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Aleister Crowley Diary Entry Sunday, 25 May 1902
On the 25th we went on to Askoli. Rather less than an hour beyond Pakora are the hot springs of sulphur. There are several basins and pools, but only one of any importance or beauty. This is a circular pool of about forty feet diameter and just deep enough in the middle to swim. The water is exquisitely clear, and a light steam rises from it. The temperature of the spring is about 35 degs. Centigrade. The basin is formed by very beautiful coraline deposits of calcium carbonate, branching or flowerlike with, perhaps, some sulphide, as the water gives off sulphuretted hydrogen in abundance, and in so pure a state that the unpleasant smell which one associates with the carelessly prepared laboratory gas is not present. Knowles [Guy Knowles], the doctor [Jules Jacot Guillarmod], and myself spent about two hours bathing. It was the first decent bath we had had for over four weeks. We reached Askoli a little before noon. By the doctor's orders the party was now to wait for ten days to rest; also there was a great deal of bandobast to make. The Austrians [Heinrich Pfannl and Victor Wessely] entirely disregarded the doctor's orders and went out every day for long walks during the ten days at Askoli. There was a good deal of illness, which the doctor called influenza, among the servants. I was also not very well; but my time was entirely occupied in constant consultations with Eckenstein [Oscar Eckenstein]. This was the last village. We did not know how many marches there were to our final camp; and we had to make food provisions for all the coolies.
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