EXPEDITION LOG #179: 2018-09-17
“... IT WAS UNDERSTOOD THAT WE WOULD BE SWIMMING SOMEWHERE …”
We had a late start to the day, only leaving the compound, that we temporarily call home, in the afternoon. We were picked up by our local guide who had grown up in the mountains of Dahu. It was unclear where he intended to take us but it was understood that we would be swimming somewhere. On the way to our destination, we passed one spot that I recognized from a week or two before - a bat cave which cut through the hillside which we were currently traveling down. We left the path at the bottom of the hill and started into the bush, reaching the banks of a rocky stream in just a few steps. We followed it downstream for a few minutes, hopping from stone to stone along the shoreline, in the narrow area between the bush and the flowing waters. The stones in the river were slippery and dangerous. The trees alongside the river grappled with rocks in their powerful tentacle like root systems. The canopy of tree branches overhead created a grand arch over the waterway.
“... A LARGE NATURAL POOL SURROUNDED BY SMOOTH BLACK ROCKS …”
The place was nice but it didn't seem as though there would be anywhere deep enough to go swimming. It seemed very sudden when the stream fell out from in front of us via a waterfall into a large natural pool surrounded by smooth black rocks and jungle. Our jovial and fun-loving guide leapt off the side of the waterfall and shortly after I also followed.
I didn’t touch the bottom of the pool as I cannon-balled into the crisp and cool blue waters of the pool. I climbed up the slippery rocks through the thick undergrowth surrounding the pool in order to jump into the water again and again. Diving, belly flops, whatever I could think of in the moment to get from the cliffs surrounding the pool and into the water below. Each leap destroyed the tranquility of the pool with waves that lapped off the smooth rocks. Diving was the punctuation between long sessions of swimming in the cool water, sometimes doing nothing other than floating on our backs while staring into the canopy above which allowed dappled sunlight to filter through the leaves.
“... BUT NONE WOULD BE SO ENCHANTING …”
The afternoon disappeared in this hidden swimming hole, carved out of the jungle by an amount of time that can only be completely understood by geology and that I appreciated in ways which cannot be fully described by text. The wild swimming pool was magical and it surely would have stayed hidden if not for our guide’s intimate knowledge of the mountainous landscape which surrounds Dahu. Following our swim, we traveled deeper into the mountains witnessing spectacular ecologies and sublime vistas but none would be so enchanting as that deep blue pool surrounded by smooth black rocks which time had carved.
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