The journey begins....


Arriving in Hobart from sunny Gold Coast, slight shock to the system from 26 deg to 11 in 4 1/2  short hours after a brief stop in Sydney. 1st hurdle find a cab which can cope with: 2 back packs, 1 120litre Patogonia duffle and 1 Cervelo bike in a suitably designed bike bag. Ahh taxi rank nothing but Prius as far as the eye can see, after some discussion with a very helpful cabbie a mini bus appears ready to take on the task.

I have travelled in many cabs over my time some trips more memorable than others, however on this occasion I have scored a champion, born and bred Tassie and full of information, after a brief introduction a healthy discussion on sites to be seen around Hobart begins, starting with the whether over the past week "Not usually this warm at this time of the year, although we had some snow last night on the mountain and over there, (pointing to the left) is the orangey roughy they've just spent 19 mil on it over in Singapore I believe" This guy was a driving google, and a credit to Hobart.

I arrived at my accommodation the Old Wool Store, nice place booked in "so your here Mr Stringer for 61 nights" something like that I responded, I was expecting to share a room with another expeditioner, but not to be a comfortable 1 bedroom self contained unit, that'll do.

The first 8 weeks of my new adventure is dedicated to training, anyone who has endured training would agree that the expectation is 8 weeks of classrooms and lectures good grief, however to my surprise, the training has been interesting and very well organised with the majority of the day being consumed and time passing quickly.

We also receive a kit to travel south and I received mine on Friday this week, the amount of gear is mind boggling but I suppose we are travelling to the coldest place on the earth.