled to the rafters with kids and blankets. After making sure I understood this was the only option, we unpacked the kids’ laps, then the kids, then the backseat in the middle of Bo Swaarmoed Road so that we could unpack the boot to get to the spare wheel section and get him the gadget.
Somewhere in amongst all this chaos I also accidentally ran my battery flat while trying to keep the windscreen clear so I could see what was going on and needed a jumpstart from the tractor but anyway…
After we packed everything back into the car we were on our way. Down the pass as fast as possible while I tried to steer despite having no control. At one point I went into a full skid but was only kept on the road by the snowbanks on either side of the road. It was TERRIFYING!
The Isuzu finally slowed down and stopped to say that he thought I would be okay from that point. I thanked him profusely and gingerly tried accelerating to see if I had sufficient grip to continue.
After carefully steering around other cars stopped on the side of the road packed with snow hunting day trippers, we made it into the town of Ceres safely. We were starving at the point having had nothing to eat since 6 pm the previous evening and it now going on for 10 am but we just wanted to go home so we continued driving.
Having come via the Huguenot Tunnel to get to Ceres, we were surprised that the GPS was sending us via Bain’s Kloof Pass but I was honestly barely holding onto my sanity and just went with it. I had completely forgotten how long and full of hairpin bends this bloody pass is and, on very little sleep, I was a tangled ball of stress by the time I reached the bottom. As we continued through the other small town and eventually reached Stellenbosch, I was surprised to find my feet were aching. It seemed as if the adrenaline finally wore off enough for me to notice my socks were soaked.
It seemed like it took forever but we finally arrived home safely, and after unpacking the car, I think we all just immediately got showered and dressed into warm clothes before falling onto the couch to try and process everything we’d been through.
Suffice it to say we’ve done this snow thing properly, so we never have to do anything like it ever again.
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