There was a large pool in the river Bomfata, above the pool we used to swim in. It was dark and mysterious and we called it “the grotto” there were two caves in the overhanging cliff, we used to wonder if snakes lived in them.
We did have water snakes in Ethiopia, they were a dark green, greyish colour and we had seen them in the grotto pool, so we were a bit scared to swim there. It was a deep black pool with branches of an olive tree hanging over it. They were more like creepers than actual branches but not strong enough to support us.
It was quite a very cold and very scary pool so we did not often swim there. We were not allowed to go there without adults with us. There was a grassy bank on one side where we could sit and have a picnic, sometimes we would build a camp fire to warm us up.
There were two small waterfalls coming into the pool, the waterfall below the swimming pool was quite easy to climb down the side of, Michael and Piers climbed down there and saw crystals in the bank.
There were a lot of little ones but they pulled pout one that was about 3 inches long which we kept in our house.