My Secret Swimming Pool

A young girl with blond hair and her secret swimming pool in the middle of nowhere in the bush in Africa in a town called Bulawayo, which was then Rhodesia far, far away from everything. I was around 14 when I found the swimming pool, we lived on the edge of a wilderness area, my mother had rented a stone cottage on the farmstead, there were two cottages and the main farmstead, it was a huge mansion built from the same stone that surrounds the area and all the buildings had a thatched roof.

I called the dogs, one was a rough-haired terrier and the other was a corgi, they were excited as they knew what was coming. It was our time for the walk to the dam, I took the usual path through the bush leading from the main homestead, heading in the direction of the dam surrounded by lush bush and trees. For some reason that day I saw off into the distance some mega rocks and thought they might be something to investigate. We had been walking some way bundu bashing through high grass and just like that I stumbled upon an amazing swimming pool ruin. It was old, neglected and grass grew through all the old paving around the pool. It is hard to describe the pool and only because it was in the middle of nowhere in the African bush, it was an historic pool built in the Greek or Victorian architecture, complete with columns and marble. It was a magical place, and I was enthralled by it. You would walk up steep stairs either side of the pool onto the main deck above the pool which was at least three meters high, the view from up there was incredible, I could see the tops of trees and the wild bush surrounding the area. One would have dived into the pool from here, the pool had no real shallow end and was very deep indeed and large. The shape was straight from the deck, but it was oval at the other end with steps that lead down.

There was a room attached with a bathroom down some other stairs directly from the main deck, it had some windows facing the bush which were broken but one window which was so out of place here, which faced the pool, it was oval and very obviously water-tight by the thickness of the glass and frame. Here would be a view under the water when the pool was full, who would want that I thought. It was glazed over and stained, and I felt a bit scared to stare into this window for some irrational reason, like it would ‘show’ me something.

This was my secret swimming pool it was so remote and hidden on the property. One thing I did notice rather eerily was a very loud echo around the pool, when you spoke it echoed so loudly you would have to block your ears and only whisper because of the decibels. If I screamed or the dogs barked, it would be heard several miles away I thought rather uneasily. Nevertheless, I learned very quickly to keep my voice down and made sure the dogs remained quiet. Thinking back now I could have used that pool to sing to my hearts content and it would have been resounding!

Glass lay everywhere on an old rotted out carpet but for me the best part of the pool was the vintage books that lay around the floor. 1800’s and most of them art books. Thick, hard-cover books, like bibles with the most stunning images of art, mostly in black and white but some in beautiful colour. I just loved the art from the older centuries, I was hooked. Could this Victorian pool date back to the 1800’s?

The owners obviously knew the pool was there because I asked them if I could have the books and they said of course but please be careful by the pool there are lots of strange things there. Well, that frightened me, I always felt so relaxed and content there.

The next day I went back for my books, I looked out for the mega rocks and saw them and reckoned this is where I needed to go. I could not find the pool, maybe I had taken the wrong turn, not that there was any path to the pool, but I was impatient, I had to have those books. I searched high and low for the pool and for the life of me could not find it. How does one lose a giant swimming pool I thought resentfully? I went home empty handed and thought unreasonably someone had stolen my pool. I just could not believe that it had disappeared. I could see the mega rocks from different vantage points but no pool.

Next day I was determined to find the pool, and yes there it was again like it had always been there yet yesterday I had walked the same way, and it was gone. I reckoned my mind was playing tricks on me and immediately went about gathering up the books, no easy thing when I had to avoid all the glass, I had worn running shoes so that helped but I had to carefully shake every book from glass before I could handle them. I hadn’t realized how many there were and how heavy, I could not take them all, I would only take the ones I liked the most and leave the rest. I know, they could have been worth a fortune but there was a lot of books, perhaps 15 or so.

While gathering up, I thought I heard a male voice up by the pool, I stopped what I was doing and looked up, listening, nothing. I was becoming jumpy and nervous down there in that room.

At last, I was back on the path with my pile of old books. I loved reading about the art and artist and to this day I love those old paintings and I can thank that secret swimming pool for my love of the Old Masters paintings. I didn’t go back there much as the ‘strange things’ was something I didn’t want to see and some parts of the pool area, especially the room below scared me, but I would always look in the general direction and know the pool was there or not, maybe it had disappeared again with its giant echo and not another single soul would know it was there.