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I have so enjoyed traveling around Indonesia and am quite taken by this beautiful place and the warmth of the people. Onwards from Bali and Lombok to a very special place – Komodo national Park.

This is comprised of two main islands, Komodo and Rindja, both hilly, desolate and beautiful. Situated between Flores and Sumbawa, they are home to the legendary creatures – Komodo Dragons.

David Attenborough visited this area in 1956 and wrote his book “Zoo Quest for a Dragon” as well as filming a documentary, he has been followed by many since and BBC film crew are regular visitors to this amazing place.

Komodo dragons are actually monitor lizards, with tapered heads, long powerful tails and an even more powerful jaw.

Most of the dragons we saw on Komodo and Rindja were very docile creatures, laying out in the sun to keep warm, this aids their digestion and preventing the food which sits in their stomachs for some considerable time from rotting. I was initially a little disappointed to see the first sitings of them on Komodo, we arrived in the afternoon, and they were splattered out on the ground, seeming unable to move.

The best time of day to visit them is first thing in the morning, so its useful to be at the ranger station ready to make a visit by 7 in the morning, we did this on our visit to Rindja and saw several dragons on the move, maybe not the best thing I thought when I discovered more about their feeding habits and their capacity to move. If chased by a Komodo, you have to run in a zig zag pattern to outrun them, as they can only run in a straight line, but they have the ability to run twice as fast as even the fittest human.

Komodos eat only once a month, then it is a feast. The seek their prey, be it a goat, wild pig, a deer or indeed a large buffalo which all live side by side.

Wild Pigs roam the islands, fresh meat for the Komodos

When they catch their prey, they inflict a deadly bite, with shark like teeth which interlock and pull out a large piece of flesh.

This poor Buffalo is waiting to die

A wound inflicted by a small Komodo, but the effect is the same, the Dragons are waiting in the area for their next feast

Their saliva contains 60 different bacteria including listeria, as well as venom in their teeth which inflicts a lingering death in the animal. They wait nearby waiting for the animal to die, maybe taking 2 to 3 weeks as they wait for their feast, very much in the way a crocodile catches and feeds on its prey.

The dragons will also attack humans, and it requires a course of powerful antibiotics to stop this bite becoming fatal. In February last year a guide on Rindja was bitten, the whole of his calf muscle engorged in the attack, fortunately he survived. The children in the local village grow up knowing this threat, and are always looking out for them as they play, chasing them away by throwing rocks when they are spotted. A local woman wasnt so lucky recently, as she picked leaves from a tree to feed her goat, a dragon attacked her from behind. She was near a local watering hole where local people had gathered to collect their drinking water, and came to her rescue chasing the dragons away. It seems strange to me that they do not store the necessary antibiotics locally, and if there is an attack by a dragon, the drugs needed to prevent a fatality have to be sent to the area via fast speed boat.

The females breed in July and August and lay their eggs in a nest which they guard for 3 months,

A Komodo Nest

they then leave, returning in 6 months time for them to hatch, not to care for their young hatchlings, but ready to feast on them, for Komodos are cannibals. The babies, weighing only 80g seem genetically programmed to flee from the nest, avoiding the appetite of their mother and hide in hollows in nearby trees where they live for 3 years until old enough to defend themselves

No one really knows why the male population of Dragons outnumber the female by 4:1. Certainly the newly hatched males are slightly larger than the females, and we also know that the sex of the new creatures is determined by temperature, with males more likely to be produced when it is warmer, the mating season being in July and August. The males are noticeable by their larger heads and tails and of course the females by their weary look from the demands made on them by their macho suiters!

The dragons can swim, but only for about 500 meters which means they are isolated only on Komodo and Rindja islands. The human population of Rindja is approximately 1800, outnumbered by the 3000 Komodo dragons there, but their presence ensures a steady income from the many tourists who travel many miles to this area, not just for the splendid diving, but to see these unusual creatures.

I felt much more frightened of the local Macaques who preyed on the tourists!

Our guide, Vidhel Castro was a local man, born and raised in the local village.

His English was excellent, from the 5 years he had spent leading tourists through the area spotting wildlife. He was extremely informative, and I soaked up his facts and figures along the way as I enjoyed listening to is tales.

Vidhel is paid 40,000 Rupiah (about £2 or 3.6AUD) for each tour he leads, in the high season, July and August, and Fidel leads approximately 3 tours a day, and for the other 10 months there are many days with no tours at all.

