The White-out

A good few years ago, maybe twenty or more, my husband and I experienced something which has us baffled to this day. We have no idea if it was paranormal or not - only that it was extremely weird, and so far, nobody can give us a reasonable explanation for. Therefore, I am throwing it out there, in the hopes that someone wise on the YGS forum can help us out.

It was a cold winter's night on the Highveld here in South Africa. The stars shone brightly in the crisp indigo sky. We were on our way to visit my brother Rob in Norkempark. For some forgotten reason, we didn't have any of the girls with us, which in itself strikes me as strange now.

We had already crossed into Kempton Park territory and were nearing our destination, traveling down a suburban road with houses to our right and a wide expanse of veldt to our left. We were chatting sporadically and listening to the radio. Suddenly, we noticed a large cloud of smoke, looming ahead of us. I remember us commenting that there must be a huge veldt fire in the vicinity - nothing uncommon in winter here. As we drove into the smoke, which hung over the entire road, an eerie silence engulfed us. Instantly, our vision was cut off. Ray, my husband, braked the car so unexpectedly that I was jolted forward against the safety belt. We had encountered a "white-out"!

We sat in the absolute silence for a couple of seconds, looking askance at one another. We waited a few minutes for a break in the smoke, but none appeared. Ray eventually climbed out of the car, exclaiming in surprise as he did so. Outside the car was clear - no trace of smoke, nor smell of a veldt fire. All the car windows were completely white on the outside, those in front more densely than the rear windows. Ray tried rubbing the windscreen with his jacket sleeve (isn't that just like a man?), but the white stuff was stuck.

Ray swore as he climbed back into the car, rummaging in the cubby-hole for something to clean the windscreen with. Our old stand-by, a roll of toilet paper, was still in its place. After furious scrubbing for what seemed ages, Ray finally cleared enough of the somewhat oily, gooey white mess, to see sufficiently to complete our journey to Rob's house. As soon as we pulled away from that spot on the road, sounds and lights returned to normal - it was as if we had been cut off from the rest of the world as we sat there in that white cocoon.

When we arrived at Rob's house, the men had to wash the car windows with hot water and dish-washing liquid to remove whatever it was. Rob was extremely intrigued by our tale, saying that he had never heard anything like it before, nor had he any suggestions as to what the substance could be.

If anybody out there has had a similar experience or any suggestions as to what happened, please let me know. I once heard the word "ectoplasm" creep into the conversation, when I recounted my tale, but I discounted this explanation as a bit too "far out".