Highland tour guide has a new posting in Antarctic
Register for free to read more of the latest local news. It's easy and will only take a moment.
A Highland tour guide has landed a job helping run the world's most southerly post office.
Laura MacNeil who has worked as a will be travelling 11,000 miles to Antarctica next month.
More than 50 people applied for the job at Port Lockroy.
They must have the ability to put up with 2000 smelly penguins for company - and the job involves clearing their poo from the surrounding path.
Those attracted to operating the seasonal outpost at Port Lockroy on the frozen continent were also warned that they may have to go two weeks without a shower.
The four assistant jobs at Port Lockroy command a monthly salary of £1100 and operate between November and March.
Laura, 37, from Lentran near Inverness has travelled extensively and has experience in coping with extreme environments.
After graduating, Laura travelled for a year in South Africa, Australia and New Zealand, working primarily in outback Western Australia.
Upon returning to Scotland she obtained a PCV licence and worked for more than 10 years, driving and guiding coach tours of the Highlands and leading groups.
During this time she also became a qualified PCV driver instructor.
Laura has just completed a year studying for an MSc in Information and library studies.
She has also lived and studied in Russia.
A spokeswoman for the United Kingdom Antarctic Heritage Trust (UKAHT) said: "A determined and dedicated individual, Laura has extensive customer facing experience and is fluent in three languages – English, Russian and German.
"Her retail experience will be particularly valuable within the shop at Port Lockroy."
Laura will follow another Laura.
Laura Martin, 25, a student outdoor instructor from Kingussie in the Highlands, returned earlier this year from doing the job.
She had followed her friend Amy Kincaid from Oban in Argyll - whom she never told she had applied for the job at Port Lockroy, which is part of the British Antarctica Territory.
Now another Scot is heading south to the Penguin Post Office.
As well as Laura, the new team comprises leader Adele Jackson from Clayton West in Huddersfield; Hannelore Cuypers, originally from Belgium - and is a dentist in Norway - and Lucy Dorman, originally from Oxfordshire, but now spends her year in constant winter by moving between New Zealand and Canada bi-annually.
Post office staff hand frank 80,000 postcards and letters to send to more than 100 countries 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.
Port Lockroy stands on a grizzled outcrop named Goudier Island, which is the size of a primary school playing field. There’s no running water, no mains electricity, and the average temperature is minus 10 degrees centigrade.
There is also no central heating, no phone signal, and no means of communication with the world other than VHF radio. And no darkness, either - being the southernmost tip of the globe, it is daylight pretty much 24 hours a day.
Camilla Nichol, Chief Executive of UKAHT said: "The team will be responsible for the care and maintenance of the museum and overall site, as well as monitoring any impact on the local wildlife, which includes carrying out surveys of the resident gentoo penguin colony.
"In accordance with the Antarctic Treaty, they will also ensure strict guidelines on the care of the environment are adhered to."
