After last weekend this weekend was going to be a peaceful one with the family and new puppy- so naturally I jumped at the chance to get away from them to help out with the RX youth team camp and volunteered to be a patient in a mock car crash for sunday.
Except in the end Sunday never happened but instead they needed a hand setting up an abseil for the YEPPs on Sat. Off the Dunedin Central City firetower. All 30m of it. In the wind (and occasional rain)
I decided to be nice to Bill and take brat daughter with me and leave him with just the puppy to cope with.
Access to the top of the tower is through the pitch black smoke hole at the bottom followed by five or is it six vertical ladders. Of course the fireguys probably do it carrying a 17 stone dummy so not being daft I let Aaron carry the ropes and I took the hardware (actually 6 steel crabs and a couple of fig 8s are probably nearly the same weight!). And aron- aren't you glad I pursuaded you that we didn't need the 100m ropes and the 40s would do eh mate!
It was pretty windy up there (brr!) but at least the wind was only coming from one direction- cos at the bottom it was coming from all angles, we walked all around a four sided tower and there was no shelter anywhere.
Anchors were easy enough but the take off was more of a problem with windows and bloody great searchlights in the way and the railing was so high I decided I would set up so the kids could squeeze through it rather than make them climb over cos I reckoned that would be less scary for them. And they didn't look that tall (hint to self no one looks tall when viewed from 100feet above!) Oh yeh and why is it that something which doesn't look too bad when viewed from below grows another 300feet higher when you're standing on it?
And of course the first one up was enormously tall and the poor lad had to bend himself in half to get through the gap. But it was all good- if cold.
After I'd put 8 or so over (sloowwly they weren't real quick but for a second ab for most of them they did really well on a very exposed site) I zoomed down and collected her ladyship. She was more than happy to climb the two ladders to the first window and the started howling that she wa scared and didn't want to ab. Lucky for her she had an admiring crowd of followers by now or her evil mother would have chucked her over anyway given that she's climbed higher on climbing walls, but with a bit of assistance from Juliet she did eventually get lowered through the hatch of the lower ladder and loved it.
Sunday, October 11, 2009
you want me to do what???
so last weekend I went on the SAR swiftwater rescue course. There was a basic course a few weeks previous that I missed cos I was still in Aussie so the course I was going on was the advanced one. Won't say I wasn't nervous- cos I WAS, especially after hearing the tales from the basic course and being told about what was promised for the next one.
We met up at Outram Glen at 8 for a drive up thru the forestry and a walk in under the Viaduct to the put in on the Taieri Gorge. After a safety brief we set off. It was pretty chilly weather but not nearly as bad as forecast (snow etc etc). The aim was apparently to stay dry for as long as possible- which was unfortunate for the guys in the second raft thru the pipeline rapid when their boat flipped in a hole. By now I was getting even more nervous- with good reason cos one guy took a REALLY long swim- several 100 metres at least and that water was COLD!!!.
Next up was a paddle to the Rock Garden where after a short snack stop we had a play with lining a raft and yup- SWIMMING. I knew i was going to struggle on that but found it much worse than I was expecting- lets just say that knowing there is a bloody great drop and water funnel on the river below you is a real incentive to stay on the bank so far as I'm concerned.
After missing the throw bag on my second swim I thought I was not getting into that eddy but luckily saw the rope end and was able to grab it.
Much to my relief we lined the rafts down the nasty bit with the guides on board, a near miss for Nick but he hung on in there.
Then for a long paddle against a strong head wind- the river mostly appeared to be blowing back upstream to meet us at times!
After ten minutes in a hot bath I STILL couldn't feel all my toes at the end of the day.
Day two and sleet showers to start us off.
After the same comments about staying dry within 30 minutes of starting off we were doing full on quick fire challenges with people swimming to rescue trapped victims, or at least get a line to the other side of the river to tie a boat onto.
I bottled the pipeline this time round !
At the Rock Garden a new delight awaited- an obstacle course. We had to make our way around a set course and weren't allowed to paddle the rafts! And the first thing was to swim across the river. Can't say I was too enthusiatic about this but managed it better than I thought I would but didn't like the curent the other side. Then came using the raft as a bridge across various rocks before going across on a zip line. I was actually getting a bit of adrelaline going by now and almost looking forward to the zipline- which paid me back by dunking me under water and nearly ripping the sling out of my hand before abandonning me in the middle of the river so I had to haul myslef across to the other side. Then we lined the raft away down the nasty bit- it's known as S*** yourself rock for good reason.
