The Atalans

It’s an odd sensation, swimming in the rain.

But that’s exactly what I had to do today. Well, I was actually swimming in the Lake and it was raining at the same time to be exact, but who’s counting? You feel as if you shouldn’t be in the water in the rain for one thing, and you certainly don’t feel right being outdoors in the rain in your swimming trunks. Or long, high shorts in my case, just in case anybody was peering into the Grinds at that moment in time.

I was swimming in the Lake after finding a remarkable piece of parchment that referred to the Atalans. Apparently, the Atalans are, or I should say were, an off-shoot of the ancient Atlantean race who were displaced to the four corners of the Earth after the continent of Atlantis mysteriously disappeared beneath the waves.

Legend has it that some of these displaced souls moved to Turkey, Greece, Cyprus and the surrounding areas. In fact, there’s a town in southern Turkey called Atalan, although at this moment in time I can’t find any connection between the Atalans and Atalan.

I visited the local antiques expert at Sniggergrass and Rosehip Antiques and Wine Emporium, on Bridge Lane, to see if they could verify that the parchment was genuine. Instantly, he said it was either a forgery or a fake, but asked if he could keep it to run further tests to be sure. I left the parchment with the weasely Mr Sniggergrass while I visited the corner shop next door, but when I returned the antiques shop had closed and the window shutters drawn. There was no sign of the antiques expert or my parchment.

I remembered part of the parchment referring to ruins in a lake somewhere, so, in my style of putting two and two together, I decided to explore the Lake in the Grinds. Well, you never know. Stranger things have happened. Especially around here.

Looking at the water in the Lake, you’d be right in thinking it is very cold. It’s a kind if blue-brown colour, reflected I would say from the overcast and dripping almost-Summer sky. I was partly blue myself, standing there in my swimming gear, but I persuaded myself to do it, armed with my disposable underwater camera.

One thing I can’t do is swim underwater. It comes with being claustrophobic. Being underwater is the most confined space that is open that you could actually be in. I won’t be doing it again in a hurry, I don’t mind admitting.

However, beneath the surface I swam.

My flailing for the first few attempts caused the sediment to rise from the Lake bed, so the first photo I took of what I found wasn’t very clear. The second one, however, was much better as the sediment settled rather quickly. All the rest, unfortunately, were of my eye, forehead, ear or hand, as I’d managed to turn the camera around and photographed them instead of what I’m naming the Palace of Atalan. I know my Selfies turn out this way usually, but I didn’t intend to take any Selfies of me underwater.

I couldn’t stay down in the water for long, although the temperature down there was considerably warmer than the water higher up, and I wasn’t actually that far down but further down than the photos belie. No, I didn’t have any diving gear or anything, so simply had to hold my breath.

What with that and the panic of being underwater it’s no wonder the camera faced the wrong way. It’s a small miracle that I got the shots that I did. And luckily, I managed to get the photos developed in an hour, which is always a bonus. Well, it was when I used to take photos on film decades ago anyway; today it was just handy otherwise I’d have no images for today’s post. The photo of the antiques and wine emporium was taken on my mobile phone camera.

Although I don’t want to, I may have to go diving again… just to explore the ruins further.