Can you believe it?!
It has been 10 days already that we were granted access to this beautiful paradise...Most people would get ready to leave now, as their holiday fortnight is approaching its end. Well – aren’t we happy that we have another 6 weeks to spend on this wonderful island!
I feel completely at ease here, Mauritius is my new home. I am yet to be convinced that England has got enough going for it to get me off this cloud no 9!
Our days here are not overly action-packed and eventful but that’s why it is comfortable and nice here, there is just not the rush one normally feels when on holiday, the pressure to see everything, experience everything and take everything in prior to the return flight.
This is what our typical day looks like:
I get up at 7.10am, have a quick bite, and leave the house at 7.40am. Upon arrival at the dive shop at 7.45am we open the club house, storage rooms etc, as the dive guests typically start coming in around 8.45am. All bottles have been refilled, the wet suits have been put in order, all scuba gear is where it should be, the shop is spotless. Owner Wolfgang is as German as they come, everything is “in order”, clean and in best condition!
When the guests arrive they find their scuba bags already packed with BCD (air jacket), regulators (hoses with mouth pieces, to be connected to bottle and BCD), fins, mask etc – ready to go aboard. Part of my job is also, amongst others, to bring the bottles on board, which is an excellent weight exercise. By the time we leave I might even have some muscles to show...
The first boat load leaves at 9.30am, and after that the painful bit starts – studying. By then the lovely Silvia is rewarding us with her presence, eager to get on with her course. For the next hours we pour over our study books, or Silvia is either in the pool or in the lagoon, practising diving with her instructor.
My dive master manual is the most tedious book I have ever read, closely followed by the very boring dive encyclopaedia, whose content I apparently have to know by heart...Big struggle so far, but I am slowly getting there. Compared to the initial Open Water, which Silvia is currently doing, the Advanced Open Water and even the Rescue Diver this is some serious stuff, like physics, dive physiology, chemistry, equipment etc...so much to fit in that oh so small brain.
I don’t seem to do a lot of diving at the moment, as my days are rather filled by studying and helping in the shop. But two days ago I did a fantastic and exciting night dive, which is great fun and really very different from diving in daylight. Again, another, different world down there...
The boat returns around 11.30am, wanting to be cleared of divers, dive gear and empty oxygen bottles. For lunch we mostly eat baguettes from a local cafe, for a very affordable 80 Rupees.
After that more studying, and more and more involvement and assisting in current classes and courses, helping the instructors, and having a watchful eye when classes are full. When Silvia was diving in the lagoon for the first time I was allowed to dive along, even asked to hold the floating dive marker – big honour!
Second boat leaves at 1.30pm, followed by more reading and some lectures by my tutor. After the boat has returned, everything is washed, hung to dry, cleaned away, swiped, brushed and polished – and at 5pm the shop closes finally! By then my brain is mash, and I am totally knackered from all the physical and mental work. I would have never guessed that working at a dive centre bears so much work!
However – the staff are really nice, the guests are friendly and chatty (to Silvia’s’ big delight), and to work there, in warm sunshine and blue sky, is a bliss!
After work we sometimes take the bus into Grand Baie, which is a mere 3km away, to go shopping at the local supermarket. Silvia is outdoing herself with different tasty dinners, which is not so easy with a very limited ration of tools and pans. So, no needs to complain at that front either!
That is what is happening at the moment, not too much, as our days are currently filled with theory and books. But helped by beautiful sunshine, breathtaking scenery and many new and wonderful people in our lives.
To be continued soon...lots of love
It has been 10 days already that we were granted access to this beautiful paradise...Most people would get ready to leave now, as their holiday fortnight is approaching its end. Well – aren’t we happy that we have another 6 weeks to spend on this wonderful island!
I feel completely at ease here, Mauritius is my new home. I am yet to be convinced that England has got enough going for it to get me off this cloud no 9!
Our days here are not overly action-packed and eventful but that’s why it is comfortable and nice here, there is just not the rush one normally feels when on holiday, the pressure to see everything, experience everything and take everything in prior to the return flight.
This is what our typical day looks like:
I get up at 7.10am, have a quick bite, and leave the house at 7.40am. Upon arrival at the dive shop at 7.45am we open the club house, storage rooms etc, as the dive guests typically start coming in around 8.45am. All bottles have been refilled, the wet suits have been put in order, all scuba gear is where it should be, the shop is spotless. Owner Wolfgang is as German as they come, everything is “in order”, clean and in best condition!
When the guests arrive they find their scuba bags already packed with BCD (air jacket), regulators (hoses with mouth pieces, to be connected to bottle and BCD), fins, mask etc – ready to go aboard. Part of my job is also, amongst others, to bring the bottles on board, which is an excellent weight exercise. By the time we leave I might even have some muscles to show...
The first boat load leaves at 9.30am, and after that the painful bit starts – studying. By then the lovely Silvia is rewarding us with her presence, eager to get on with her course. For the next hours we pour over our study books, or Silvia is either in the pool or in the lagoon, practising diving with her instructor.
My dive master manual is the most tedious book I have ever read, closely followed by the very boring dive encyclopaedia, whose content I apparently have to know by heart...Big struggle so far, but I am slowly getting there. Compared to the initial Open Water, which Silvia is currently doing, the Advanced Open Water and even the Rescue Diver this is some serious stuff, like physics, dive physiology, chemistry, equipment etc...so much to fit in that oh so small brain.
I don’t seem to do a lot of diving at the moment, as my days are rather filled by studying and helping in the shop. But two days ago I did a fantastic and exciting night dive, which is great fun and really very different from diving in daylight. Again, another, different world down there...
The boat returns around 11.30am, wanting to be cleared of divers, dive gear and empty oxygen bottles. For lunch we mostly eat baguettes from a local cafe, for a very affordable 80 Rupees.
After that more studying, and more and more involvement and assisting in current classes and courses, helping the instructors, and having a watchful eye when classes are full. When Silvia was diving in the lagoon for the first time I was allowed to dive along, even asked to hold the floating dive marker – big honour!
Second boat leaves at 1.30pm, followed by more reading and some lectures by my tutor. After the boat has returned, everything is washed, hung to dry, cleaned away, swiped, brushed and polished – and at 5pm the shop closes finally! By then my brain is mash, and I am totally knackered from all the physical and mental work. I would have never guessed that working at a dive centre bears so much work!
However – the staff are really nice, the guests are friendly and chatty (to Silvia’s’ big delight), and to work there, in warm sunshine and blue sky, is a bliss!
After work we sometimes take the bus into Grand Baie, which is a mere 3km away, to go shopping at the local supermarket. Silvia is outdoing herself with different tasty dinners, which is not so easy with a very limited ration of tools and pans. So, no needs to complain at that front either!
That is what is happening at the moment, not too much, as our days are currently filled with theory and books. But helped by beautiful sunshine, breathtaking scenery and many new and wonderful people in our lives.
To be continued soon...lots of love