I really enjoyed listening to Videl, our lovely guide

When it is quiet, he returns to his village, a 5 hour walk from the park HQ to his family and spends his time fishing. We took time later to visit his village and found his home and were warmly welcomed by his family, I will write about this is another blog as I want to spend time talking about the Indonesian people, Indonesia is certainly inspiring me to write, I hope you are enjoying reading!

Daryl explained to him that I was a Welsh Dragon, and that I needed controlling….. (cheers Daryl!)

“You are never too old to try new things” I told myself as I straddled a surf board like a beached whale, waves of salty water bashing into my face, salt water stinging my eyes and my thighs getting sore from several attempts to stand on a board and look like a cool surf babe.

still smiling

As my children have grown and become less dependent on me, I have had a thirst to try new things and make the very best life has to offer. My son, Callum says that whilst I’m an inspiration to him, I am a crazy mummy. He describes my attempts to try new things as “phases” in my life, some have lasted longer than others. I somehow think my “Surfing Phase” will be very short term!

My gorgeous son, who would look much better on a surf board than I!

So it was, during my brief return visit to Bali that Felicia, a gorgeous 23 year old Swedish woman, with a beautiful smile, blonde hair and legs that reached up to my armpits suggested I join her and her friend Matilda, another young Swedish jewel, at Kuta beach to go surfing.

Hiding between two Gorgeous Beach Babes

I had just celebrated my fiftieth birthday and was feeling a little jaded having consumed the best part of a bottle of red wine, (an unusual event for me in Indonesia due the extortionate price of anything drinkable there), but Felicia gave me little choice, I was going surfing.

My dear divegoddess friend Sonia enlisted her Sumatran boyfriend Iwan to serve as our instructor. He is one of the many local instructors who hang around Kuta beach enticing tourists onto their boards to enjoy the beautiful surf there.

Sonia, Iwan and I

We had a practice on the beach, I chose the smallest board, thinking it would be easier, and was soon corrected by Iwan and given the largest board which I could barely carry.

It was a bit of a struggle to even carry my board

The board was laid on the beach and we were shown how to lye on it, paddle and when a wave came, to push up on hands, in true press up style, jump onto the back leg then front with no use of knees, it seemed pretty easy as I practiced on the sand, I was getting rather proud of myself, keeping up with the twenty somethings, that was until I hit the sea.

This looks pretty easy!

Iwan was very patient with me, but his words “Up Up Up Up….now” still reverborate in my mind.

All that beach practice coming to fruition, Im getting up……

Oh my oh my, Im actually riding a wave…..how cool!

Now you see me, now you don’t….splash!

Felicia looking cool as a surf babe

This is how it is done….in 10cm of water that is (sorry Felicia!)

Felicia and Iwan

Couldnt resist popping this action shot in!

Beautiful Felicia

The lovely Matilda

I had a wonderful time, and did in fact manage to get to a standing position on the board, albeit for a very short time and felt I got a real taste for surfing but feel that I am probably 30 years too late to start this new phase…..

I prefer to just lye on that board!

Here I am, a lucky lady on another adventure! I am 6 weeks into this particular adventure, and have so much to tell! I will start by writing a general blog outlining my travels, then write further with specifics, I don’t want to bore you after all. I try to keep my blogs as long to read as it takes you to drink cup of tea! So, fix yourself a drink, sit down and let me regale you will tales from the sea!

One bright morning when I was living in Bali, as I thought about finishing my dive training, I researched flights for my return flight to Australia, then remembered the words I had uttered before I left – “If it doesnt work out for me back in the UK, I will sail back to Australia”. This sent my mind racing, so I revisited a website I had used previously, called findacrew.net. It’s a bit like a dating site, in that it matches people who have boats and need crew with those who want to crew but sadly don’t have a boat!

I joined this site 2 years ago when I first lived in Australia, popped on a profile one evening, a few pictures, details about myself and my sailing and diving experience. The next morning, I checked to find I had 16 contacts. Within a month, I had over 50, and to date, have had 94 requests from boat owners around the world who asked me if I would like to join them – they range from some who wanted me to pay a fee to sail with them, those who want me to share costs, to those with commercial boats who wanted me to come work for them. To me, it was like a sweetie shop is to a child!

