Mt Gambier Australia Training trip - January 2011

[BB1]

Well I finally feel like I have a little something to add instead of just lurking and reading.

Here are a bunch of pics of our trip to Mt Gambier at the beginning of January to train for Deep Cavern cert. Amazing trip which really stretched my boundaries and I can't wait to get back!!

Most pics on the surface unfortunately as we were training but hopefully you'll get a feel for what we were doing and bring back some memories for others!

The Chasm at Picanninie Ponds looking up at a snorkler

Ewans Pond - amazing viz and a treat for us after 3 days training in the murk of Gouldens sinkhole

Part of the team from Brisbane - 6 of us in all.

Hells Hole - OMFG - I hate heights!!!! The others loved it like this fella but my nerves were twanging on the way down and back up - awesome dive though made it worthwhile

Kilsby's Sinkhole - Rainy day but still we could see the surface from 53m down - and with a perfectly clear head, gotta love trimix!

 

[BB1]

Part 2 - Our trip was 14 days all up. Lots of theory in Melbourne in the run up to New Years then we dived our collective butts off. My computer shows 40 dives during the trip. We managed to complete our prerequisites easily (gotta love daylight saving!) and our Instructor said we were able to continue on to the cave training skills if we wanted - silly question! We now had another instructor onboard as well so 2 instructors could split the group as some of us were already cave trained.

Here are a bunch more pictures from later in the fortnight. None from inside caves though - to busy training and watching out for cave monsters (Rotten mask and reg thieves if you make mistakes). But really enjoyed diving the shaft and Fossils cave.

The Entrance to "The Shaft" - site was used for part of the filming of Sanctum

To late now - going down!

Here's why its called "The Shaft" - I have seen the light!!

A glimpse of why people love to dive it

I wasn't so keen on the exit but worth it

Here's a cave pic finally - Training completed with a dive in Fossil Cave

We went on to dive Englebrechts Cave and Allendale before packing for home.

Already trying to organise another trip back down this year!!

 

[BB1]

And Lastly some video (shot with a canon S95) as well:

Picaninnie Ponds



Ewans Ponds



And saving the best for last - "The Shaft"



I love the pic that Youtube places for the shaft video!!

 

[Sas]

Hey cool to see your pictures! Nice to see some familiar sites. What was your favourite dive site?

Who was your instructor?

 

[BB1]

Thanks Sas.

Really hard to pick a favourite out of all the sites we did and we visited many!! Tim's mantra was "less talking, more diving".

So many made an impression on me for different reasons:

Hells hole - where I conquered a long standing fear of heights and during the dive found what looked like a perfectly laid out sheep's skeleton on the bottom in perfect viz.

The shaft - I stated outright before leaving Brisbane that money wouldn't get me in there and I did it twice!! Still can't get over that beam of light.

Kilsby's - for that amazing view up the slope from 50m, seeing other divers at various levels looking like they were flying in mid air.

Pics and Ewans - for the intro into what great viz really was!

Instructors were Tim Featonby (All the way through) and Heicke Apps (Came onboard during the cave training).

Both were absolute legends, Tim for sorting out me and my stuff ups in the first day and a bit (It felt like OW day 1 but worse) and encouraging me when needed and telling me to stop being wussy when needed . Heicke for being such a calm person and steadying influence - she was great.

We hope to get back later in the year to carry on practicing but its a mission to get us and all our gear there from Brisbane and 4 of us still have to complete a normoxic trimix course with Tim in Sydney as well.

Which is your favourite site and why??

You going to Oztek this year? I can't make "invade the rock" now but would like to say G'day if you're going to Oztek after.

 

[Sas]

Hey cool! I am yet to do Hells Hole, keep missing the weekends they run that. What was it like? (other than the sheep, actually did you do One Tree? Someone has placed sheep skulls on the harvester at the bottom!)

I am the same and find it hard to narrow down a favourite because I like them all for different reasons.

I like Kilsby (better than Pics actually) because it's like flying and I love the beam of light in summer.

One Tree is spooky and like how I imagine being on the moon so I really enjoy that.

Pines is favourite cave site just because there is lots to explore.

I actually enjoy Engelbrechts East a lot too (though not sure why) but have only done it twice as the walk out is so tough (I use twin 12s and am not super fit ).

Shaft was interesting but honestly, it was a bit of a let down for me because it had been talked up so much and we didn't have the shaft of light and it was a tad murky. Also I was told I was not allowed to do any deco on the first dive there and not allowed to use nitrox, so I got a 28min dive. It's a lot of effort for 28mins Though I managed to climb out myself without being lifted, which I am proud of. I was planning just to get lifted out but a guy swum over to me and said 'I hope you can't climb out... as I can't and I don't want a girl to beat me' (I was only female diving that day, with about twelve guys) That was sufficient motivation

Ewens I LOVE. Every dive has been great, it's just beautiful especially in the pond connections.

I have not heard of those instructors, are they from Brisbane? I did mine with Andy Higgins, he was great as well.

Yep I'll be at Oztek, would be good to say hi I can't make Invade the Rock this year either as I am already up to 7.5 weeks holiday this year and can't swing another week (spending five of those diving in Mexico and Florida caves though! )

 

[BB1]

Hell's hole was a great dive, slow circuit takes about 35 - 40 mins. We swapped gear between divers to save having to lower everything in and haul it all back out again. There is a nice undercut on one side - fairly narrow but very wide flattener (to my big guy eyes anyway) that I'd like to go back and explore a bit more as well. Very silty bottom but not disturbed at all and lack of direct sunlight during most of the day keeps the algae down so good viz all the way.

