Christmas in Antarctica: Snow, Penguins, and Perpetual Daylight for Remote Base Team

While a scene of abundant snow and numerous penguins might evoke a Christmas card image, for Dale Ellis, observing the holiday period on a secluded Antarctic island, this represents her everyday existence. Following the departure of the cruise ship that transported the team, Dale and her four associates initially faced the challenge of excavating deep snow to reach their living quarters. Notwithstanding this unexpectedly demanding beginning, Dale reports that since their arrival last month at Port Lockroy, a British Antarctic base situated on Goudier Island, everyone has adapted “really well”. The 39-year-old individual, hailing from Leeds, was selected from thousands of candidates to journey 9,000 miles to assist in managing the base on behalf of the UK Antarctic Heritage Trust charity. This location, formerly a British military outpost and research facility, now comprises a post office, a museum, and a gift shop. The five team members’ duties include welcoming visiting cruise ships, operating the post office and retail outlet, preserving artifacts at the museum within Bransfield House, and performing routine counts to safeguard the gentoo penguin colony. As the shop manager, Dale’s standard workday commences with her awakening to a vista of “beautiful, snowy mountains”. She states: “I walk a very short commute of about 60 seconds to work. On my way I get to go past the penguins and look up at the incredible views.” She adds: “I then open up my shop, make sure my tills are running and that everything looks lovely and I spend my day welcoming visitors.” Port Lockroy stands as Antarctica’s premier tourist attraction, drawing approximately 18,000 annual visitors interested in its historical background. Daily, the team greets between 30 and 40 tourists; these figures are restricted to safeguard the penguins and ensure adherence to “penguin etiquette”. Dale, who works as a freelance arts consultant in West Yorkshire when not at the base, explains: “The penguins make their own little highways that they walk along so one of our jobs is to make sure that the visitors aren’t walking on those highways and getting in their way.” She further observes: “When the penguins all come together, it’s like a little traffic jam.” She adds: “They sort of jostle past each other because they’re quite a sassy species and often they’re fighting or squabbling. It’s really funny to watch.” Goudier Island presents conditions characterized by continuous daylight, temperatures below freezing, and an absence of both running water and flushable toilets. While amenities are limited, the team receives support from passing vessels and can sometimes utilize their onboard facilities. Despite infrequent showering—she has done so five times since her arrival in November—Dale indicates that adapting to the island’s perpetual brightness has been a primary difficulty during her five-month assignment. “It’s hard to know what day it is because of the light and constant shine,” she explains. “We have to set a strict bedtime routine and close all the curtains in the hut where we sleep at about 20:00. We have blackout blinds and curtains around our bunk beds to make sure we have darkness to sleep in.” A key wildlife monitoring responsibility for the team during their temporary residence involves counting penguin eggs, which are typically deposited during this period of the year. Dale identifies observing the local wildlife as her most cherished aspect of the experience thus far, characterizing it as “like being in a David Attenborough documentary”. She recounts: “We check how the penguins are doing and count their eggs and the first egg we spotted was on 18 November, which was my birthday so that was so exciting.” She also notes: “There’s been a lot of whales in the area recently so we’re seeing huge whale tails coming out of the water with these huge mountains in the backdrop. “It’s pretty amazing.”” Despite feeling the absence of family and friends, Dale affirms that her time on the island has met and exceeded her expectations. For Christmas Day, she and her coworkers intend to pause their responsibilities and celebrate jointly. She states: “We’ve become like a close-knit family so we’ll spending the day together.” She elaborates on their plans: “We’ll have a walk around the island and then cook ourselves a nice dinner and play games and sing carols.” She concludes: “We’re very lucky we’ve got a guaranteed white Christmas which is like a winter wonderland.” And regarding the wildlife, she adds: “And all those penguins outside that people have on their Christmas cards, we’ll have just outside our window.” Listen to highlights from West Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North or tell us a story you think we should be covering here.Copyright 2024 BBC. All rights reserved. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Read about our approach to external linking.