Through this site, I went sailing for 6 weeks in the Windward Islands (Caribbean) late 2012 and again in Turkey last year, and here I am again in Indonesia on a beautiful boat.

Again, people tell me I’m lucky, or how on earth can I afford it. Well, I’m not a rich woman (not in the financial sense anyway), I’m have worked hard all my life caring for others. When I lived in the UK, I wanted to change the cycle of working and living for days off and holidays, so I opened up my house, and lived with strangers, renting rooms out to save some money to help me do this

My home is now rented out completely, therefore paying for itself, and making me a very small income, I have no car, therefore no running costs, I spend very little on clothes, shoes, cosmetics, and only visit the hairdressers once a year. Here on the boat my only cost is my contribution towards food. My overheads are small, G&T’s excepting!

So when you think you would love to do this but can’t afford it, take another look and see if you can’t work something out yourself too! If you want to do something similar but think you cant afford to do, look at how much you are paying each month for things like a car loan, petrol, servicing, MOT, tax, insurance, rent, electricity, gas, rates, glad rags to wear and money in your pocket to hit the town on a weekend to get drunk to try to forget the awful week you have just had at work……? Still think you cant do it?

Anyway…….having completed my Dive Instructor training, I flew to Kuala Lumpur and took a bus north to join Daryl on his lovely boat Cool Bananas.

Daryl and I when we met

Daryl didnt understand my excitement at finding a pint of proper beer! I explained what he called “beer” was really lager, otherwise known as “sissy beer”!!

Daryl is a really cool guy, he is a cross between a cuddly teddy bear and Captain Birds Eye with a twinkle in his eye, a happy go lucky attitude to life and many a good story to tell. He is a Kiwi, giving me lots of scope to tease him about his accent (he says it is I who has the accent not him!) He has owned this beautiful boat for about 8 years, sailed to 35 countries, thousands of miles in his beautiful 50ft 8 berth catamaran, and now I am crewing for him. He has given me the opportunity to be able to enjoy time on a boat, visit places I couldn’t see without it and gain valuable sailing experience along the way. In return, I help him sail the boat, take share of watches, drop and raise the anchor, sort the sails, be a dive buddy, share in the excitement of discovering new places, act as a companion, cook nice nutritious meals, and spend many hours listening to his many stories!

Here is “Cool Bananas” my home for the next 4 months or so!

The Boat – Cool Bananas!

Daryl’s intention is to move the boat from its storage in Malaysia and bring it near to his home to New Zealand to be able to enjoy the boat with his family and friends. This does mean we are traveling in the wrong direction in terms of prevailing winds and currents and makes the journey a bit more of a challenge, it really would be so much easier travelling in the opposite direction.

The journey takes us from the North of Malaysia, down through the Mallaca Strait, which runs between Malaysia and Sumatra, past Singapore, down to Indonesia landing at Bellitung, continuing to Jakarta, then along the coast of Java, towards Bali, Lombok, Komodo, Flores, Timor, then, winds depending, decide which point eastwards best suits our trip south to land in Australia at Darwin. Thereon continue around the North East Coast of Australia, through the Torres Strait, and down the beautiful Great Barrier Reef. My trip is to finish when we land at the Sunshine Coast, at Mooloolaba.

A very rudimentary guide to our route

Daryl gave me such a warm welcome to his boat, its such a hospitable thing, the boat is your home and you are inviting a complete stranger to come and live with you, in very close quarters, so it is important to get the right person. Daryl spotted my profile on findacrew, he has told me that he saw my energy and enthusiasm in my profile and he knew he wanted me on his boat. He got in contact and we shared numerous emails where I asked countless questions and he asked none. He had found my blog which told him enough about me, and he patiently answered all my queries.

He welcomed me into his home and even put up my special dragon!

I take my dragon with me wherever I go!

There she is, looking very happy!

Take a look at this fabulous idea!
Daryl and I called him solar panel man! His arm with flag attached waves up and down as powered by the sun!

Although I had already spent 90 days in Indonesia, as I was now in Malaysia, I needed another 60 day visa to travel back there once more. We journeyed North to Georgetown to arrange a visa, having a day trip, and meeting some strange people along the way as you can see above…

We have had many interesting moments on the boat, and seen some amazing coastline, observed numerous and varied craft and dodged many hazards along the way (I found this so interesting, I will make it the subject of its own blog!)

