Don’t bring cars down Frangipani alley after it has been raining.
From Jan's letter home Dec 1976
It is now the end of September, the blistering heat we have coped with this long summer is at last starting to wane. The days are still quite warm but the nights are now pleasantly cool. At this time we are still in our first villa. Yesterday we had our first rain since we arrived 6 months ago. It was only a short afternoon shower lasting 10 minutes or so, but it gave indications of what was to come.
The red dust that we had become so used to changed instantly to a sticky yet incredibly slippery mud. It dried out quickly, but it showed us what we would have to put up with every time it rained in the next few months.
We had become so used to the continuing fine weather that it was hard to believe people when they said that it rained a lot during the winter.
Rain it did! Not a lot at first, but as the weeks went by the showers got longer and heavier. Water started to lie around. I mentioned earlier how the unsealed areas became rutted and potholed as traffic was forced off the main roads because of the continuing storm water work. (Bit of irony here).
The trouble with potholes after it has been raining is, that you can't see the things, you drive along carefully splashing in and out of them then suddenly what seems like an innocent sheet of water turns out to be a deep hole and you are in trouble. Some potholes became famous for their ability to trap cars, they had truly impressive dimensions. However, it was not true as rumour had it, that some cars disappeared altogether.
A good example of neighbourhood co-operation occurred about this time. Our Libyan neighbour must have got sick of the ruts and potholes in the non-existent footpath outside his driveway, and ordered a load of pre-mixed concrete, this was dumped outside his gate where he and a friend started spreading it around, they were making heavy weather of it, so I pitched in and helped them. We got the job done and he ended up with a patch of concrete extending into the road area.
The next day before I arrived home from work another load of pre-mix arrived. This was dumped without warning at the end of our driveway. Jan was home and like a good Kiwi wife put on her gumboots, grabbed a shovel and rake and started spreading it around.
Luckily the neighbours arrived to help and soon we too had a concrete pad outside our driveway. Now at least our visitors and somewhere to park without getting mud all over their shoes, and had a launching pad to get moving when driving away.
By December night time temperatures dropped as low as zero degrees Celsius and stayed around 10 or 12 degrees during the day. Most days were cloudy and it was a pleasant surprise to have a couple of days of sunshine. When the sun did shine everyone cheered up as it was very pleasant.
The Libyans suffered the cold stoically, knowing it would soon go away. They wore heavy overcoats and jerseys and looked thoroughly miserable. The souk, which was nothing more then a series of narrow alleyways, became a disaster area. Shops, which had spread their wares out on to the street, retreated inside and became hopelessly crowded.
Stalls tried to protect their goods with sheets of plastic. Every thing became wet, water ran down the alleys, but they carried on, more or less cheerfully, waiting for the sunny warm days to reappear.
Driving on the main roads became even more dangerous. The Libyan drivers drove with the same speed and with the same abandon as they did on a fine day in summer. Not for them to worry about wet roads and poor visibility, accidents increased, especially in the hills where ice formed on the roads at times.
Benghazi is prone to flooding as there is no where for storm water to go. The city is built on flat ground with a gentle slope up toward the hinterland plateau and eventually the Jebel. There is a huge catchment area and no rivers or even dry Wadis to take the runoff.
The Benina road becomes a de facto river and channels the water into the city where it spreads out and floods the low lying areas (which is most of the City). Driving to work after heavy rain is quite exciting as we go against a rushing torrent up to the land rovers hubcaps.
The second winter we were there was particularly wet. We were in our second villa which luckily was reasonably elevated. The front of the house and the street remained dry but the rear of the section disappeared under a foot of water. We had to rescue our chooks and rabbits and give them temporary quarters in the Gaffers room.
The street behind our group of villas became almost impassible as the water rose. One side of the street was bounded by a long high block wall and a couple of the expatriates who lived down there decided to take a Libyan solution to the problem by knocking a hole in this wall to let the water drain away. This they did but they hadn't thought things through very well because as soon as the wall was breached, water rushed in from the other side!
Next page. Chapter 11 Sports