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During longer push dives into caves here divers rehydrate during the swim, 
as we may be faced with 2-4 hours swimming.  Any flexible bag with a tube 
that can be closed works well, I have seen the camelbacks that Christina 
mentioned in an outdoor shop, and they look ideal, but have not seen them 
used.  An i.v. bag and giving set with the drip chamber removed works well, 
but unfortunately the solution plasticises, picking up a nauseating taste 
from the bag.  This is unfortunate because a sterile 5% glucose solution 
that you can get in these bags would be useful, providing some 're-carbing' 
during prolonged exercise, reducing hypotonic diuresis, and the bags can be 
cached in the caves without growing bugs.  They can be emptied and easily 
refilled with your own drink through the giving set by starting a siphon 
(stick the tube in the drink, put the bag down lower and pull the sides 
apart to create some suction).  The solution remains drinkable for a couple 
hours.  The bladder from a wine cask (do they have these outside of 
Australia?) would work well, with the tap modified to take a giving set.  
Fruit boxes with straws work well (the fruit juice bags that have been 
described sound better) but you have to drink the whole lot at once.  Some 
friends of mine had problems with bad buildup of mucus during a dive that 
they attributed to drinking from fruit boxes, I cannot imagine why and I 
have not had this problem myself, but they are experienced and thoughtful 
divers, and this makes their observation credible.  Anyway it left them in 
some difficulty in descending sufficiently to clear the cave roof to make it 
to their air chamber camp after a 2500 metre swim.  

regards,

David Doolette
ddoolett@me*.ad*.ed*.au*

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