General: The photos on this page are of Dosthill over a period of time, in no particular order. Dosthill is near Tamworth, close to the M42 Junction 10. Head for Tamworth, then turn off on Dosthill Road. Take Church Road on the right at the top of the hill. Entry fee and other details can be found on their website. The maximum depth is 24metres at the centre. There are quite a few wrecks, including a land-rover, barge, caravan, Parcel Force Van and small 'house'. It is possible to dive the circumference of the quarry in 30 minutes easily at depths of 10metres or so, longer time would be required if one pauses to play. The centre of the quarry is the deepest. Visibility is generally quite good, but the 22/24metre section can become quite silty if there are a lot of divers in the water.

Its weird isn't it? What is? I'll tell you! When I was about to do my 50th ever dive, I built it up as something special. As it turned out, it was a bit of a let-down. If you want to know the full details, see the report. My 100th ever dive showed a marked improvement and was done at Cirkewwe Bay on Malta - yes sir, that was a fine way to celebrate 100, but it took some planning - for about 2 months I was organising my diving calendar to ensure I didn't do it at Dosthill or Stoney, that would have been too sad for words - I even limited myself to two dives a day on a couple of occasions to ensure it happened the way I wanted it to. In the event I arrived on Malta with 99 dives under my belt (I love that phrase).

So, the 100th dive of 2003 and the 145th dive under my belt loomed large - where would it be and what would it be? A wreck?, a deep dive?, an extra long deco dive? Well actually it turned out to be in Dosthill on a very miserable wet Saturday in November. It lasted 6 minutes - yes 6 whole minutes, the bottom time was 2 minutes, the safety stop was 3 minutes and the ascent time accounted for the remaining minute. What happened? Panic, aborted dive? Well no, actually it was planned that way! I was there to complete the practical assessment part of my SAA Rescue Diver (or Diver Rescue - I never remember) which involves performing three deep lifts on an unconscious casualty, which in this case was a mannequin, plus a 10m-3m assisted ascent.

It was the latter that formed the 100th dive. We established our plan, did the buddy checks, dropped down to 10m and started the drill. I was to donate and started towards my buddy after he gave the 'out of air' signal to me. I removed my regulator and handed it to him in the traditional way and calmly took my spare. Now I have no idea why, but instead of breathing out, I breathed in, with predictable consequences, I got a lung full of water! Anyone who has done this will know what follows! Choking, coughing, a desire to be somewhere with less water around, but you can't - you have to get it under control and quickly. It seemed like forever, but it was only a few seconds before I could breathe again and we started the lift. It went well, but I was suppressing my urge to be on the surface. I could have got a better grip and been a bit better controlled but we did it, the assessor was happy and I passed the course. It was one of the longest 6 minutes of my life - that and the 6 minutes before my vascectomy.