The day takes on a pretty routine pattern, waking as the sun rises, raising the anchor and moving along, eating when we are hungry, arriving at our destination, dropping anchor once more and watching the sun go down with a Gin and Tonic!

So many beautiful sunsets and sunrises!

Watching the sunset with a G&T in hand. Life doesnt get much better than this!

We have stopped at so many beautiful anchorages

We spend time reading, chatting, playing cards and watching films on the laptop (I’m getting into Game of Thrones – reached Series 2 now!). So far we have been on a bit of a mission to move the boat along as we want to spend more time exploring and diving along Komodo and Flores, so its been a bit like a boat delivery really. Long days and sleeping when we can, but we are about to take a break in Bali while we sort out a few troubles with the boat.

I learnt to sail three years ago as I circumnavigated Britain, and got myself sailing qualifications, but I don’t feel anywhere near ready to captain a boat by myself. Like most things in life, its OK when things are going well, but it is the ability to manage the unexpected that sets us apart and tests our knowledge and skills. Just like when the traveller popped out and rendered our main sail useless. Daryl is fixing it himself, he is so clever and can turn his hand to most things (except trimming his beard!!)

Oops! A bit of a shock for us when this popped off!

A knowledge of diesel engines is important too. Ive actually completed a diesel engine maintenance course during my Round Britain Experience, it was a bit of a struggle for me, Im not a natural, and I definitely wasnt top of the class as I was at First Aid. Its as important though, and I am trying, I really am!

You have to come to love your engines when you are on a boat!

I think you have to spend some time cruising to appreciate that its not all fun along the way. Many hours are spent trying to make our way, sometimes in the middle of the night when our bodies and minds are aching for our beds. Some anchorages are noisy, with swells, waves bashing on the hull, nearby mosques with an early and very loud call to prayer. We have to seek food when we can, no supermarket delivery service. We have to take care with our water usage, showering only when necessary, and making them quick, often leaving the hair matted for another day. We collect rainwater when we can to help replenish the tanks and keep it going for a bit longer.

As we are battling against wind and currents, we have to use the engines for more than we would like, so we have to think about our fuel too, and have to go to the most unlikely places searching for it. Here is Daryl coming back to the boat having purchased some diesel from an unlikely source near Surabaya.

Here is Daryl returning to the boat with the dinghy laden with containers of diesel!

We mostly anchor along the way, it keeps things flexible for us, its usually far more beautiful, and far cheaper as its free! Its a lovely feeling at a safe anchorage, away from the beaten track, and we enjoy spending time before sleep star gazing and seeing who can spot the most shoots stars (I win that one!)

We have stayed on a two very nice marinas, the first one in Port Dickson as well as Batavia marina in Jakarta, splendid surroundings, absolutely gorgeous.

The beautiful marina at Port Dickson, Malaysia

The restaurant at Batavia marina, Jakarta, Indonesia

A highlight of the journey was crossing the equator. Ive done this several times in an aeroplane, but it feels so different doing it in a boat. Unfortunately, the line you see on maps just wasnt there on the sea, and we had to rely on the GPS to tell us, and we slowly moved forward to be able to take the photo of the actual point of Latitude Zero.

Zero!

Daryl, with his great sense of fun wanted us to don fancy dress for the occasion, a bit tricky coming up with something when you have no access to ebay, so this is what we came up with!

Of course, it was time for celebration!

I really dont think 08:54 is too early for champagne!

Along the way, we try to get network when we can, but mostly we are not in contact with the outside world. This can be frustrating at times, but often it gives you a real sense of freedom! As you start to approach a coastline a little bit of network allows a message to slip through. Any mother who gets a message “Mum, can I ring you, I need to speak with you” instantly thinks the worst, and the mind races through a million and one potential catastrophes. It was not to be, my gorgeous eldest child had some wonderful news to share!

Time to pick out a hat!

As I write this, we are sailing down the East coast of Bali, having now sailed over 1400 nautical miles from the North of Malaysia. I am going to spend a couple of days catching up with my friends I met whilst I was living in Sanur, I feel like I’m coming home again. Ive got a bit of a big birthday with a big fat zero on the end and hoping my friends will be convinced I really am only 35!

I have loved my time in Indonesia, it is such a beautiful country with such fabulous people, I have so much to tell you about. I want to tell you about the people, the landscape, the diving, the fishing craft, the hazards we meet along the way, oh, and have I mentioned we popped to Borneo to see Orangutans……..more blogs to come, keep watching and have the kettle ready!

