Primeival Swimming In A Prehistoric Pool
Turn Teign is secreted deep in a treacherous, overgrown cleave. The top end of the pool is plugged by monumental boulders cloaked in moss, like something out of an Indiana Jones film. We sensed that a dinosaur might suddenly materialise from the crazy tangle of boulders, ferns, contorted trees, and oozing peat the colour of dark chocolate.
The water was fresh, smooth and surprisingly warm, and as we slid through it we stirred up swarms of feathery, long- rotted vegetation like baby pterodactyls. We spent 50 minutes swimming and floating, bathed in grass-green light and ivy-green water, sunlight glinting gold. The fecund scent of leaf-mould and peat emanated from the small gorge to the side and the only sounds were our breathing, the soughing and plinking of the river and the songs of birds. We floated on our backs and gazed through the trees at the faraway blue sky and another world.