Woken at 6 am to the smell of fresh coffee, french toast and bacon as Cory had already packed the Taxi with all the gear and had been furiously cooking breakfast for everyone.

The resort we rented has a fully stocked kitchen allowing the customers to have breakfast at their leisure with a fully stocked food cupboard and fridge. Along with a BBQ for evening meals if so desired.

After breakfast it was off to the peir of the dam to load up the 2 longtails (1 for gear and 1 for the divers) and head off to our first cavern. Our first cavern, called “Peters Cave” is a bit more like a cave than a cavern however with access to surface it’s debatable if it’s even an overhead environment at all. However with stalagtights and stalagmites throughout and complete darkness the effect is created. This would be the students first introduction to diving in these conditions and much like any initial training dive everything didn’t go to plan. After a debfriefing and a review of conduct with a  line and reel it was off to “Temple Cave” which is the most stunning of all cave systems in Khao Sok. This multiple entry limestone cavern/cave system extends from 4m to 25m with exits throughout into the lake. The sheer size of the cave is awe inspiring and even after a 60 minute dive only 15% of the system had been explored.

During these dives each student would take turns leading the dive and using the reel along with practicing propulsion techniques and guidelines use.As the training dives concluded and the technical divers returned from the lake bed looking at the sunken forest it was back to the peir and off to the clinic for James’ daily antibiotic injection to his buttock for his staff infection in his leg.

This evening Tia, our taxi driver would treat everyone to BBQ fish meal with vegetables and rice while everyone drank wine and beer and enjoyed the sunset melodised by the slow drone of the compressor being operated by a sweaty Cory Lewis.

Tonight over 15 people would dine together including the resort staff, long tail drivers, customers and dive staff who all work together to make these trips happen and all of whom have become quite close in such a short period of time.

The relaxed mood would continue into the evening with playing cards, music, too much beer for some and sleep calling early for many as tomorrow would be an early start as all are eager to get back into the water.

Waking up at 6 proved a bit much for the entire group leaving many still in bed past wake up. A few knocks on the door followed by the smell of coffee roused the troops to the dinning area for breakfast. We planned to be on the Peir to depart at 8 am thus beating the horrendous heat that would inevitably descend on us all. Each diver was given 2 torches, 2 reels and a regulator for their spare air. Arriving at the peir we had the local staff to most of the heavy lifting allowing us to board one of the two longtails. We arranged two boats, one for gear and one for divers which proved the best way to handle all the activities. Especially since we had 4 twin sets on there alone. The morning would be spent parked at “Temple Cave” which is so named because it was a worship place for many Buddhists  where they would place relics before the park was flooded by the dam. Each student would take turns making primary tie-offs, secondary tie-offs and placements throughout the cave while remaining in the cavern zone. After 2 dives we surfaced to find some menacing clouds above and dashed for the peir, however our driver told us there are rumours of a unfounded cave along the way. We did find a cave entrance however it was below recreational depth limits and below what would be considered safe in this environment, definitely promising for us technical divers though, this was found by a member of the technical team. As we returned to the resort, the compressor was fired up to fill the many cylinders while the students received more dry line work teachings but this time with blacked out masks and touch contact drills. Another diver would join us this evening from Khao Lak – Sonia Scott from last months course who can’t seem to get enough of khao sok. So we’re off to the live band bar to meet her have dinner and get to sleep early as tomorrow is another day of diving and just as early as it was today.