The sky ahead looked black as we drove towards home in the Campo after a busy morning in Cartagena. “Do you think it is going to rain?” asked Sharon. “No,” came the confident reply.
The ice storm began soon afterwards. The hail appeared from nowhere, suddenly hammering furiously onto the car in a dark rage from the gloomy clouds. These were not specks of ice but pebbles about half an inch across and it was as if they were being fired by a madman’s shotgun. The noise was terrific, crackling splats on the windscreen and a crazy drumming on the metal.
The windscreen wipers fought to keep the ice clear but the danger of the glass shattering seemed very real. We stopped right in the middle of a track and sat as the crazy ice tattoo beat itself ever harder. But after several minutes there was no let up and we decided to crawl along home. The car crept ahead with the ice still crashing all around. The road was covered with stones of ice.
Eventually we arrived home and parked but it was impossible to leave the car. We sat and waited for another 15 minutes until, gradually, the storm began to slacken. Drifts of hail were piled around and a torrent of water rushed down the track. Patches of blue appeared in the sky. After another 10 minutes or so it was all over.
“I’ve never seen anything like it in all the time I have lived in Spain,” said Sharon as we left the car and made it into the house.
***
©Phillip Bruce 2009.
The ice storm began soon afterwards. The hail appeared from nowhere, suddenly hammering furiously onto the car in a dark rage from the gloomy clouds. These were not specks of ice but pebbles about half an inch across and it was as if they were being fired by a madman’s shotgun. The noise was terrific, crackling splats on the windscreen and a crazy drumming on the metal.
The windscreen wipers fought to keep the ice clear but the danger of the glass shattering seemed very real. We stopped right in the middle of a track and sat as the crazy ice tattoo beat itself ever harder. But after several minutes there was no let up and we decided to crawl along home. The car crept ahead with the ice still crashing all around. The road was covered with stones of ice.
Eventually we arrived home and parked but it was impossible to leave the car. We sat and waited for another 15 minutes until, gradually, the storm began to slacken. Drifts of hail were piled around and a torrent of water rushed down the track. Patches of blue appeared in the sky. After another 10 minutes or so it was all over.
“I’ve never seen anything like it in all the time I have lived in Spain,” said Sharon as we left the car and made it into the house.
***
©Phillip Bruce 2009.
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