On Saturday we experienced our first flash flood. It started raining at 5.00am and was still pouring down at 9.00am when I got up! Adam, as all good water engineers do, had the front gate under surveillance and was eyeing up the road to our place with the possibility of launching our inflatable kayak for the first time! By the time I woke up he had it sussed what direction the water was moving in and where it was draining to. As for me, we I was more interested in getting into town to do the shopping we had planned. I figured what could a little rain do to hurt? Right? Wrong!! We donned our rain coats and waterproof walking sandals. I was already ankle deep as I shut the gate. As we drove along the road I began to wonder if it had been such a good idea to go out. The flooding was quite deep and in some places was lapping up around the top of the tyres on the car. The police and fire brigade were out in force keeping the traffic moving slowly. It sounded like we were in a boat not a car due to the lapping sound. Of course this happened on the busiest day in down town Apia, Saturday when everyone is trying to get their shopping done for Sunday lunch. People seemed in high spirits though with their trousers rolled up and an umbrella in hand they continued about their business with a smile on their face.
We managed to make it as far as Farmer Joe’s Supermarket and parked in the car park. All good so far. Decided to go to Frankies next door in search of some furniture. We were looking for some drawers and shelves to unpack our stuff onto. From the top of the Farmer Joe steps I took a few photographs (as you can see on Flickr) and then decided there was no other way but to wade in myself so up rolled the shorts (to show more of my palagi legs!) and in we went. The locals warned me to go easy and I soon found out why. Couldn’t see a thing through the muddy soup also known as water. At one point I took one step too far to the left which was over the curb and nearly ended up waist deep! It was actually fun in a wacky kind of a way. Certainly a novelty for the moment.
No luck at Frankies so we moved on looking for the Big Bear shop we had seen last week. I’m sure the police man on the street corner wondered what those crazy palagi’s were doing as we drove up and down past him trying to figure out where we needed to go. Got there eventually (albeit slowly) and managed to find what we were looking for but guess what? They didn’t take an eftpos card for payment so it was back out onto the street to wade up to the money machine.
After a good 3 hours or so in town we had had enough of that so headed home to have a good wash of the legs and shoes. Decided not to go to the Samoa vs Australia A rugby match on at Apia Park which was probably a good thing considering it looked like a huge mud bath on the TV.
Next time …… I’ll stay home and wait for the waters to subside …… maybe!!
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