As I make my posts on Facebook, I frequently get comments saying things like “You are so lucky” or, “I’m so jealous”, and “I wish I could do that”, and it is something I have given alot of thought to.

Some of my FB friends have picked up on this, one commented that there is no luck in it, you make luck happen by opening the doors not sitting behind them (thank Geraint Jones (Gee) for that one – given me the title for this blog), and another comment is that its about making choices at different life stages (thank you Andrea Stuart). I usually comment that you have to take a deep breath and step out of your comfort zone.

I guess I can’t dismiss the concept of luck totally, I do have some of this on my side. Firstly, I’m very healthy which is great, although this isnt all down to luck, I don’t smoke, I generally eat a healthy diet and I have always been active which certainly helps. Secondly, I had the freedom to make the decisions I had – but again, this isnt all luck – I have worked hard for a career for myself where I have earned a professional salary, I had my children fairly young and worked hard to be the best mum I could to raise 3 healthy intelligent young adults who could cope with their mum exploring the world. You get my drift!

If you are not a follower of this blog, I will update you a little. I have raised a family of 3 gorgeous young adults,, built a career as a midwife (was a former school teacher too) then in 2011 I made a big life decision and moved to Queensland, Australia to try to make a life there (I did pop on a boat on the way there and circumnavigated the coast of Britain and qualified as a coastal skipper before I caught the plane!)

It took a very deep breath indeed to leave behind many family and friends, but it took a much deeper breath to also leave behind a man I was deeply in love with, at least I tried to leave him behind, but he was very much with me in my mind on the other side of the world. I wouldn’t have left the UK if we had made a decision to make a life together, but unfortunately, he didnt feel he could offer me any future as my feelings for him were not reciprocated. Before I departed, I said the words “if you decide you do want me in your life, you have to come and get me”

I loved living in North Queensland, I had a fabulous job, lived in a lovely home, went sailing every week on the gorgeous Coral Sea, scuba dived on weekends off on one of the top 10 dive sites in the world and made many good friends, and to top it all, I had both my daughters with me in the distant land down unda!

Its sometimes said that you don’t know what you have until its gone, and within six months the love of my life travelled to Australia to visit me to talk about me returning to the UK to be with him. Six months after this, I left Australia, (popping to the Caribbean on the way home to sail the Windward Islands) and arrived back in the UK in time for Christmas to make a life together with my man.

The reaction from my close family and friends to this decision was enormously supportive. They knew how much I loved him and that it was something I had to do to see if it would work. I knew I was taking a bold step once more as I left Australia, I laughed and spoke the words “if it doesnt work out for me in the UK, I will sail back to Australia”

I had a wonderful 16 months back in the UK, catching up with friends and family and made many new friends and had a ball. However, Lady Luck wasnt on my side in terms of making the relationship work, despite the hard work on both sides, it was with a very heavy (and broken) heart that I decided I had to leave and make a new adventure for myself.

It wasnt by luck that I booked myself a flight to Bali, nor was it luck that set me on a course to complete my Dive Master and Dive Instructor certifications, It was a decision which took me out of my comfort zone by deciding to leave the safety of a secure job, which although stressful, gave me a cyclical lifestyle where I lived for weekends off and holidays where I met up with my friends and had a great time, but dreaded returning to work, and looked forward to the next time off (does this life cycle sound familiar to you?)

Having finished my dive training, I started looking at flights to Australia, then remembered my words before I left, so, here I am…….on a boat……sailing back to Australia! Again, this isn’t by luck, but by thinking out of the box and looking around for opportunities to achieve what makes me happy

It wasn’t by luck that I had subscribed to a website where boat owners needed crew to help them sail, and it wasn’t through luck that I had qualifications and experience in sailing and diving that gave me a good CV. However, I have to say that some degree of luck did bring a lovely guy called Daryl to send me a message asking if I would like to join him on his trip and help him sail his gorgeous yacht (thank you Daryl!) I will write more about my sailing trip in this blog shortly.

So it is that I find myself on a beautiful boat, and have spent 3 weeks so far sailing from Malaysia down through Indonesia. We plan to continue the trip heading eastwards through the many islands of Indonesia diving along the way, then down to Australia, arriving in Darwin, then along the North East Australian coast where I will begin another chapter of my life.

