Dystopian Rainiverse
After our New Year’s trip to the Coca Cola rivers of Ibitipoca, we arrived back late last night in pouring rain. Apart from a short period just as we arrived, it rained the whole time we were away. It is still raining now. The last few days reminded me of a short film I saw many years ago – a dystopian future world where it rained all day, every day without a break. Every seven years the sun would come out for just one hour, then the rain would restart. Through the magic of Google I have just discovered that the film was based on a short story by Ray Bradbury called All Summer in a Day (read it here or, if you have 30 minutes to kill, watch it here).
Taking photos of rain is not easy! I just hope I don’t have to wait 7 years to see the sun again…
Of course I’m being a little melodramatic here. We actually had a lovely time away in Minas Gerais and once I have a little time to sort through my photos I’ll tell you all about it. But for now I am going to continue being melodramatic. Or maybe I can drop the “melo”, because there was quite significant drama on the way home yesterday.
You know that really heavy rain that you sometimes get? It usually lasts a couple of minutes and makes driving almost impossible. Well we had a rainstorm of that intensity which lasted for 3 hours yesterday. It was crazy. We had quite a long drive to get home and so we just slowed down and tried to get through it.
Sorry for the horrible sound – mostly that is the rain drumming on the roof, but it is also accompanied by The Beatles singing ‘Something’ – strained through my mobile phone’s low quality microphone, it makes for a rather unpleasant experience doesn’t it?
After 3 hours of torrential rain, we decided to pull over in the hope that it would ease off. As if by magic, it DID ease off just a few minutes laster!
On a more positive note, I was really impressed with the way that the roads dealt with such a huge quantity of rain. There were some massive impromptu waterfalls falling right next to road, but most of it was whisked away by storm drains.
To continue with my new found positivity, the cooler temperatures were good for our 16km trek in the park the day before – it would have been much harder if the sun had been shining. And to complete my trio of positive statements, I submit this picture which I think was actually improved by the rain:
Ahhh, not so dystopian after all. I snapped this Iris on the roadside whilst wandering in Ibitipoca. Looks rather nice with the little raindrops don’t you think?
I am impressed that you were impressed by the good storm drainage – that is truly a rarity in Brazil! Have you seen the major flooding in Minas Gerais lately?
Here in Salvador, ALL the low-lying areas flood EVERY time it rains. It’s like the city is “surprised” by rain every year, and completely unprepared. There’s even a neighborhood called “Alagados” (Flooded)
Heh heh, I have to say that I was surprised that I was impressed! That is to say, I didn’t expect to be impressed because I had heard so much about flooding in many parts of Brazil. The river that ran close to the road was a raging torrent as we passed it on the way back (it had been very placid on the way out ), so the fact that there weren’t huge floods across the carriageway seemed like a success!
I am very used to this ‘surprise’ at regularly occurring weather events. Most years a little snow and ice brings most of the UK to a standstill and we still remember the time when the wrong type of snow brought our rail network to a halt…
Tom,
Since it seems you enjoy taking to the road I thought I’d share this link.
http://www.mirantesmt.com/
I imagine that, in Brazil, the older the roads and towns are the worse the drainage is going to be. This because it appears that good drainage in Brazil only comes about in two situations: a new municipio, which needs to present an planned infrastructure layout for approval so to then gain emancipation, has at least basic drainage lined out: a highway concession has been awarded to a private company which must then get the drainage sorted out, and keep up on maintenance.
On a different note: carriageway, lol.
Not sure why you’re lolling at carriageway – this is a completely normal word for us in the UK… Sometimes I take my carriage out for a spin, but more normally I leave it at home and just drive my car instead.
Anyway, I guess the main highway (happy now?!) between Rio and Belo Horizonte is likely to better than many other routes, being that they’re such big population centres.
Forgot to compliment you on that second picture, the one featuring the house – taken from inside the carriage I presume :-) . Seriously though it look like a painting, I enlarged it and it looks even better.
100% intentional Gritty! ;)