One of which was my little hike to the local lighthouse, which was just amazing! Sadly, I didn't have my camera with me on this one (and I don't plan to make the same mistake twice mind you) and so this is how it all started:
I was sitting in my room studying, when all of a sudden I was greeted by getting a new room mate called Helen from Germany (she was here for 3 weeks visiting her sister and brother in law who were also at the camp) and after the formalities, we all went to bed because it was pretty late. In the middle of the night, I wake up to a loud howling, I couldn't really figure out which direction it was coming from, but I thought it was the heater that we had our room which Helen had put on. I decided it was the heater that was running and thought nothing more of it. Upon waking up in the morning, I hear the same howling, but this time at a different and varying pitch, and that's when I realized that it was the heater, I get out of my sleeping bag and look outside and almost had to change my undies. Okay, it wasn't that bad, but we were basically in a small storm. I haven't seen rain like this for quite some time, it was just crazy! Winds which were just totally out of control, and the first thing I thought about were the people that were on their way out to do some diving at the Poor Knights, and wondering if Helen would be able to cope (she was on a trip prior to her arrival at Tuts where she got sick). Anyway, I go and eat some breaky, and thought it would be a good opportunity to do some studying, and return to my dorm after doing my dishes.
After hanging out for a while, I see Helen come out from behind the curtains covering her side of the room, and realize that she had been lying there the whole morning. Obviously, Dive! Tuts canceled the diving for the day because of 40knot winds and 3-4 meter out at sea. She goes out and gets some breakfast, and when she returns we start playing some card games. This goes on for the next couple of hours, and by the time it was around 15ish, she comes up with a great idea that we go on a walk, because we had been stuck in doors the whole time and the storm had calmed down a lot as well. I recommended that we try to get to the lighthouse off the coast, because I thought it offer a good view from there. So, we both get out stuff together and head out towards the lighthouse. This walk would of have taken us about 1hr 30min, starting from the trail head, and the walk to the trail head took about 15min, so a total of around 1hr 45min. Sweet as, no problem. Once we get the trail head and start making out way towards the water crossing (the lighthouse is on its own separate island), I begin to think about the tides, when they come in and go out, but decide not to mention it to Helen because I was afraid she would chicken out and we would have to turn around.
We finally get to the water crossing after walking down some pretty steep steps, and I judged that it was going to be too much of a trouble. There was water covering the crossing, and could easily discern where the water was shallow, and where it wasn't. There was one part that was a bit of a concern, because I could tell the water wasn't breaking over it, so I concluded that it was a deep area. I guesstimated it was about calf deep, and once I got to it, I decided it was best if I just took off my shorts, and cross in my boxers. Helen thought this was pretty amusing obviously. A crazy sweet in red boxer shorts, holding a pair of shoes in one hand, the his sweater up with the other. And then I jump in and realize it was WAIST deep! Awesome! Helen kept her pants on and crossed over without any real problems (I did have to convince her it was worth it though - while in my boxer shorts). When we started making our way up the hill, the rain had stopped, and it felt like were in the rain forest or something, I swear! It was just incredible how it shifted from beach to tropical rain forest over a distance of 3 meters! (going to get photos of it). Once we got up to the top of the hill, we could see the Poor Knights Islands which was pretty cool. However, this particular day, it was f*ckin' awesome! Why? Because, the second we got up there, the clouds parted over one area, so the sun light ONLY hit the islands, which have light cliffs faces, and were just lit up! So with the Knights lit up like that against a gray background, the view was just stunning! We were up there for maybe 20 minutes just soaking it all up, and when we decided to turn around, the clouds covered up the sun again to hide the Knights. Was that sign maybe? Who knows?
While we were walking back down to the crossing, I was thinking about which tide was active, and if so, how quickly it went. As expected, it was the high tide that was coming in, yay. I could tell the water had come up a bit, and decided that I should cross first, this time fully clothed, and with my shoes on to increase my grip and free my hands. When I got it, it was chest high! I got pretty wet. For some strange reason, Helen took off her pants to see what I went through, and crossed over with only that. Interesting. No problems with that either.
When we back on the road, the sun was setting, and Oh-My-A-Godah! The lighting was absolutely incredible! The sun was low and behind the hills, giving the hills a red orange outline, like it was burning on the other side of them. Then the clouds were kind of low, so it looked like there was small gap between the hills and the clouds, giving it a really wicked background. Also, clouds were rolling up over the hills, and flying upwards, dissipating into the air like it was smoke. Surreal man, surreal.
Now you know why I don't plan on leaving my camera behind again, eh?
When we got back to the camp, I started talking to Helen's brother in law, JP, who was a pastor. One of the coolest looking pastors ever! It was like a shorter, chubbier version of Fred Durst (meant as a compliment in every way!) who's really into snow boarding, and living an alternative life style. And he was so calm, so chill, really cool guy! We talked about everything: life, philosophy, religion, his job, his vacation, my trip here, everything, it was excellent!
So, after they did their diving during the day, we hung out in the kitchen during the night, and played some poker using macaroni as chips, and he tells me that he and the girls have gotten me a Christmas present. How cool isn't that, eh?!
They were leaving the next day, and I got it in the morning when they were leaving, which was really kind of them. They gave me their email and told me to contact them if I'm ever in Japan (yeah, forgot about that, their going to Japan to start sort of youth program) or Germany. Wicked man!
Those are the main activi - No, I forgot something else aswell! Haha! Cam, another DMT (Dive Master Trainee) took me out to hunt muscles. It was totally off the hook! We went to a surf beach, and the waves were pretty good that day, which spiced things up a bit. So we snorkled out to where we told we could find them, and it was intense man! When the wave was pulling back, I was standing on hundreds of them, waist deep. And that's when I tried going for them, which was harder than I thought. You have to use your best kung-fu grip on them to get any of them, and time in the waves, which was part of the trick. I got a hold of maybe 10, and Cam got about 30 after going at for about 20 minutes. He prepared them, and they are an acquired taste mind you. But good with some garlic and butter.
Man, my hands are tired now, ok, last 'story'.
I had a day at the swimming pool today for my DM course, it was to teach us how to teach others skills in the water. Basically, how to mime things out. Funny as hell. After going through all that, we had a stress test. This stress test was pretty crazy, he was what we had to do. Cam and I had to switch over gear, under water while buddy breathing (buddy breathing is when you share one regulator between the two of you). No problem, or so I thought. I knew that my instructor would be doing something to us under the water, but I didn't know what. The test begins (our plan was to switch over mask, BCD, and then fins): all hell breaks lose, the instructor is removing our gear, unclipping our BCDs, turning off the air, ripping off our masks, everything she could think of to make it harder on us, she did it. Ended up with me "cheating" twice by using my reserve regulator to breath (I challenged her call on this one by say it was resourceful, and that I was solving my problem the way I was taught). Oh, I also got really pissed at her, so I gave her a really hard push so she would bugger off for at least a second for me to fix my gear. It was all good fun! I passed all the tests that day, so it was all good.
Aight guys, I've written all I can write now, here are some photos, enjoy!
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