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Published: November 16th 2009
Big Snow Fall at Home!
7th Feb, 2009. London.Winter, 2009
It was an incredibly long, cold winter in London. At the end of October, just after Rupesh and I moved in to a place of our own in North London, we had a light dusting of snow. Quite unusual apparently for October. Then in January it got so cold that the ponds in Hampstead Heath including the ones that people swim in, iced over. It was entertaining watching the ducks and other birds as they tried to negotiate walking on the ice. Some of them were sliding all over the place! Check out the video!
In February, when Victoria had the worst bushfires in history we were having the biggest snowfall in London in 20 years. It was absolutely incredible. It started snowing on Sunday evening on the 1st February and just didn't stop for almost 24hours. On Monday morning London came almost completely to a standstill. There was a foot or more of snow everywhere the next morning. Not one single london bus left the depot and there were lots of delays/cancellations of tubes/trains. Almost all flights out of all the london airports were cancelled or severely delayed! I turned up at 9am to work Monday
Iced Over Pond
Hampstead Heath, London and was the only one there. I don't have to travel far - I didn't ride my bike because I couldn't through the snow but I was able to catch the tube because the section I travel on is all underground. Only 2 other people showed up at work later in the morning. We couldn't see any clients because transport were unable to pick anyone up because of the snow on the roads. Rupesh was sent home at 2pm because they closed his building - worried that people wouldn't be able to get home as it continued to snow all day Monday. And then...Rupesh had the whole day off Tuesday because they told people not to come in to work! There was still so much snow that they were worried about people becoming stranded. Kids were out everywhere building snowmen and throwing snow balls.
Through winter I continued to kayak with the Richmond Canoe Club. I don't even usually paddle in the winter in Melbourne so paddling over here was going to be a lot colder. My standard kit was - thermal top and bottom, neoprene socks with neoprene shoes over the top, another layer on top of the
Duck Walking on Ice!
Hampstead Heath, London thermals, waterproof jacket, beanie, gloves and life jacket! It's any wonder I could still move my arms to paddle. The marathon paddling season here is over winter. People planning to paddle the DW (Devizies to Westminster) over Easter have to train through the winter. There are definitely a couple of paddling sessions which stick in my mind - we paddled up to Teddington Lock from the club and the water on the other side of the lock was frozen! During a Sunday session when did a touring trip to one of the canals we were ploughing through sheets of ice which is not a very pleasant sound and hitting the ice with your paddle is also not a very pleasant feeling! It was on a similarly cold day that we had snow and rain and near the end of the paddle just after we had completed a portage (carried the kayak around a lock), my partner and I misjudged a cross current and fell in! It definitely took our breath away - so much so that my partner couldn't speak for what seemed like a good minute or so. Thankfully it was less than 1km until the end of the
Skiing in Chamonix
Elizabeth, Lou & Bern paddle. It took a long time to warm up even after I put on a set of dry clothes.
With Bern and Elizabeth only a short flight away in France I was able to make it out to the slopes a couple more times in the season. I'd fly in to Geneva and the girls would meet me at the airport - it was then only just over an hours drive the resort of Les Gets in the French Alps. During one trip we even tried Ice Diving in a lake not far from the resort.
Looking foreward to it warming up a bit!
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