On two wheels instead of four legs
This year for the first time in a long time I decided that, while my boys were holidaying after their efforts in the first half of the year, I would do the same. So straight after the Victorian Eventers Cocktail Party I packed my bags and headed for an eighteen day vacation in Thailand.
My trip started with absolute decadence at a very flash hotel in Bangkok and then onto Koh Samui for some R&R. It was fantastic! Sun, sand, spa treatments, scooters, jetskis and many cocktails. I was feeling completely relaxed. Then on to Ko Toa for the next part of our trip. I was about to be thrown in the deep end… literally.
I can’t remember the last time I was thrown so far out of my comfort zone. I was about to spend five days trying to master something I had never attempted before. We were set for five days of scuba diving and by the end of it would hopefully have our open water and advanced open water certificates. So we started with the open water. This would be five dives in three days, learning and practising skills followed by a final written exam (that was enough to make my pulse quicken).
After a morning of theory we were taken out and put through a few skills tests in shallow water and then we were off. Towards the end of the dive I finally got my head around this whole breathing underwater thing and began to relax. It was beautiful down there and completely different to anything I’ve experienced. I’m so used to rushing and trying to get things done quickly, it was quite a change to have to slow my movements down and actually float through what I was doing. We completed our open water dives, passed our exam with flying colours and after a few shaky moments I was feeling a lot more confident.
The next day we started our advanced open water which consisted of five dives in two days. We started with our deep dive which I was feeling quite nervous about. Up until that point we had only been down to eighteen meters but today we were going down to thirty meters. Surprisingly I managed this quite well. Down on the ocean floor we had a lot of activities to do that I think provided a distraction from the fact that I was stuck thirty meters under water.
Our second dive that day was supposed to be a little more relaxing. We were still diving to thirty meters, but we were exploring a wreck. For some reason this dive didn’t go so well for me. I started to feel quite uncomfortable and to panic a little. There’s not a lot you can do under the water and you can’t go up too quickly or you risk decompression sickness, so all I could do was try and stay calm and remember the golden rule ‘keep breathing’. The instructor signalled for us to go inside the wreck and here is where I drew the line. Yes I was breathing thirty meters under water while my body was screaming at me ‘this isn’t right’, but there was no way I was going to also put myself inside something. Never mind it’s ok for me to stay outside. I check my air gauge and notice it is rather low, another little alarm goes off. Turns out I’ve pretty much been hyperventilating under water and used too much air. Whoops! The ascent from the deep is quite slow as you need to make a safety stop for eight minutes to allow for extra nitrogen to leave your body and reduce your risk of decompression sickness. This was the longest eight minutes of my life. All I can think is ‘I want to be above water and breath normal air’. Finally I’m up on the surface and feeling very overwhelmed. For the rest of the afternoon I feel exhausted and dreading diving the next day, but somehow still determined to finish what I started.
The next morning I was feeling refreshed after a good night’s sleep and ready to tackle our last three dives. We had two skills dives that day and then a night dive that evening ( another thing I was feeling a little queasy about). None of the dives today would be as deep as our dives the day before. In our first dive we were fine tuning our buoyancy. Straight away we had things to do and practice and focus on so I forgot about any problems I had the day before. We were flipping underwater, controlling our buoyancy just with our breath and we even took our flippers off and had a race along the ocean floor. I came up feeling great and so much more in control and comfortable.
Our second dive we were working on navigation under the water using compasses. Again I think I much preferred having something to do under the water. By the end of the day I was really pleased with myself. I felt like I had overcome the trouble I was having and felt prepared for our night dive. Unfortunately the weather wasn’t kind so we decided to have a nice dinner that night and dive the next night which was our last night in Ko Toa. So we went out for a fantastic Spanish style tapas feast and a beach party afterwards.
The next morning all is not well. My boyfriend Tim is extremely sick. By lunch time so am I and by dinner time so are three other divers who had been out with us the night before. This means despite all my perseverance, we can’t do our night dive and won’t be able to achieve our advanced certificate.
As our holiday drew to an end I found my mind wandering to the mud filled paddocks and mud covered ponies back home. Chatting to a few people I was with I realised I was the only one who was actually looking forward to going back to work. It made me realise how lucky I am to be able to visit wonderful places and experience new things, but also that I am lucky enough to live and work in a beautiful place doing what I enjoy.
