DEVIL'S POOL

I did one of the most exhilarating and TERRIFYING things in my life. Imagine this… being about one foot away from DEATH in one of the COOLEST ways!

We arrived at the Royal Livingstone and our guide came up to us and asked, “Are you ready for Devil’s Pool?” and we were all a bit stunned. A few of us replied at the same time, “No, we signed up for Angel’s Pool!” and he replied, “Well, we will be doing Devil’s Pool today!” and Allie asked, “We thought Devil’s pool was closed. Is it even safe right now?” and he answered, “We took the first group yesterday afternoon. You’re the second group, so we’ll just see how it goes.”....we'll see how it goes? WHAT?

We took a boat ride over to Livingstone Island, where Devil’s and Angel’s pool are located. When we arrived, we went on a small walk and once we passed these trees, out in the open space there was a large, full and vibrant rainbow. We walked towards the edge of the land and seeing the falls in this perspective is different. I remember Leone saying this when she went to Angel’s pool, “If I were to be a more religious person, I would say it was one of those moments where I felt close to God.” – that is what I felt.

We then reached the Zambezi waters and were instructed to get in. In order to get to the pool, we had to swim across to a small group of rocks that were about 50 meters away. While each of us were getting in, I noticed that the guide was fishing for rocks. As we was lunging three rocks it into the water ahead of us, he said, “We will first swim there, then there, and finally over there.” I got so nervous because he did it so fast and I was going to be the first one, and I didn’t want to misunderstand him AND DIE! I said, “Wait a minute, can you throw the rocks again??!!” and he did and he swam across to the first spot. It was my turn. I looked to my left and saw what could possibly happen. If something went wrong, I could just be swept away by the current and fall over the edge of a waterfall. For safety, all there was to possibly stop it from happening was a blue rope that didn’t give one ounce of reassurance. He yelled across, “Just swim straight!”

It’s not as bad as it sounds, haha! I dived forward into the water and kept myself focused: ‘Swim straight. Swim straight. Swim straight.’ I wouldn’t consider myself the greatest swimmer. I made it to the guide and I clung unto him, hah. I wouldn’t say the swim was difficult to do. The average swimmer could do it. Next, it was Ruth’s turn. We all saw that Ruth was drifting with the current at first and our guide started shouting at her, “WHY? WHY? JUST SWIM STRAIGHT!” hahahha – at the moment, it really wasn’t funny because of how dangerous it was, but now we look back on it and we laugh!

Once we get to the pool, we climb up this group of rocks and before we know it, our guide JUMPS into the pool. My heart jumped at the thought of him drifting off the edge. WHO in the WORLD was the first person to say, “Hey, I’m going to jump off this rock into a the EDGE OF A WATERFALL?” - seriously, who first discovered that?! Our guide pointed to the spots where we could and could not go. He then placed himself on a underwater ledge against the pool and invited us in. Not even going to attempt to sound brave here…I. was. TERRIFIED, hahaha. As I sat on the ledge, I kept peering over behind me. I could NOT believe how close to the edge I was and the disturbing idea of me accidentally falling backwards kept replaying in my mind! Our guide came and knelt close behind me and my other thought was, “Oh no, what if I accidentally knocked this man over to his death? I would be responsible for someone’s death! I couldn’t live with myself!” – I’m telling you, I had some disturbing thoughts on that waterfall ledge, hahaha. As terrifying as it was, it was also the most EXCITING! TOTALLY WORTH IT! I look forward to the day when I sit on my rocking chair and my grand kids ask, "Grandma, tell us a story," and their reaction will be, "DANG GRANDMA! YOU ARE SO COOL!" Ohhhhh YEAHHHH! You know, I do it for the kids ;) haha