We did one tree as well, nice giant stride into that - :shocked2: I saw the car but missed the harvester for some reason, a couple of others saw it though. Good reason to go back though so I can see it for myself. One tree "felt" really vast once down there but not sure why?? We were at 40m on air so could have been a little bit of narc.

We had a rainy overcast day at Kilsby so looking forward to doing that one again for sure.

We did pines a lot but not any of the passages until we did more blind exit practicing. Heicke then took us down to the stop sign for the Pen section. First squeezy experience for me but in hindsight not that squeezy. BTW Pines has a shiny new set of galv stairs and platfom to get to the water - very new apparently.

I hear you on Englebrechts - That was our last diving day and I was absolutely b#ggered by then. We went as far as the first chamber and Tim and others carried on in sidemount. On the way back we detoured into a side passage and some much squeuzier stuff. Collected some nice tank dings there. The manager (??) there said they're going to look at installing a pontoon in the cave to make getting in easier now the water level has dropped so much.

Climbing out of shaft was a nightmare - I'm 1.93m and 112KG's - that's a lot to force up that stupid little ladder.

For me pond one in Ewans was my favourite of that site, just loved the endless viz and the snow globe effect on the bottom.

Tim was from Brisbane but now Jervis bay - very good and will push you to your limit. He also had a new helmet mounted video camera that was an awesome learning tool. No hiding or denying when that's around. I think Heicke's from Canberra as I recall. Tim got us to the point in skills training where we really didn't care if we had a mask on or not and a reg, well that'd be nice but as long as my buddy has a working one then we're all good. But most importantly - we had the line!! A girl along with us said she was waking up at night and reaching for the line - LOL!

You're going to Mexico this year - grrrr - wish I was going!!! I gave myself a goal of Mexico in 2012 but might have an opportunity to go to the Nullarbor in 2012 as well. Hard decision but Cocklebiddy would probably win because Mexico is relatively easy to organise as apposed to the logistical nightmare of a trip to the nullarbor.

We fly into Sydney on Morning of the 11th and are all staying at the Aaron Hotel.

 

[KY]

Heike is from Canberra, used to be from Victoria but moved up...

i used to like pines and fossils the most.. but aint been there for years...

Has the CDAA changed much at all in that time?? is Warwick still Chair?? and are people still arguing over access??

 

[Sas]

We did one tree as well, nice giant stride into that - :shocked2: I saw the car but missed the harvester for some reason, a couple of others saw it though. Good reason to go back though so I can see it for myself. One tree "felt" really vast once down there but not sure why?? We were at 40m on air so could have been a little bit of narc.

Yes I get the same feeling. I always feel a bit of narcosis at that site (usually I don't FEEL narced at 40m though I know I am), but I get the eurphoric type so maybe that is why I think the dive is always awesome

We did pines a lot but not any of the passages until we did more blind exit practicing. Heicke then took us down to the stop sign for the Pen section. First squeezy experience for me but in hindsight not that squeezy. BTW Pines has a shiny new set of galv stairs and platfom to get to the water - very new apparently.

Yea the stairs are great, really uggo, but easier than before. I am very clumsy so have fallen in the water and silted a few times, now it's just easy to launch off the stairs into the back corner so I can do safety checks without silting

Btw, the same trick works for Mud Hole and won't silt it out at all! Not sure why nearly everyone says that site is impossible not to silt out, but it can be done

I hear you on Englebrechts - That was our last diving day and I was absolutely b#ggered by then. We went as far as the first chamber and Tim and others carried on in sidemount. On the way back we detoured into a side passage and some much squeuzier stuff. Collected some nice tank dings there. The manager (??) there said they're going to look at installing a pontoon in the cave to make getting in easier now the water level has dropped so much.

Yes that would be good. Perhaps a flying fox or something for all the gear too The stairs are a bit wobbly there too so pontoon would be safer. Pines so probably the easiest now for access into the caves! Cos there's snakes to worry about as well at places like Ewens, Fossils.

Climbing out of shaft was a nightmare - I'm 1.93m and 112KG's - that's a lot to force up that stupid little ladder.

Oh in my cavern course we had a climbing workshop (up and down the wall at Little Blue) so got taught some techniques, otherwise I don't think I would have made it up!

Tim was from Brisbane but now Jervis bay - very good and will push you to your limit. He also had a new helmet mounted video camera that was an awesome learning tool. No hiding or denying when that's around. I think Heicke's from Canberra as I recall. Tim got us to the point in skills training where we really didn't care if we had a mask on or not and a reg, well that'd be nice but as long as my buddy has a working one then we're all good. But most importantly - we had the line!! A girl along with us said she was waking up at night and reaching for the line - LOL!

Haha. My linework was the biggest thing I struggled with as me and my buddy did not do any linework other than a few times in a swimming pool and once for me under a pier, between Cavern and Cave. The rest was straight forward. I really enjoyed the black out drills, it was like an underwater puzzle, figuring out our path back with the cookies and so on.

You're going to Mexico this year - grrrr - wish I was going!!! I gave myself a goal of Mexico in 2012 but might have an opportunity to go to the Nullarbor in 2012 as well. Hard decision but Cocklebiddy would probably win because Mexico is relatively easy to organise as apposed to the logistical nightmare of a trip to the nullarbor.

Yes I really want to do go the Nullarbor in 2012 also! Just trying to organise the logistics seems hard! I can get a compressor and a generator but have not camped and don't know a great deal about dry caving techniques... so lots of things to learn beforehand... I am switching to sidemounts this year, which I have heard is a good thing for the Nullabor...

I'm not sure where I am staying in Sydney, hopefully at my sister's place! Though I haven't told her this yet and she might be at sea, so willl see

 

[kittles]

Makes me want to get cave trained