We saw Real Snow!

After funeral (very sad), we stayed with my mum for a while to make sure she was ok.

She said she felt much better the funeral was over… she had been stressed beforehand..

Couldn’t catch up properly with rellies, they were either ill, or busy and had to travel home..

So, got some stuff organised at home and headed off .. destination.. closest snow!

Left Friday, snow not forecast til the following Tuesday night, so went slowly following the Murray River.

Man decided to come at very last second… he couldn’t make a decision and was very strange.. it was a pity as he spoiled our holiday badly.. he should not have come.. quite psychotic really.. but we refused to let him upset us.. (or bully).

Took Dear Mr20 with us.. poor dear man.. he was very angry and upset with the man’s inappropriate behaviour and disrespect toward me and his little brothers and at one stage threatened to snot him one on the nose if he didn’t calm down and stop upsetting everyone. I was/am so proud of him for standing up to his stepfather and expressing his feelings so well (he did that before the snotting threat). But I was the great peacemaker and managed to get them both back to their respective homes uninjured…but that is a whole other story..

We arrived in Bright Tuesday afternoon (I prebooked accom as we went), explored the town (gorgeous place), it was properly cold, and started to rain that evening. It rained madly all night and when I looked up the weather online the rain had turned into snow at about 2 in the morning on the alpine peaks, and there was a few centimetres in places (on top of the man made snow at the ski resorts).

But it was still very windy and was actually a blizzard apparently on the mountains, so we explored Wandiligong nearby til the wind calmed down and then ventured up Mt Buffalo.

The windy mountain road was quite terrifying in my 12 year old station wagon and we were wishing for a 4WD with gears, but the excitement we all felt when we reached 1000 feet and there it was… the real stuff… falling out of the sky.. onto the ground. We stopped as soon as we could and all went crazy. Laughing and standing about with our mouths open and our hands out.

Gathering it up and having snowball fights, making snowmen, snow angels, chucking it at each other. The kids couldn’t get enough of it. It was like a world of playdough to them, all they wanted to do was to play with it, mould it, shape it, throw it, eat it, it was really quite hilarious. Mr 20 was as excited and childlike as Mr8.

Going down the mountain was even more terrifying than going up and we had to stop to let other go past us. The car smelt like it was on fire, the brakes were so hot. But the dear old faithful she got us down and we didn’t have to put on the snow chains we had to carry.

The next day we went to the Alpine Resort of Falls Creek where they have manmade snow, but there was some natural stuff on the top of it still. That was amazing for us, as it was over a foot deep in places and we went tobogganing, on a ski lift and watched skiing and boarding lessons. Mr 8 and 13 ran out of dry socks and gloves and had very cold fingers and toes and were pleased to finally get back to the cabin in Bright and get warm.

We had to leave the next day, the man’s mental health was increasingly bad, and we were all quite frightened of what he would do next, and it gave us time to get home before school started anyway.

I drove almost all the way (there and back). It was tiring, but I was very proud of myself, enjoyed the fuel efficiency and my old car and our GPS (Donald Duck voice – we call him Donald). I took some short cuts that were not on the GPS but they saved us 100s of kms. Dropped off Mr20 after having lunch in Adelaide together (the man had a BAD tantrum as soon as he was out of sight) and drove home.

I drove for over 12 hours that day, along some dirt roads, over rivers, bad bitumen, good freeways, through the city, stopping for fuel, food etc. and we had three hours to go before we got home I asked the man to drive the final bit. He was very reluctant, he knew he was ill, but I was desparately tired, so he did. I was very frightened the whole time, but it was a familiar road for him, and he got us home, midnight Saturday night.

He is getting better now, with his routine and medication and the kids have forgiven him. We had our two magical days in the snow, and I will never forget them.

Amazing stuff.

We want to go back one day, properly, hire some warm snow gear and even have a skiing lesson. Saving up for that one though..

We are all back to routine, it is seeming to be a proper winter for a change, we are actually having rain, and the crops are up and growing. No mice plagues or locusts on our properties… they are a little bit North of us thank goodness, so we have our fingers crossed we get a decent drop AND some decent grain prices, we will need them if we are to have that ‘proper’ holiday!

byee