Search and Rescue

Can you believe that Hobart hit 21 degrees yesterday. Simon headed off to do his Search and Rescue course in Hobart and he said it was so mild. On Saturday afternoon, I put the air-con on in the car - I know, almost criminal for August. Simon left about 6.15am yesterday morning for four weeks of torture, I mean wonderful training and experience. I was going to take a photo of him walking out the door like Lisa did on her blog when Aaron went to Melbourne for an AFL weekend camp with his school, but I barely opened my eyes to grunt a goodbye.

So for the next four weeks Simon will be learning the skills required to be a team leader in a Search and Rescue scenario. We seem to get alot of that down here with our pristine wilderness and areas like Cradle Mountain. The danger here is that it can get so cold so quickly and then people are stuck without the proper equipment. Some of the things he is doing is caving, helicopter ground school, mapping, EPIRB training, roping and anchoring, stretcher rescues, ascending and descending vertical climbs, navigation, lost person tracking, remote area first aid and the part I think will be torture - out by yourself in the snow with no tent overnight.

There was so much gear Simon had to take. I kept saying - is this stuff tax deductible. A lot is provided by Search and Rescue though and it is real good quality. Just his sleeping bag alone goes to minus 20 degrees. I wanted to sleep in it before he went. Then there is all the wet weather gear, cold weather gear, compass, headtorch, proper boots, ground sheet, gas stove, utensils, first aid kit, thermals, gloves and the list goes on.

There will be lots of walking and physical stuff and you should see how much theory is involved with ropes and knots. On the last night at the end of next month they are having a dinner - I don't know if anyone will be left standing to attend. It looks very full-on but Simon is one to enjoy nature and getting away from the routine stuff so I think he is going to have an amazing time. I have sent him off with THE most important piece of equipment - a camera so I can record it all on the blog when he gets back.

Back to this unusual warm weather, the kids decided to take advantage of it and play in the sandpit, half of which ended up in the house of course.