Did you ever hear of Nemo 33, the deapest man made swimming pool in the world, a place in Brussels (Ukkel/Uccle)? Being of a curious nature, I went to have a look. You can only swim one hour at lunch time and one hour in the evening. Apart from that the place is for real divers, not for tourists like me. It's very easy to get to from my place : the ring and then exit Ruisbroek to the left and at the first roundabout left : the 33 meters deep swimming pool.

 

A multilingual receptionist, then a very friendly female diving instructor took us up. Everyone was diving, except me and a 41-year old man. The lady said we could not pass by the chord that was in front of the 33 meters deep pit. But I was, again, too curious, so I asked the fireman who took care of the place while the lady was diving down to 33 m with the others, if I could please have a peek since I could not see it properly from the chord. He allowed me to swim for five minutes above the pit, so I could see the deep correctly. Just before I did, he said one person had died snorkeling there and since then the owner did not want the swimmers to go above it anymore. He also said I had to hurry because soon there would be plenty of airbells there. I was not absolutely comfortable, snorkeling above it, given what he had just said, but still happy to have seen it from in the water. One lady told me she had only dived six times in her life and she already went down to the bottom; I did not know you could learn this sport that quickly.

 

I had already had dinner, but there is a restaurant there too, where you can see the pit and the people swimming in it. The food is Thai and said to be very good. The owners of Nemo 33 are from Brussels. A colleague told me they would like to export the concept as a sort of franchise and that, amongst others, Dubai is very interested. Dubai used to have the biggest building, not anymore. I suppose they would like to have the biggest pit, deeper than 33 m I would imagine. The pool was very clean. It was a nice experience. The hour passed in no time.