Call me strange, if you like, but a hankering to glimpse the secret underwater world of a wild pond, resulted in me gently slipping into such a watery oasis in a remote part of the Ochils.
It was a magical moment and I was immediately transfixed by hordes of dark, wriggling tadpoles that swarmed before my facemask.
As I gently glided through a forest of water weed, and with my snorkel breaths slow and easy, every worldly worry in my head had been quashed by the abundant life that prospered here.
I had been eyeing-up this upland pond for several months as a place to snorkel because the waters here are unusually clear and it is a haven for spawning frogs and toads in early spring.
Indeed, the fruits of the spawning season were all too evident before my eyes, with the frog and toad tadpoles being incredibly abundant. On some stems of floating pond weed they had aggregated together in such numbers that they had created a vertical line of wriggling blackness.
Shortly, these tadpoles will miraculously transform into froglets and toadlets, and on dark, rainy nights will emerge from the pond in their droves and head-out into the surrounding hills.
But before that happens, they will need to survive the ever-present dangers of daily life in the pond, and in one remarkable moment, I witnessed this at first hand.
I noticed a tadpole ahead of me that was behaving strangely, and on swimming closer, it became apparent that it had been grabbed by the larva of a predatory water beetle.
This miniscule, yet fearsome, underwater lion had a strong grip of the tadpole with its pincers and had now found tenure on the stem of an underwater plant where it could rest and devour its prey. This really was an underwater jungle, a place of fierce underwater battles and where the hand of death is all pervading.
I moved on, and soon spotted a palmate newt resting on the soft, muddy bed of the pond, and over the next few minutes, many more materialised. These newts were surprisingly shy and whenever I ventured close, they scooted away with a sharp flick of their powerful tails.
On one occasion, I saw a male and female newt paired-up together in readiness for egg laying.
Unlike frogs and toads, which lay clumps or strings of spawn, newts lay each egg individually, which is wrapped in the leaf of an aquatic plant.
I gently floated around the pond for several more minutes, completely in awe at the beauty of nature before me. This was a pond in perfect ecological harmony, with the thick forests of pond weed, brooklime and other aquatic plants, ensuring a well-oxygenated and healthy environment.
Soon, I pulled myself out of the water, and dripping wet, sat in the sunshine and revelled in the magical blue and red damselflies that flitted above the pond surface.
This was paradise and there was no other place in the world where I would rather have been.
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