Snow, penguins and constant daylight for Christmas at the bottom of the world

A blanket of snow and plenty of penguins sounds like a Christmas card - but for Dale Ellis, who is spending the festive season on a remote island in Antarctica, it's daily life.

As the cruise ship sailed away after dropping off the team, the first task for Dale and her four colleagues was to dig through deep snow to their accommodation.

Despite the surprisingly arduous start, Dale says since their arrival last month at Port Lockroy, a British Antarctic base on Goudier Island, everyone has settled in "really well".

The 39-year-old, from Leeds beat thousands of other applicants to travel 9,000 miles to help run the base for the charity, UK Antarctic Heritage Trust.

Once a British military site and research station, nowadays it consists of a post office, museum and gift shop.

The five are responsible for hosting passing cruise ships, running the post office and shop, maintaining artefacts at the museum at Bransfield House, and conducting daily counts to protect the colony of gentoo penguins.

Dale's typical working day as shop manager begins with waking up to a view of "beautiful, snowy mountains".

She says: "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.

"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 is the most popular tourist destination in Antarctica, with around 18,000 visitors coming each year to learn about its history.

Each day, the team welcomes between 30 and 40 tourists - numbers are limited to to protect the penguins and make sure "penguin etiquette" is followed.

Dale, a freelance arts consultant back in West Yorkshire, says: "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.

"When the penguins all come together, it's like a little traffic jam.

"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."

The conditions on Goudier Island include constant daylight, sub-zero temperatures and no running water or flushing toilet.

Although there may be a lack of luxuries, the team gets assistance from passing ships and can occasionally use the onboard facilities.

Despite not showering very often - she's managed five times since she arrived in November - Dale says adjusting to the bright conditions on the island has been one of main challenges of her five-month stint.

"It's hard to know what day it is because of the light and constant shine.

"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."

During their temporary stay, the team's main wildlife monitoring task is to count the penguin eggs, which are usually laid at this time of year.

Dale's favourite part of the experience so far is witnessing the wildlife which she describes as "like being in a David Attenborough documentary".

"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.

"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."

Although she is missing family and friends, Dale says life on the island so far has been everything she expected and more.

On Christmas Day she and her colleagues hope to take time off from duties and spend it together.

"We've become like a close-knit family so we'll spending the day together.

"We'll have a walk around the island and then cook ourselves a nice dinner and play games and sing carols.

"We're very lucky we've got a guaranteed white Christmas which is like a winter wonderland.

"And all those penguins outside that people have on their Christmas cards, we'll have just outside our window."

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