We had another 145 miles to cover before we reached our destination, already it had been slower than we planned, now the weather seemed to be settling in for a huge storm; and we were right in the middle of nowhere.

Well at least our SatNav was working, and it was unaffected by the weather, telling us, hey your still on the right road.

Then the heavens just exploded, lightening was legging it all over the place, and I am sorry SatNav, you might be able to, but I cannot see through this torrential rain. Julie was begining to become nervous, too much lightening, and little vision, and the night was closing in. She screamed as streak of lightening skimmed across our VW and struck a tree on the otherside of the road. "Phew!" I exclaimed as I marvelled at its awdome power, Julie told me to not be flippant and keep my eyes on the road.

The route we had taken was supposed to be the shortest, and it cut through the Stallion Hills, either side were huge ascending banks coverd with dark Pines. I must admit I was nervous as my vision was now a small window of headlight as the wiper blades crossed my eyeline. Even the road appeared to be a sheet of water with more running down the embankments.

"I am scared, we have not seen another car for ages." Julie said, expecting some reassuring reply from me. All I could utter was "Hmm!" She then asked, "We should stop, find a motel or something."

I had already keyed in a search of hotels, guest houses etc. the nearest was 50 miles in our direction, I did not tell Julie, just said "It will clear soon." Though I was worried that this road might be flooded soon as water is now running along the road like a river.

There were several lightening flashes, all the seemed preoccupied with the area we were travelling. It was at this point where I felt a real unease, when all of a sudden a man dressed in a police offcers clothing appeared in the car headlights. I slammed our brakes on, just at the same time as a lightening strike hit a tall tree that collapsed right where we would have been if we had not been stopped. However the Police officer had  disappeared, I stepped out of the car to seek his help, but he was nowhere around. I walked to the front of the car and was shocked to find an officers cap on the roadway, soaking wet. I picked it up and wondered where he could be. Rather than become soaked I returned to the car with the officers cap in my hand.

"Looks like we have no choice." I told Julie, "We will have to sit it out now the road is blocked." Julie seemed happy with that having been scared out of her skin by the falling tree.

The storm passed after an hour, only it was now cold and dark. I had called the emergency services for advice, they had said to sit tight.

We were relieved that in the distance we could see the flashing lights of a police patrol car. When it appeared a roadworks team had also arrived with cutting gear to clear the tree.

An officer walked across to our car, "That was a very lucky escape sir." He said, referring to the fallen tree not a five feet from our car, I told the officer that another police officer had stopped us just in the nick of time. He asked where he was, and was surprised when I told him, "He was nowhere to be found, but I found his cap on the road in front of our car."

The officer looked at the cap in a moment of stunned silence. He called his collegue across, then informed us, "Sir this cap belongs to a traffic patrol officer who was killed in this spot by a falling tree some nine years ago. Julie and I looked at him in shock. Then the officer said, "Officer Berry has done this before on this streatch of the road, the last time he appeared was two years ago. All I could reply was, "B-But he is dead?"