My first time in the snow as an adult was actually a really fun day that I often reflect on fondly. I was on my last boat earlier on in the year in Italy and had a really nice chief officer who was from Canada. She was obsessed with the snow and was very good at snowboarding.

After a while of getting to know each other, she ended up inviting me on one of her snow trips before the snow completely melted and of course I said yes. I didn’t like the idea of getting up really early to go and when the time came and my alarm went off at 5am, I almost texted my chief officer to go without me. But I knew that I would regret it if I didn’t go.

So with a groan and a huge effort to get up and out of bed in the chilly morning on my rare day off, I got all dressed and ready and packed my bag to head off to my day in the snow. The plan was to take a trip to France, Isola 2000, which was roughly a three hour drive. It was obviously still dark outside but once I was out and in the cool air, I was suddenly energised to take the long trip, especially knowing I could nap whilst my chief officer had her fun on her snowboard.

Once in the car, I felt dazed and ready to fall asleep again, but forced myself to stay up to make conversation; until we reached the bottom of the mountain in France and it was a complete half an hour or forty minutes of a constant spiral until we reached the top. I do tend to get car sick quite easily and did not enjoy the spiral going up…until I blinked my eyes open and saw tiny snowflakes falling down. I was suddenly feeling more and more awake the closer we reached our destination and was in utter awe of the snow along the side of the road. I think the sight of my child-like awe was amusing to my chief officer as well because she kept laughing, in a nice way.

Once we had reached the top, I was jumping around in the snow, touching it with my hands (it was freezing) and had a couple of pictures taken. My chief officer told me it’s mostly interesting to take a South African to the snowy mountains to see their reaction for the first time; I suppose I was a good prime example of that.

When we arrived, it was blizzarding, the sky was dark and moody and the snow was coming down “heavy.” But it wasn’t heavy, it was soft, sweet cool little kisses from the sky that melted on my clothes, in my hair. It was so amazing to witness for the first time.

I was also borrowing my chief officer’s winter clothes because I didn’t have warm enough stuff of my own to even survive one day in the snow and she found it hilarious the way I had placed the beanie on my head. It felt like summer and winter were hanging out for the first time (I was summer and she was winter).

This is only part one of the story, part two is coming soon!