SPECIAL FEATURE: Penguin postmaster Clare shares her amazing story

​Clare Ballantyne is one of four people who were selected to run the post office in Port Lockroy, on Goudier Island, for four months, which is the UK’s most southerly public post office – affectionately known as the Penguin Post Office – operated by the UK Antarctic Heritage Trust (UKAHT) on behalf of the Post Office.

Clare’s job as postmaster not only involved running the post office on the island, processing more than 80,000 postcards sent from the 18,000 tourists visiting the island, but she was involved in the work by the UKAHT to monitor the effects of climate change on the island’s penguin population.

Clare arrived home at the beginning of April after heading over to the base in November.

She said there were so many incredible moments from her months on the island – which had a circumference of just 750 meters:

"It's really hard to pick just one particular moment as there were so many days when the team would say ‘today was the best day ever’, and then the next day would be the best day ever and the next and so on.

"The scenery was absolutely stunning all the time and it was always changing – some days the glaciers would be covered in snow, and then we'd look at the window and see a penguin walk past or some seals and whales in the sea.

"Also some days we'd hear what sounded like thunder but then we'd look out of the window and see a huge chunk of ice fall into the water, it was just changing all the time.”

She said the team were very close-knit and leaned on each other when it got tough:

"We all got on so well and it was very intense, as we had visitors from 9am to 6pm and we were running the post office and when the visitors had all left for the day, we then had to do all of the cooking and the cleaning and monitoring the penguins.

"But we all really supported each other and it was always pretty exciting and being part of such a great team was fantastic.

"If we were finding it hard, we’d just take ourselves off for a little walk around the island and see some penguins which really helped, so we could head back feeling refreshed and carry on.”

A total of 238 penguins were hatched during their survey, which is down on previous years due to the amount of snow that the team experienced out there, which the experts said was “unprecedented”:

"There was a delay in hatching the chicks of a month due to this snow, so we were very excited when they finally started to appear,” Clare said, “They were so adorable and fluffy!

"We unfortunately didn't see any that were starting to learn to swim before we left, but the expert said that they were doing really well and we're really hopeful for them.”

Clare said the cold didn't really bother her that much, but the weather was so changeable.

She said: “It was usually around 0°c but with the wind chill, it could feel like -15°c – but on other days it could be 10 degrees and we'd be working in t-shirts.

"It was just so changeable, but the penguins were completely unfazed by it all and they just cracked on spending time building their nests from stones and caring for their chicks.”

The journey back was quite dicey for the team, as once they have finished cleaning out their huts and preparing it for the next team they then have to board a ship to Argentina, which took five days and the sea was rough.

“I didn't leave my room much during those days!” Clare said, “But we were all pretty tired after the clear out and departure that it was nice just to spend a few days in bed.”

Clare then spent a couple of days hiking in Patagonia before heading back home, which she said it was a great way to introduce herself to the world again.

As for what comes next, Clare said she is aiming to catch up with friends and go on some hikes first before exploring her career option – hopefully in the environmental sector to help combat climate change:

"I met a lot of amazing people and I was incredibly inspired by these people, and I want to go into the environment sector and I'm looking at opportunities to contribute towards climate change and mitigation, possibly a Masters degree, and but at the moment I'm trying to catch up with friends and people I've not seen for a long time.

“The UKAHT really is an incredible charity and I'm so lucky to have been involved in their work.”