Which Way – The Southern Outlet

Last night the weather forecast was for more snow down to the 300 metre level so I expected that there might be a bit on Vince’s Saddle where I took some photographs recently. I had to go to Hobart today but as the snow was not forecast until later in the day I thought it would be OK to make the trip. Although I was not expecting to take photos at the last minute I picked up the camera bag.

It was a cold wet morning and as the bus travelled through Longley on the way to Hobart I could see that the hills above the township had fresh snow. The rain changed to hail and by the time we reached Kingston which is 11km from Hobart it was hailing very hard. From Kingston the bus travels on the Southern Outlet to Hobart and as we continued the hail turned to sleet. Suddenly I noticed that the road was white, we slowed right down as did all the other  traffic. I saw cars stopped at the side of the road whose owners didn’t want to continue in these conditions.

Normally after the morning rush traffic on the Southern Outlet is not heavy especially going away from Hobart but now cars were banked up as everyone tried to negotiate the icy road and make it down to Hobart safely.

The upside of this was that as we were going so slowly I was able to take photos out of the window without the usual problems of trying to focus.

I made it safely to Hobart but was concerned about whether I would be able to get home again later so after visiting Hubby I rang the bus company to check. The weather had improved by then and all the ice and snow I saw on the road on the way down was gone on the way back although we did have more hail.

Despite being a bit anxious about getting home I was pleased on the whole because now I have a “Which Way” for this week.