This trip is giving me alot of time to relax and to think about life, my decision making and what is important to me. My heart is gradually healing, it is taking time, but as it heals I am making the very best of every day that dawns – this is not by luck!

As I write this, the sun is rising on another glorious day, a large pod of dolphins have just swam past the boat, I’m about to eat breakfast then go for a dive and hope to see the friendly turtle daryl and I met yesterday at 16 meters under. Tomorrow we are traveling to Borneo to trek in the jungle and look for wild orangutans…… How’s your luck?

(Photos to be added soon when I get some wifi!)

Before I left the UK I said many goodbyes. One day, I met with a group of midwives from a birth unit I used to manage in Birmingham. We were all enjoying a lovely lunch together and catching up with one anothers lives, and one finally asked me, quite perplexed why I wanted to go so far away and “wouldn’t it be better to learn to be a diving instructor here in Britain?”

Whats a little letter between friends, an easy mistake (thanks Mychelle Taylor!), but no, the last thing I would want to do in Bali is to train as a driving instructor – you should see the roads!

Having completed my Dive Master, the natural progression for me was to do the Instructor Preparation Course (IDC), however, I had some wobbles about this during my DM training. I questioned myself why I was doing it, if I was capable, why someone my age should do such a thing! I remember the discussion with both Robin and Andre my instructors who both reassured me that all would be fine (thanks guys!)

Now that it is all completed, I’m so glad I continued, not only am I now a PADI diving instructor, but also an instructor in numerous specialities, emergency first response, oxygen provider, deep diver, wreck diver, night diver, underwater digital photography and drift diver – Ive collected quite a number of certifications! However, more importantly, to me certainly, I have learnt so much about myself too. Ive been taken well out of my comfort zone and challenged myself, learnt so much about dealing with other people, teaching, diving and patience as well as having confidence in my own abilities.

So, let me tell you a little about all this training.

The IDC runs for 16 days and is followed by 3 days if Instructor Exams (the “IE”!!), I had a long slog ahead of me so I took myself to the Gili Isles once again to prepare for the course, I wanted to do some study as well as rest, recuperate and mentally prepare – this involved about 6 hours during the day with my encyclopedia of diving and sunsets, cocktails and barbecue buffets and Bintang during the evening.

The IDC started and I was well prepared, like a kid on the first day at a new school, early night before hand, pencils all sharpened, rucsac on back I turned up full of enthusiasm to start the course. Deep breath!

The IDC turned out to be the pressure test, it was non-stop learning and work, but I have to say that I enjoyed every minute of it!

I felt so fortunate that I was part of a great group of people who made the whole thing so much fun.

Ami and I quickly became good friends and buddies. I was so very lucky, as she had been working as an instructor for the past 2 years for a different dive organisation (SSI) so she was full of knowledge and experience which she was more than happy to help me with and in return I let her use my laptop and gave her hair bobbles – fair swap I think! Love soon blossomed

I was delighted to have a fellow Welshie on the team. Richard was a surfer dude who had usually been hitting the surf 2-3 hours before class began and turned up looking nice and relaxed at the start of each day. Having spent 2 months in a team of Danish and Swedish speakers who frequently lapsed into their own tongue, Richard and I enjoyed doing likewise from time to time. We didnt mention to the others that we were not fluent in the language, but that we were just receiting the “Lords Prayer” to one another making it sound like a conversation!

Phil was from America, and at just 18 years of age was having a marvelous time being let lose in Bali with all the opportunities presented to him. He had a great sense of humour, and took all our American jokes with good spirit.

Max (aka Maximus) was a young Swedish guy and Ami and I loved to listen to him when he made his presentations, particularly when he told us how to locate the alternate air source on a buddy – the triangle between your cheeks (pointing to his chin) and the nipples (hmmmm….the lower edge of rib cage) As you can imagine, we had marvelous fun with this. Max had a lovely physique which came to great advantage during numerous classroom presentations.

The food – oh my god, the food was wonderful, the lunches and the endless snacks – I think I gained half a stone despite the stress!

