Michael Coy
THEY are tempting, when temperatures are in the forties centigrade. Clean cold water in mountain streams, and tranquil water in pools, seem ready-made for our use.
But they’re not.
Natural bathing-spots in the mountains and forests can be treacherous.
By their very nature, they are usually located very far from help. If someone in your group gets into difficulties, and you are able to call for assistance, how long will it take emergency services to find you?
Beaches have life guards, floats and other people on hand to help. Streams and forest pools often have none of these.
Swimming in an improvised facility is also dangerous because you don’t know what obstacles lie beneath the water’s surface: old ropes, waste discarded by previous visitors – even tree roots, can snarl the unwary swimmer.
Given the geology of Andalucía, the number of lonely pools is enormous. Limestone is porous, and over millennia is “hollowed out” by rainwater.
On Sunday 15 June the Guardia Civil had to mount two rescue operations when opportunist bathers found themselves in trouble.
At 2pm, the Emergency Co-ordination Service of Andalucía passed information to the Guardia Civil concerning a woman who had fallen into a ravine.
The accident happened in the Rio Verde beauty spot, just south of the village of Otivar, some 20 miles east of Nerja. All that was known was that the woman (55) had suffered multiple injuries.
GREIM, the Guardia Civil’s Mountain Rescue team, went into action. A helicopter lowered officers into the ravine.
The woman had to be immobilised (victims often make their injuries worse by trying to move), strapped onto a stretcher and airlifted to hospital.
The second rescue of the afternoon took place at six o’clock in the isolated “Alicún Baths” area, inland from Almería.
A local Guardia Civil unit was informed that some teenagers who had been swimming in natural pools had been “swept away” by rising water.
The officers were joined by workers from the nearby Alicún Spa Centre, searched for and found the young men. They were unharmed, but trapped on a rocky outcrop.
Using ropes, the officers managed to pull the victims, one by one, through the water to safety.
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