Koh Tao

I managed to find my way to koh Tao without getting lost! I arrive at what will be my home for the next 7 nights - I can finally totally unpack! The dive school I am staying at is fab, I have a day and a bit before the actual course starts. It was a bit odd when I arrived as this is the first leg of the trip when I'm totally on my own. The dive place has a great little bar overlooking the beach and water - not a bad way to sit and enjoy a beer. So the first night I venture to the bar to see who's about, armed with maps and guidebooks I head to the bar. Within 2 mins I'm being told where to go etc etc. the diving bunch are a really friendly lot of people.

The next day I have a very special visit in the form of the Bartons :) who had with them a special delivery - my odd flip flop! Was really lovely to see Fi and Andy, we had a great morning on the beach, swimming and wading chest height through the water to get back to the shore - with our rucksacks on our heads - very funny! I was very sad to say bye again, although I did get the traditional castle farewell. Bye!!!!!!!

So today we start the course, I'm in a small group of three with a fab instructor! He had the patience of a saint. The stuff we did in the pool was easy, the next day we were to be in the sea for a 10m dive. To say I was a touch nervous would be a huge huge understatement - I felt physically sick!

We get in and immediately I can't see, the mask keeps fogging up, every time i go to clear it, it does it again. in the meantime because I'm panicking, I'm kicking which means I heading straight back to surface quite quickly - a big no no in diving! So it would be fair to say I didn't enjoy the first one and was absolutely dreading the 2nd one :(

Day 2 arrives - so I've worked myself up into such a state after the first dive that I'm considering knocking it on the head! After a stern chat with myself and deciding to man up and stop being such a wimp we head off on the boat. Armed with a new tip for defogging a mask - putting baby shampoo in the mask, we head off for dive no 2, this one will be 12 m.

What a difference being able to see makes- I absolutely loved it and because I wasn't panicking I could actually watch the fish and the beauty of the sea bed. Such an amazing environment. I can see why people get addicted to this.

Tomorrow we did another dive, this time with a swimming test and having to tread water for 10mins , and 2 mins of that was with your hands on your head - absolutely knackering. Believe it or not some people have rocked up to do a dive course and haven't told the instructors they cannot swim! Idiots!! Another really fun day.

Today is 2dives at 18m! With an early start of 7:15am. Today we are also being filmed with the rest of the boat. The jump from the boat is quite high, for the first lot of dives we just look a giant step off, today we attempt the James Bond roll! Which is a somersault in, I must admit the thought of this didn't really appeal but then I thought sod it, what's the worse that can happen! I did it and it's on film! We hit 2 dive sites today. The first five we saw loads of fish, the deeper you go the bigger the fish get. And on the final dive we went to find Nemo! A truly amazing experience, so glad I didn't give up!

In the afternoon we had the exam! Arrrgggghhhhh! I had actually been studying believe it or not and beat everyone in the class! Haha! That doesn't happen very often!

So today I've said goodbye to Koh Tao and will be saying hello to Koh Samui and some serious chilling on the beach - I might finally finish the book I was reading before I came away !

Hope all is well with everyone and I'm missing you all.

Take care

Lou 'diving expert' wood x