Hello, first time poster here but I thought I would share my personal scariest story. I have a few and while this may not seem so scary now it has always stuck with me.
A few years back my family and I went out exploring the outdoors in the Australian outback. We where in an area with heaps of water holes and rivers flowing between them. We came across this section of the river that was surrounded by quite high grey stones on either side, it was like a good 100-150m of the river hidden by these huge stones. The water was very clear with and was quite deep, it want rather smooth water but you could tell it was flowing. So my dad is a fit guy, he has always been like this. He with out saying anything jumps straight in from a 20m or so rock wall. Not to be shown up by an old man (haha sorry dad) I ran and jumped in too always competing you know. My mum and sister stayed on the rocks as they wanted to set up a place for food to be laid out. It was cool but not cold and the water was flowing with a little bit of speed. Nothing I couldn’t put swim as I was a fitness buff.
The river had a bend to the right and was completely obscured by the rocks surrounding it. I followed the river swimming with the current and saw there was like, a rock embankment on the right hand side. This rock was sticking out of the water and looked like a cool spot to climb onto. The river continues on beyond the rock but it was a neat little place to chill till my family caught up. So I swam up to it and it felt like I was becoming tired like it was harder to keep myself afloat. I tried to climb the rock but it has some kind of moss on it that was so silky smooth I slipped. I sank into the water and felt an almost immediate change in temperature from the waste down. I felt the current pick up and I grabbed for the rock that I was trying to climb. I looked down and saw this.. abyss… is the only way I can describe it. Under the rock was a hole that I could feel a current pulling me deeper into it. It was the darkest place I’ve ever seen. I knew if I went in there I wasn’t going to come out. I was kicking my legs and trying so hard and I realised I was never going to outswim this pull. This was why I suddenly felt it difficult to stay afloat as I was being dragged.
I managed to grab onto a slit on the rock and it was so slimy. Most of my body was in the cavern now and I was panicking, I didn’t know what to do. I slipped again and I was now only my arm and head out of the cave. It was cold, or at least I felt cold. I felt around and there was a tree or like a really think branch wedged into the corner of the entrance I grabbed it and crawled out of the hole when I got to the surface I saw my family had begun setting up the food on one of the banks. They didn’t even know something was wrong like 20m away. To them, I would have just vanished if I didn’t get out. I have never swam in a river since. Not super scary I know, but I still remember it like yesterday. I’m a big guy, I go to the gym everyday but this made me feel powerless and out of control.