IT may be one of the most remote jobs in the world, but a Highland woman is today setting off full of adventure for the post – 11,000 miles from home.
Laura Martin, 25, is heading to Antarctica where she will help run the world’s most southerly post office – taking over the job previously undertaken by her St Andrews University roommate.
Ms Martin, a student outdoor instructor from Kingussie, was selected from more than 2,400 applicants from 83 countries.
She will follow her friend Amy Kincaid, from Oban in Argyll, to the job at Port Lockroy, which is part of the British Antarctica Territory. She did not tell her former roommate she had applied.
Ms Martin is one of four seasonal posties for the UK Antarctic Heritage Trust (UKAHT). Her salary is £1,100 per month.
She gained a first-class honours degree in geography from St Andrews and was on a shortlist of 12 – whose ages ranged from 23 to 56 – before being selected.
Applicants had to have the ability to put up with 2,000 “smelly” penguins for company – and clear prodigious amounts of penguin poo from the post office pathway.
Ms Martin was delighted to have been picked and has spent time with Amy to get some tips on how to survive the stint. “She told me to take more clothes than are on the kit list and watch out for the penguins,” said Ms Martin, who until recently worked at the Lagganlia Centre for Outdoor Learning at Kincraig.
“She said you always get covered in penguin poo and it stinks. But you get used to it. “She also said it was hard work but a fantastic one-off experience. “We had known each other from university and we roomed together, but Amy didn’t know I had applied for Antarctica. I didn’t tell a lot of people – hardly anyone. It just seems an incredible chance that I am following her. I just saw the advert and applied.
“I am used to living in extreme environments, in close quarters and can cook tasty meals from limited produce. I am looking forward to being part of a team promoting the work of UKAHT to people from around the world.
“It has all come around quite fast. It is such a different job to what I was doing and I can’t wait to get started.”
Staff hand-frank 70,000 postcards and letters sent all over the world from the Penguin Post Office.
The team of four spend five months from November to March running the shop, post office and museum operation at Port Lockroy, which is visited by about 18,000 cruise ship passengers each season.
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