Travel Reference
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bling as each thunder clap boomed overhead. It sounded incredibly ferocious out there and
was made even more frightening as it was amplified by the metal roller blind. Jack peered
through the slats.
“It's getting worse by the minute,” he announced. “God, I hope our car's going to be
okay. I'd go out to check on it but…”
“You'd never even make it to the end of the corridor in the pitch black. And even if
you did you'd risk being struck by lightning or injured by a hailstone. They sound like
monsters. Please don't even think about going outside.”
“Yup, my thoughts exactly.”
We had never experienced a storm like this before. The wind, loaded with rain and
hailstones, was screaming by now and lashed the side of the building with a relentless
force. It raged for over two hours, leaving any thoughts of sleep out of the question. Instead,
we cat-napped, wincing every time debris was hurled against the shutters, pummelling the
metal.
At around 6:00am the clamour abruptly stopped, leaving behind a kind of surreal
calmness. Poor Jack couldn't stand it any longer. He grabbed some clothes and rushed out
to check on the car. I washed and dressed and was preparing to take the dogs out when he
reappeared, his face white as a sheet.
“The bloody car's practically a write-off!”
In situations like this my normal response was to say something like “Oh do stop ex-
aggerating,” but just one look at him made me realise that this time it really was serious. I
put on my jacket and followed him out into the early morning where the temperature had
dropped over twenty degrees. As we walked to the parking area I couldn't believe my eyes.
There were piles of hailstones banked up against the sides of the building. This in itself
isn't so extraordinary after a storm but it was the size of them that shocked me. The smal-
lest looked like a golf ball. They were already steaming and melting in the early morning
sun so they must have been even bigger when the full force of the storm hit. I dragged my
eyes away from the ice mounds to look at the side of the building that had borne the brunt
of the wind. I could barely comprehend what I was looking at. Every exposed window was
either cracked or broken. What a mess. No wonder the electricity had been cut!
With mounting dread I followed Jack to see what was left of our estate car. Luckily
he had parked it in what transpired to have been a relatively sheltered spot but the damage
nevertheless was extensive. The bonnet (later declared a write-off) and roof were covered
with tennis ball sized indentations. The tailgate rear-light plastic lenses had been smashed
to smithereens and were strewn on the ground. The windscreen had two cracks, but at least
was intact.
Poor Jack had a look of devastation on his face, his pride and joy was almost com-
pletely destroyed. Fortunately he is extremely practical and steely in a crisis. Setting-to im-
