Holy Water Batman!

So yesterday we had a first hand experience of what the rains in The Gambia really are like.
The storm started innocuously enough, with a steady, but not incredibly heavy rain.

I really didn't even notice how heavily it was raining, or how much rain had fallen until the power went out.
I only really truly appreciated the quantity of water we were talking about when i got up to go to the bathroom and the path, through the outside garden of the restaurant, was ankle deep with water.

Soon afterwards we had finished our meal and went to leave (poncho ready), when we stepped out into the road and were mid--shin deep in water.
The entire road, from 'curb' to 'curb' was about 6" deep with water, covering the road like a lake. The next surprise came when we got to the nearest intersection, and found where the water was 'draining' to... we had to cross a literal river of water with a current that actually made you have to catch your balance. At times we stepped as deep as our knee into eddys that had been formed, and had to cross 3 main highways/roadways that were completely covered with water.

The true magnitude of the problem only dawns on you when you stop to think about the drainage system here... of which there is none... all the water that falls on the road, rather than entering a storm water system, flows along the top, and sides of the road... of all roads... following the natural depressions of the land, they have a bad habit of combining at the lowest point... which luckily or not for us, is only 400m from our hotel. In front of our hotel, and along the entire width of the road, was a river, flowing at least 6 inches, and in some places a full 12" deep, across the road, where 5 different 'tributary' roads had contributed their water load to ours. I was considering finding a canoe and going for a ride along the road. I would have floated with little trouble.

the true magnitude of the damage was seen this morning when we walked out to find many parts of the road dropped by 3 or even 6 inches in most places, and in some, as deep as 2-3 feet.
I have no idea how the country is able to deal with such an immense amount of water, but this morning, everything was pretty much dry, mind you much civil engineering work was destroyed as alot of the dirt road had washed away and the path is now somewhat treacherous to drive along, but to each their own.

It was incredible!

5 more days, I can't wait to be home again!

Love ya

JP