What’s it like to work in one of the southernmost places in the world? In addition to the remote location and extreme cold, jobs in Antarctica offer plenty of challenges — not the least of which are the extent of time people are expected to work there. An Insider article from 2012 notes that most people working there do so in six-month shifts — and it’s not like working there affords many opportunities for weekend getaways or day trips.
Still, if the idea of getting to a continent most people will never set foot on sounds enticing, there’s an intriguing opportunity opening up. The Washington Post reports that the British government is currently hiring four people to staff a post office at Port Lockroy. The job also includes helping run a gift shop there; also, there’s no running water.
Known as the “Penguin Post Office,” Port Lockroy does handle a solid amount of letters every year. Its website points out that 70,000 postcards pass through it each year, en route to over a hundred countries. And that seems understandable — if you were going to visit Antarctica, why wouldn’t you send a postcard or two to friends and family?
The base there was established during World War II, and was renovated and converted into a museum beginning in 1996. And, if the images released by the U.K. Antarctic Trust are any indication, there’s no shortage of penguins nearby. That’s not a euphemism for anything — there are just a lot of penguins in the vicinity.
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