Time flies but that's good because most of us are starting to feel a bit trained out and just want to get on the ship. Then again there's the downside of leaving everyone you love behind but heck I just want to get going now, enough packing, running around getting supplies, trying to assimilate info from yet another training session...It's all part of the experience but I have to admit I never knew how mad pre-departure organising can get.

We visited the Great Barrier Reef for a few days a couple of weeks ago and I have to say that was the most amazingly beautiful and mesmerising place. The tropical north Queensland coastline is rugged and stunningly beautiful and we also made it to Daintree where I saw real rainforest for the first time in my life. The only downside of the trip was that I took my skinsuit instead of the 3mm wetsuit and absolutely froze stiff after 30 minutes in the water - I should have known better. Mental note to self.

Fire training was a very good experience if not slightly hairy to start with. The thing that sticks to mind is that if things should go pear shaped and you end up crawling in a real fire down south it will be someone you know you might be looking for. That's not a very nice thought. I became one of the two deputy fire chiefs for winter and that is an even hairier thought.

Since my last post I have also done mast and tower climbing rescue, lifting and handling (OH&S) and postal officer training. I have never climbed a tower before, just gone up a mountain or dangled up on a climbing wall but this was something else. The descenders were luxuriously heavy duty although I suspect the mechanism might not like -30C (so I'm definitely taking the trusty old figure of eight along). It is really our engineer who will have to climb up but backup buddies get to practice too so all in all things look promising climbingwise.

More training on the menu tomorrow - some further OH&S stuff and on Saturday we will shoot up to the central highlands of Tasmania for further survival and basic field skills practice. Snow down to 700m has been forecasted so the quad bike training should get a bit closer to the real thing. It's been blowing our socks off here in Hobart in the last two days too - I was hoping for some warm weather with luxurious sunshine to soak up some vitamin D but there's still time!

So it is now 11 days to go and the schedule is looking like it will happen as planned. I dragged my remaining boxes of unaccompanied goods to the cargo facility earlier this week and felt a short bout of relief until I realised that I had inevitably forgotten a few things that I "absolutely must have" (as with so many other things). Again it will be a bit of a relief to get on the ship as you know that after that things are no longer in your hands cargowise. But just to stop myself from freaking out I have a one last bag ready to hold the last minute things - who cares if they get to Davis in March.

I think I have some serious obsessive-compulsive traits when it comes to redundancy - must have two of everything (three is better). It is not like we are going to be out of communication living in a shack with blubber stove and spam for a year. So I need to snap out of this and enjoy the ride. I'll return to that topic again after I stop being seasick I think - still, going by plane the first time was so very very easy and convenient so this time some misery must be had before earning the place. Everything is getting easier these days...what happened to the sturdy tough resilient explorer? And will you please make me a latte while I'll turn up the heat a bit and watch the penguins waddling outside. Yes, very easy indeed.

Speaking of penguins I have a new little companion - he's a little fairy penguin and he's called Wobbles. Pictures will follow!