Trips

Lulworth '01

We all met at 8.30am outside the pool to get ready for the start of what we all hoped would be a good weekend ahead. The 2001 trip to Lulworth Cove in Dorset was about to begin.

Things appeared to be going according to plan, and as usual, Zoe had to be phoned just in case she had overslept, like she has done for the past four years when left to her own devices. Surprisingly enough she was on way, though I think this was more to do with Craig, her beloved, making sure that she was in the car, rather than any form of consciousness on her part.

We too had been organised. Dave (Dad to me, but Dave to everyone else), had managed to get the minibus the night before, rather than the traditional sitting outside the hire company, waiting for the (still drunk from the night before) Saturday worker to turn up and book us out. Which meant that things were amazingly running on time. In the excitement of it all I think we even managed to remember everything. So with the bus packed we said our goodbyes and made our way to the coast.

The journey went well, with us making good time. For once I was not driving. I had the pleasure of travelling down in the back of Craig's BMW with him and Zoe. There were four in the convoy. Sandy and Matt in one car, Rob and his family in the very spacious Galaxy, Dad and Mum (Julie) and the mob in the minibus, and of course us in the BMW. There would hopefully be a fifth about halfway through the journey, as Dawn (Craig's sister and Ex - KEJSC Senior Instructor) would be joining us. After a quick stop at a roadside café for a bit of grub, we finally reached our destination.

Hopefully this year was going to be special. We had arranged to meet with members of another club, Stroud Valley, run by my friends and snorkelling colleagues, Sally and Garry Mutton. This was in an attempt to see how each other work, in a view to spreading knowledge between the clubs for mutual benefit.

We went straight to the Youth Hostel for a leg stretch and Craig and I went to try and locate Sally and Garry. We found through our investigations that they were already at the beach, so we grabbed everybody and headed for the cove.

While the gang kitted up in the car park, the instructors followed me down to the beach in Lulworth Cove to see what the sea was like and to try and find Sally and Garry. We found them, and their group on the beach in the cove.

I had planned to dive Stair Hole first, as in my experience this tends to be the most popular site for a gang of eager open water and advanced snorkellers. There were eight of them, Thomas, Alex, Karen, Robin, Josh, Anna, Jennifer and Stephen. The dive site is relatively secluded, and when the water is calm it is a dream snorkel. There are two holes in the cliff that lead out to sea. There is a small Cave (St Clements) to the side of the site that can be snorkelled into, and the ever-popular cliff jump point, for high-level entry practice, too. It's always popular, though I sometimes think that the only reason they want to go there is to jump off the cliff…?

Once we were all kitted up we headed for the site with the hard part being getting down to the waters edge. Unfortunately the cliff though not vertical, is a bit rugged and if there has been rain it also becomes very slippery. In the end we all managed to get down but only thanks to Craig finding an easy path to follow.

We got ready on the beach, which translated meant that the instructors ran around sorting every one out till they were able to get in. Everyone was in buddy pairs, forming a column following the pair in front. I headed the column and the rest of the instructors formed outriders as we went on ourway. Many of the group were new to snorkelling in the sea but luckily the weather was great (sunny with slight cloud and a small breeze) and the water relatively warm. Garry was on the shore watching over us all, ready with his camera, just in case. Sally followed on in the water behind us all. We went through the main hole in the cliff face where there was a depth of about six metres below us. In buddy pairs the group surface dived to see what they could find. As we were doing this I noticed a spider crab on one of the rocks. I snorkelled down to it and picked it up returning to the surface to show it to the group. For some reason everyone seemed terrified of the thing, trying to swim away from it? Once we had finished with it, I returned it to its rock and we continued round the outside of the cliff. We came back through the smaller hole and back to the shallows where we debriefed and talked about the dive. Sally had a massive grin on her face. I could see that like me she had enjoyed the snorkel.

We went back to the main hole and the buddy pairs were allowed to roam freely around in the small lagoon in safety, helping them to build their confidence in the sea. Many investigated the cave, which has a small sandy beach at the end of it. Some had even come prepared with torches. After a while however I started getting pestered for the cliff jumping to begin.

