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CAVE DIVING TRIP TO MOUNT GAMBIER with Marc van der Poel
Steadily our pool of Deep Cavern divers is growing, so it’s time to cross to the Nullarbor and head for the Australian capital of cave diving. When I asked: Who wants to come with me to Mt Gambier and learn to lay line in the caves, I nearly got trampled! The response was tremendous, I even got requests from people not qualified (yet). Next trip guys, there will be more!
First in and best dressed were Tech divers Drew Petterson, Ryan Limpus & Joshua Phillips. All have completed the Deep cavern course here in WA, as well as TDI Advanced Nitrox & Decompression Procedures. I have a good friend, who is a CDAA cave Instructor in Melbourne, Rubens Monaco, who organised the course logistics and accommodation.
We left on the 1st of Feb on the red-eye from Perth to Melbourne with a baggage allowance of 23 kg – enough you would think…. We all thought we were well within the allowance. Ryan had a little shock when his bag turned out to be a mere 37 kg. He had packed a weight belt and the kitchen sink (No, just kidding about the weight belt). When we arrived in Melbourne all our bags came around the corner on the carousel, except Ryan’s. His bag was too heavy and had not been loaded! Shock horror, what next, he needed his bag or he was going to be doing a week of snorkeling in Mt Gambier.
Good news, the airline messed up and were flying his bag out that evening and were going to deliver the bag to Kongorong. That was where we were heading! Rubens organised the accommodation – a converted church! It is owned by a cave diver who converted it to accommodate cave divers. It has everything you need; enough beds, a pot belly stove for the cooler evenings, kitchen, 2 bathrooms, washing machine and a BBQ. Oh, and even a drying room for the drysuits at the end of the day! We arrived in Kongorong at about 6pm, had dinner and chilled out for a bit, then an early night – we were in our third time zone for the day.
An early rise the next day with the anticipation of Ryan’s kitchen sink that was due to be delivered. Some breakfast and a start on the theory. The guys were doing the Side-mount course first so that we could all do the cave course in S-M configuration. To Ryan’s relief, his bag was delivered late that morning (the thought of snorkeling for a week didn’t appeal that much!). After a morning of theory and gear setup we headed out to Ewan’s ponds for the first SM dive.
Wow! It is like swimming in gin, the water is crystal clear! Read more here…
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