It has been a while since I did a user-level course, but was eager to have a chance to join one of Florian's overhead courses.

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So, I went on an early Thursday night to Southern France. The Lot region is a region with many caves, both for beginners and for the more advanced dpv full cave diver. I was told to bring my camping gear and we would start on Friday morning with three days of training.

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I was looking forward to camping since the weather forecast was really good, a little bit too good maybe. We hit 39 degrees and had to be careful where to leave our tanks because of the heat. The water however was chilly, to say the least, and with the many hours in water time, I was glad I brought my heating.

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Other people at the campsite were previous students of Florian and they formed a nice group. Making coffee for each other, helping out with gear and just being nice to be around was a real pleasure and a nice experience that added to the course. Because, oh boy, was the course a dumbtrunk to begin with haha. Communications and new equipment hit us, as a group, hard, and took us a few tries to get smooth to the level we were expected from our instructor. 

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I bought a new double 12 twinset and they didn't last for very long... Being pushed around while keeping focus and finding the time to choose the right line, isn't for the faint of heart. I thoroughly enjoyed the course because it broadened my diving and that hadn't happen for quit some time.

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We dove multiple sessions in Saint Sauveur and the Ressel. Diving the Ressel was worth the 9,5h drive and seeing people coming from deep with multiple stages, dpv and on CCR made me long for more cave time. However, I was also eager to go back home and see some of the mines Beglium has to offer.