Lunch was a stunning BBQ at Steve's secret BBQ spot before heading out on the flat stuff- at least there was no head wind today but my hands were even colder than the day before.
All in all a couple of bloody good (if scary) days with some useful learning points.
Many thanks to Steve and his team of rafters, Southey for coming down to run the course, Brian for setting it all up and Scotty for getting the funding.
We met up at Outram Glen at 8 for a drive up thru the forestry and a walk in under the Viaduct to the put in on the Taieri Gorge. After a safety brief we set off. It was pretty chilly weather but not nearly as bad as forecast (snow etc etc). The aim was apparently to stay dry for as long as possible- which was unfortunate for the guys in the second raft thru the pipeline rapid when their boat flipped in a hole. By now I was getting even more nervous- with good reason cos one guy took a REALLY long swim- several 100 metres at least and that water was COLD!!!.
Next up was a paddle to the Rock Garden where after a short snack stop we had a play with lining a raft and yup- SWIMMING. I knew i was going to struggle on that but found it much worse than I was expecting- lets just say that knowing there is a bloody great drop and water funnel on the river below you is a real incentive to stay on the bank so far as I'm concerned.
After missing the throw bag on my second swim I thought I was not getting into that eddy but luckily saw the rope end and was able to grab it.
Much to my relief we lined the rafts down the nasty bit with the guides on board, a near miss for Nick but he hung on in there.
Then for a long paddle against a strong head wind- the river mostly appeared to be blowing back upstream to meet us at times!
After ten minutes in a hot bath I STILL couldn't feel all my toes at the end of the day.
Day two and sleet showers to start us off.
After the same comments about staying dry within 30 minutes of starting off we were doing full on quick fire challenges with people swimming to rescue trapped victims, or at least get a line to the other side of the river to tie a boat onto.
I bottled the pipeline this time round !
At the Rock Garden a new delight awaited- an obstacle course. We had to make our way around a set course and weren't allowed to paddle the rafts! And the first thing was to swim across the river. Can't say I was too enthusiatic about this but managed it better than I thought I would but didn't like the curent the other side. Then came using the raft as a bridge across various rocks before going across on a zip line. I was actually getting a bit of adrelaline going by now and almost looking forward to the zipline- which paid me back by dunking me under water and nearly ripping the sling out of my hand before abandonning me in the middle of the river so I had to haul myslef across to the other side. Then we lined the raft away down the nasty bit- it's known as S*** yourself rock for good reason.
Lunch was a stunning BBQ at Steve's secret BBQ spot before heading out on the flat stuff- at least there was no head wind today but my hands were even colder than the day before.
All in all a couple of bloody good (if scary) days with some useful learning points.
Many thanks to Steve and his team of rafters, Southey for coming down to run the course, Brian for setting it all up and Scotty for getting the funding.
home again
well I've been back home for three weeks now.
Had a great time in Aussie and found it really interesting and would thoroughly recommend it to anyone eligable. In fact that's my next job- to recommend it to the vollies over here so have a presentation all set and ready to go for those that are interested, I've done a couple so far and hope to do a few more in the future.
Anyway to wrap up the last bit of the tour. The Prospect shift ended up as 7 jobs for me and 8 for the crew- I had to stay back for one job as they were going to the prison which meant an escort and no room for me. Still felt strange finishing a shift at 5 instead of 7. Since getting back my home town shifts have been quite busy- the other day we did one job before lunch and finished the day with 8 call outs on the mileage log- one got diverted when we were nearly there and another one turned into two patients from one on arrival but still a busy day!
Had a great time in Aussie and found it really interesting and would thoroughly recommend it to anyone eligable. In fact that's my next job- to recommend it to the vollies over here so have a presentation all set and ready to go for those that are interested, I've done a couple so far and hope to do a few more in the future.
Anyway to wrap up the last bit of the tour. The Prospect shift ended up as 7 jobs for me and 8 for the crew- I had to stay back for one job as they were going to the prison which meant an escort and no room for me. Still felt strange finishing a shift at 5 instead of 7. Since getting back my home town shifts have been quite busy- the other day we did one job before lunch and finished the day with 8 call outs on the mileage log- one got diverted when we were nearly there and another one turned into two patients from one on arrival but still a busy day!
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