Uploaded August 2018 | Updated September 2026, 46 minutes ago
Down slippery steps into 68° F water I'm snorkeling in the swimming pool at Williford Springs, Florida. The water comes up from deep underground, the Floridan aquifer. It flows around where fish swim against the current. I can't. Let go, flow backwards, running to Econfina Creek. Turn and swim back over the vent to watch someone swim down underwater towards the vent. A fully dressed man swims into the vent hole and disappears. Debris churns from the opening as he emerges with two rocks in his hands. Surfacing, he examines the rocks, studying them.
This reminds me of a diver we met here in 2013, who wore a huge prehistoric shark's tooth that he had found in the spring vent. He found fossils from the time when this area was under the sea. He used rocks he gathered to reinforce the banks of the pool.
At the end of the swim I stop and watch the swirling aqua waters, this way and that, like infinity.
Down slippery steps into 68° F water I'm snorkeling in the swimming pool at Williford Springs, Florida. The water comes up from deep underground, the Floridan aquifer. It flows around where fish swim against the current. I can't. Let go, flow backwards, running to Econfina Creek. Turn and swim back over the vent to watch someone swim down underwater towards the vent. A fully dressed man swims into the vent hole and disappears. Debris churns from the opening as he emerges with two rocks in his hands. Surfacing, he examines the rocks, studying them.
This reminds me of a diver we met here in 2013, who wore a huge prehistoric shark's tooth that he had found in the spring vent. He found fossils from the time when this area was under the sea. He used rocks he gathered to reinforce the banks of the pool.
At the end of the swim I stop and watch the swirling aqua waters, this way and that, like infinity.
