Aside from some minor navigational issues leaving Michelle’s work, the journey down to Mt Gambier was uneventful with a first schlep to Holbrook where in true Ross & Michelle fashion, we had a cabin in a caravan park; ok it exemplified 1980s décor and had a tv the size on an iPhone but it was cheap! Disaster was averted the next day in that an early getaway meant that we could not find an open café in Holbrook. Luckily, Ross’ capacity to find bacon was on top form and we located a truck stop. Al was initially uncertain but you need to trust the expert… top bacon and egg rolls, we had to have a second. The rest o9f the trip down was ok and we arrived at Just-A-Bed lodge to find it empty of people… the Dive Ninjas of the Advanced Cave Course were still being shown the way of the Force (sorry to mix metaphors but it seemed to work).
Over the next few days Michelle, Al and I went back to basics to find out how this open-circuit malarkey worked… first horror, the gas runs out. No actually, the first horror was the kit malfunctions in Kilsbys. We arrived on time, met Fi and her buddies ready to reacquaint ourselves with Kilsby’s. For those that haven’t been, this is a wonderful sinkhole (with easy access via a platform and ladder… sweet), superb viz (usually 20m+) and lots of play space. Al hopped in, followed by Michelle and not me as a first stage decided to free flow. Whilst I was dissembling the kit to replace the first stage, Michelle decided to have a quick look at what Al was doing, only to shoot to the surface with he wing inflate jammed open. We managed to get a workaround and had a lovely dive, and even replace the offending inflator over lunch.
Taken by Ross Coleman on 17 November 2013
The next few dives were trim and buoyancy games in Picannie Ponds with forays to Sisters (never again) and many hours in Goulden’s; practicing team diving, line laying and buoyancy etc, mask off, mask on and all the standard stuff. Al also demonstrated his rampant Tourette’s language skills as he attempted to make his rehydration bag-bungy combo of a side-mount system work. We were all getting worried that Terri was going to take one look at us as a sorry shower and send us back to dive kindy. The sense of inadequacy was not helped by hanging out with the dive ninjas (see above) in the evening. Al was a bit naughty by occasionally trying to wind-up the GUE guys by noting the similarities between an RB80 and a domestic fridge (mass and size).
On the Friday arvo, we met the other course members Dave and Bill from Sydney; they mainly dive with Frog but we won’t hold that against them. The start of the dive course was death by powerpoint slides.. painful but Terri assured us that it was all stuff we had to know for the exam. Before the light faded, we popped out to the paddock to practice laying jump lines (as an aside, I originally wrote that as ‘practicing jumps’ and had to re-draft after getting a mental image of the course participants doing Skippy impersonations around the paddock), finding lost lines and cutting oneself out of an entanglement. Really useful skills.
We then spend one and half days in Goulden’s doing more drills and the stress test.. mask-off, buddy breathing (that’s sharing a single second-stage) and reeling in whilst not shooting to the surface and in a silt storm. Was so much fun (not). For me at least, it was not too bad (apart from swallowing a lot of water due to an upside-down dv)… I was confident that one could do quite a lot providing one’s buddy had gas. The entanglement drill was entertaining as well… the blackout mask meant one could see bugger-all but we all did it.. a good confidence boost. Our reward after this was a dive in Allendale east, a real cave. In a sinkhole, it is often possible to go vertically (or near) to the surface.. in cave, this is not possible; hence the emphasis on getting proper training. Allendale was crystal clear and lovely. The final dives were at Pines and then Fossil, with more blacked out line following and also some jumps. We learnt heaps! We can thoroughly recommend Terri Allen as a cave instructor.
All the time we were ‘enjoying’ ourselves in Goulden’s , Fi was out playing with her cave buddies, doing the dives we wanted to. Eventually though, she decided that Michelle in her trackies and uggs was insufficiently bogan (not a can of VB in sight) so she went off to the Denliquin ute muster.
Our reward for passing the cave course was an dive in Allendale then Fossils, which apart from the killer bees was lovely. Somehow though, getting the Cave Card did not mysteriously transform us into Dive Ninjas, ready to take on the meanest cave. If anything, we realised that there is so much to learn, practise on and get slick at. What it did do, was emphasise that we learn lots of stuff useful for all diving and that we can’t wait to get back to explore the caves. Michelle would also point out that no-one gets seasick!
The journey back was uneventful. Michelle bailed early for work duty in Canberra so Al and I did the final run back to Sydney on our own… this led to my next attempt to find a good bacon brekkie and yes… I continued the 100% success rate. It’s a simple rule, truckies know their bacon, so like birds homing on an oasis, all one has to do is look for the wagons parked up at a servo. Easter 2014… Gambier-The Return. Come on, you know you want to.
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