Approaching storm

It was forecast to be a day of mixed weather, sunshine and snow. It certainly turned out to be exactly that - one minute it was sunny with bright skies, and the next moment the sky darkened dramatically and it started snowing. After breakfast we planned to go photograph the reflections on the beach, but due to all the snow yesterday there was nowhere to park as the lay-by was deep in snow. We drove on and noticed the sky darkening over the Devil's Teeth, so we pulled in, parked and quickly went down to the rock pools to photograph the approaching storm. There was so much snow it was difficult to get there, at one point I was thigh deep in snow! The sky was changing dramatically, the waves were crashing over into the rock pools, and soon we could not see the mountains and it started snowing again.

As the snow was coming down very heavily we decided to photograph a pretty little hut in the snowfall - see extra. The snow was coming down so thickly we all got covered in snow, and even my camera was white with snow (thankfully all of us had weather sealed cameras). It was a short walk in deep snow down a bank to get there, and then back up again to get to the car. 

We felt that we deserved a coffee after that, but then disaster struck. As we were driving to the supermarket to get coffee - there is no cafe around here and the supermarkets have free flasks of brewed coffee for all shoppers - a car came past very fast and very close to our vehicle and we were pushed off the road to avoid colliding with it, and ended up with one wheel in a deep snow filled ditch. It was impossible to get the car out, all the men were pushing as hard as they could but the car kept skidding on the snow. Only one passerby stopped to see if we needed help :( We decided that everyone would be driven to the warmth of the supermarket instead of standing around on the road, so Mark (one of the photo leaders) took turns to take all of us there in his vehicle. Lee tried to get help from the car hire company, they were less than useless, there was no tow truck nearby, but eventually they managed to borrow a tow rope from the cashier in the supermarket and Mark pulled Lee's car out with his vehicle and the men ably assisting and pushing. 

By now it was sunny and blue skies again, so we were collected from the supermarket and then set off to photograph some places en route to Hamn. As we got near Hamn the sky started darkening once again - see last extra - and when we arrived in Hamn there was a dramatic sky of a sunset with a snow and hail storm - such wild weather! The temperature had dropped from -2C earlier in the day to -9C and I only managed to shoot for a short while before my hands became painful and numb so I sat in the warmth of the vehicle and watched the sun setting with snow blowing against the car.

We got back late to the hotel and I have quickly uploaded this before going off to supper.