I use this more as a treat or in some cases bribery for a bit of work, but it does help them. It builds your self-confidence, and could be a useful skill for rescue scenarios. You can jump off the cliff just above the main hole. There is a path that leads up to from the base of the cliff, which you swim out to.All kit is removed apart from wet suit and life jacket and then the instructors take up strategic positions below and above. I got the cold one, stuck at the top of the cliff pointing out where and when to go.Many of them were nervous but they managed to push themselves, making the jump without any problems. Some of them were quite stylish too. Jen, scared of heights but game for most things, showed us that her vocabulary on the way down was far superior to what we thought she was capable of. Robin showed us that the rocks were slippery at the top and decided to cartwheel down into the water, scoring a 9.8 from the judges. By far the best however was Anna, who had backed out of it last year but was determined not to let it get the best of her this time round. She knew what she wanted to do; it was just getting her feet to work, or for that matter, her legs, body and arms. Forty-five minutes later, when the bookies on the beach were by now taking bets, she took that big step of the edge and plopped into the water with grace (and a bit of a scream too). Everyone in the group managed the jump, which is a first for this trip in history.
It was time to book in at the hostel, so we de-kitted and got dry. We had booked the whole hostel for the weekend, and once booked in, I assigned rooms to everyone and they all moved in. We washed our kit and put it in the drying room, then everyone had a shower before dinner, which was a fantastic spaghetti bolognaise.

With dinner completed and the washing and tidying finished, we headed for the Castle Pub for an evening in the beer garden to write up the day's activities. I was last out of the hostel and was surprised to find that all the instructors were wearing the same tee shirts. On the front was written, "Lulworth Trip 2001" and on the rear was, "Off Duty Instructor, Not to be Held Responsible." It turned out that Sandy had created these masterpieces for the pub excursion. There had been a small mutiny, everyone was "Off Duty, " leaving me to organise the mob!

In the beer garden it was cool but comfortable. The mums and Dawn had arranged a treasure hunt for the mob, and they went happily off to find the items on the list, like a crabs leg (usually blagged from a local restaurant), and the telephone number of the local phone box.

The rest of us sat in the garden talking, drinking and eating snacks, until it got dark, when we had to head back to the hostel for bed.

On Sunday morning we decided that we would dive from Swanage pier. This is an excellent dive site, used by both snorkellers and scuba divers.

We found ourselves a place in the car park and got kitted up. We walked to the pier and paid out 30p for entry as snorkellers. We headed along the walkway to the lower level section at the end of the pier. There we set up camp and got ready for the water. Here we entered the water, using a step in entry off the edge. It is great fun and is a lot easier than trying to climb down the ladders there.

After snorkelling over to the old pier, the instructors set up a shot line, and the mob practiced their surface dives on it. The water was very clear and it was teaming with fish, crabs and the occasional trainee diver. It was only about four to five metres deep and was ideal for snorkelling. The mob separated into their buddy pairs and went with an individual instructor for more training and experience. This worked very well as the pairs were not waiting around and getting cold in the water.

As some started to feel the cold, we headed back to new pier, where Matt, Sandy and Rob assisted everyone getting out of the water via the ladder.

The older ones who were not too cold and wanted a further challenge, then came with me under the new pier to deeper water. There we found loads of fish and other divers. It was very eerie under the pier as it was quite dark, but that gave it and extra feel of excitement as we snorkelled through the gaps in it structure. When we reached the end of the pier we decided to get out as the tide was starting to get strong. We used a ladder there and returned to the group. It was time for lunch so we went back to the cars and got dried off.

We had lunch on the hillside, looking over the sea and the piers, chatting about what we had seen during our dive. Everyone seemed really happy. After lunch we decided to stretch our legs and take a walk around the old town. We arranged a meet time, to come back to the cars and went our separate ways to explore.

When we returned to the cars we loaded up and got ready to go home. I think I can be sure in saying that everyone was really tired by then, and I've been reliably told that the journey back in the minibus was very quiet (apart from the occasional snoring at the back of the bus).

Tired but happy we were met by parents ready to collect their children at Walton Pool. We unloaded and said our goodbyes. Lulworth Trip 2001 had come to a successful end.

The Kingston and Elmbridge
Junior Snorkelling Club