For people who never moan about the cold, can take or leave showers and will get used to a relentless thrum of hooting trumpet noises, ideal jobs have come up.
A heritage charity is advertising vacancies at the bottom of the world. Based in Antarctica, just 9,000 miles from the UK, successful applicants will have to adapt to near-constant daylight, always freezing temperatures and no flushing toilet or running water.
But what incredible upsides: a once-in-a-lifetime adventure, penguins, breathtaking landscapes and the chance to support conservation efforts in one of the most remote corners of the planet.
The UK Antarctic Heritage Trust (UKAHT) said it was seeking “passionate adventurers ready to take on the challenge of a lifetime” in jobs that include managing a museum, post office and gift shop as well as conducting penguin counts.
They will live and work at Base A at Port Lockroy on Goudier Island, which is about the size of a football pitch.
Bridie Martin-West, a 33-year-old midwife, is the current base leader. On a video call with the Guardian from Port Lockroy she described the ups and downs of five months on one of the most isolated working environments on the planet.
“We are getting towards the end of our stay here but we still have the magic of looking outside and seeing hundreds of penguin chicks who are almost fully fledged, we get the wonder of seeing humpback and minke whales go past.
“On one side of the island we have the most majestic mountain range and on the other side we’ve got a glacier with icebergs. It is really raw nature and stunningly beautiful.”
The team arrived on the island at the same time as gentoo penguins for their breeding season. The penguins are known for their loud head-back trumpet call but Martin-West said they soon got used to their noise.
“Having come from living in London it is still much quieter here… it’s only the penguins and the wind which make noise.”
Cooking is shared which means meals are variable. Martin-West said they were lucky enough to have a trained pastry chef on the team meaning one meal might be wild mushroom risotto followed by flambéed pineapple. Next night, Fray Bentos pie.
A typical evening might be watching films, playing board games or carrying on an Antarctic tradition of people giving formal presentations on subjects they know something about. “It is such a lovely activity, just learning and seeing the passion someone has.”
Martin-West said they had also been good at celebrating occasions. “We really went to town with Burns night. We had a tinned haggis and speeches … and we had a full ceilidh in our tiny sitting room. None of us know how to ceilidh but we gave it a good go.”
Everyone has been able to adapt, she said, including to not having flushing toilets or running water. “We are all fairly ‘get on and deal with whatever comes our way’ type of people.”
Camilla Nichol, the charity’s CEO, said successful applicants would need to be “resilient, physically fit, environmentally aware” and up for the challenge of spending five months so far away from home.
“This is a unique opportunity to live in a landscape that makes you feel pure awe and wonder, where pioneering generations have gone before us making groundbreaking discoveries about our planet,” she said.
The base was established in 1944 as part of a secret wartime mission called Operation Tabarin, intended to establish British sovereignty in the region.
It has operated as a British scientific research station for 80 years and is, according to UKAHT’s patron, Princess Anne, “one of the most important and enduring of all government sponsored ventures in the Antarctic”.
Applications opened on Monday to UK residents with training beginning in August ahead of the stint from late October or November until March 2025.
There will be interviews and selection events before then. Martin-West recalls one where they were asked to put up tents blindfold while wearing oven gloves. The last 16, she said “was like a cross between boot camp and a reality TV show”.
Successful applicants will not be disappointed, she said. “It has been such a fantastic experience … It is very full on, it is a lot of work, some of which is quite physical. We’ve developed muscles in quite strange places.”
Everyone on the island shares a small bunk-room, so getting on is particularly important.
“That’s part of the interview process as well, it’s not just how you are as an individual, it’s seeing how you work as a team.
“There’s a a Wikipedia page that talks about murders in Antarctica. It does happen and I think they want to avoid that!”