There were classroom presentations we had to write and perform and receive the critique afterwards and hope to achieve the best scores we could, a “5” being top score. There were certain rules, we weren’t allowed to mention anything to do with sex, drugs, alcohol, politics or religion…….I don’t know about you, but when someone tells me I’m not allowed to do something, it just makes me want to do it all the more! Remember that Fawlty Towers episode where John Cleese says “Don’t mention the war” and thats all he can talk about. On one of my presentations, it was going marvelously well, but when I asked each “student” to pour a little water onto a sponge I had ready to illustrate tissues absorbing nitrogen, Richard tipped a big glug into the dish and, always liking a joke I said “I think you can prepare my G&T’s in future” Doh – don’t mention alcohol!! There goes my chance of a 5!

There were confined water presentations where we had to brief and demonstrate skills, then watch while the “students” perform them purposely making an error we had to detect and immediately correct (and hope they would just make the one mistake cough cough!), then ensure we give positive reinforcement, point out errors and offer solutions for the future, not forgetting to mention the objective and the values….phew!

Then to the Open Water where we had to do likewise.

We also had to demonstrate rescue skills with and without a pocket mask – approach to an unresponsive non-breathing diver, rescue breathing, equipment removal and towing to safety whilst doing so. Ami loved me practising on her and smothering her with my mask and nearly drowning her.

Of course, there was also the dive theory, with a standards exam and 5 areas of theory – Physics, Physiology, Dive Environment and Skills, Equipment and the Recreational Dive Planner – with a 75% Passmark, no pressure there. On day 2 of the IDC we turned up with the exams sat on our desk to try to see what we could achieve with no preparation. I was very grateful for my time on the Gili Isles preparing for this and I passed all exams with just a few marks down on my Physics, even achieving 2 at 100% (what a class swot!), but I knew I had to work on the Physics, I couldn’t afford to even let a few marks slip by. Thanks to Christoffer for your help with this mate!

We even had a presentation from the Area Manager from PADI – from Paul Tanner, Aka Tosh, who even gave us bribes to stay awake the whole time!

The staff were marvelous and we were so well supported. This was Conny’s first IDC as a course Director, and I had met him just the week before and informed him he had a girls name (what a great start to our student/Instructor relationship!) Well, despite the rough start, Conny was fantastic, always looking fresh faced each morning, full of energy, enthusiasm and humour he would lead us through the day. Half way through the course Minni returned from her trip to Kuala Lumpur and would work alongside Conny with her no-nonsense style and humour.

Felicia was training as a staff instructor. A young Swedish woman with a very gentle style and we soon learned to seek her help when needed. She is a very unimposing character who soon became a good friend to Ami and I, and I’m sure we will be friends for many years to come.

Christoffer was also from Sweden, another quiet character who was also training as a staff instructor. He didnt like mornings too much and gradually came to life as the day progressed. He absolutely loved diving and his passion for this shone through. He was a great source of support for us all, particularly for his support with learning Physics!

It was fitting that we celebrate the Swedish Solstice (Midsommer) in true style. You wouldn’t believe me if I told you that we all did a dance underwater around a handmade extra large penis and testicles (I’m sure thats what the art work was signifying!) all jumping around like rabbits in a circle with our hands at the side of our head with flowers on our head. However, I have photographic evidence!

The IE was soon upon us, we were all totally prepared and walked into a room with all of our wearing the Midsommer wreathes on our head, trying to ignore the worried glances from the other candidates!

We were led by 2 great examiners from PADI called Mark and Steve who had a very relaxed style and a great sense of humour.

We started with the theory exams and were delighted with the excellent pass marks for us all. Ready for the next day when we were to commence at 8am with our open water briefings then enter the water and perform our skills – we all emerged with “5’s”!! Ready for our classroom presentations in the afternoon, again, top scores all round! Just the confined water skills the following day.

The pool was absolutely freezing, and when I came to present my skill “use of a pocket mask” from the rescue course, I demonstrated on Ami and could feel her whole body shaking! It was all worth it, top scores all round – we were now dive instructors!!

All that was left was the celebrations!

There is always a party after the exams – fittingly called the “IE Party”, where candidates have to choose a theme for fancy dress – our group chose “~Tacky Tourist” (of course it wasn’t the American in the group who came up with that idea….was it?)

We had such a hoot at this party

There was only one day for recovery before the instructor speciality (Master Scuba Diver Trainer) course began. Many days in the classroom followed by finally getting out into the sea once more,blessed relief. We went to Candi Dasa, Tulumben and Nusa Penida (I think I need to write about this separately when I get a moment!)

I would like to convey my thanks to Crystal Divers for all their support and professionalism. I have made many friends during my time with them, and feel certain I will remain in contact with many.