Would you spend five months in Antarctica taking care of the mail and counting the penguins?
Sometimes a person wants not just to travel to a distant destination, but to stay longer. If the prospect of living in Antarctica for five months and working at the world’s most remote post office sounds tempting, now is the time to shine your resume.
The British organization UK Antarctic Heritage Trust announced in mid-April that it is looking for a team to deal with the mail, while taking over the maintenance of the Port Lockroy station on the island of Winke and counting the growing population of penguins. The organization is sending staff to Antarctica for the first time since the start of the 2020 pandemic.
Winke Island is a beautiful place with snowy hills, but the job advertisement explicitly warns that the work environment is a “physical and mental challenge”, so it is advisable for each candidate to consult their GP before applying for a job.
During their service (from November 2022 to March 2023, when it is “summer” in Antarctica), the selected candidates will have to process more than 80,000 letters, as well as work in the souvenir shop visited by tourists. The expected maximum temperatures during this time are around +10 degrees.
“Given the nature of Port Lockroy’s day-to-day maintenance tasks, we are looking for candidates with a range of skills such as experience in sales, cultural heritage, conservation and maintenance of buildings, and leadership or management,” the ad said.
Since the selected candidates will live together indoors for months, their selection team wants everyone to describe what it is like to be able to combine people with compatible qualities.
There is no running water on the island (including the toilet), as all provisions are delivered by ship, and garbage is exported in the same way. Employees can bathe on board arriving ships. The rooms in which the employees will live are described as “ordinary but comfortable”. There is no internet or good phone coverage.
The port of Port Locroy was built in 1944 and is currently one of the most visited places in Antarctica, including tourist cruises.
