Postcards from the Bottom of the World

One unique post office offers a five-month assignment, from November to March. It’s the world’s southernmost mailroom, where the weather is freezing, there’s no running water, and you bunk with your coworkers. Yet thousands of people apply for the post each year.

It’s called the Penguin Post Office, and it’s located in Port Lockroy, on Goudier Island off the coast of Antarctica, due south from Chile’s Cape Horn.

The nonprofit U.K. Antarctic Heritage Trust has run the post office at Port Lockroy since 2006. The trust looks for team members who have a love of and fascination with Antarctica and a determination to preserve its rich heritage. Only five people are selected each year.

Laura Büllesbach loves the outdoors and thought it sounded like a dream job.

Büllesbach’s background includes working as an assistant curator at the Science Museum in London. She wasn’t put off by the prospect of spartan living conditions — no running water, no showers, and literally a bucket for a toilet, as there is no plumbing at all. She had lived in similar conditions before in the Arctic, working for a Swedish ecotourism company. So she applied.

Within a couple of months, Büllesbach was on her way to Antarctica to work as postmaster and museum manager from November 2023 to March 2024. She packed lots of warm clothes and socks, as well as her Kindle loaded with books to read, some board games, and photographs of her family and friends to have some reminders of home.

But why is there a post office in the Antarctic in the first place? In 1944, during World War II, Port Lockroy was established as the first British base for a secret mission called Operation Tabarin. After the war ended, the base at Port Lockroy became an atmospheric science research hub until 1962. As the first permanent scientific base in Antarctica, it’s considered the birthplace of Britain’s climate science work on the continent.

The Port Lockroy base closed in 1962, but in 1995, Britain designated it a Historic Site and Monument and began restoring the buildings. Today, it serves as a stop for tourists, offering both the Penguin Post Office and a museum, likewise the world’s most southern.

It isn’t the only post office on Antarctica, but it is the most visited. Each year, some 18,000 Port Lockroy tourists mail 80,000 postcards and letters from the Penguin Post Office. One of the daily tasks for Büllesbach and the other members of the team was stamping each one with a British Antarctic Territory cancellation stamp and then packing them into mailbags to send by ship to the Falkland Islands. From there the mail is sent out into the world to over 100 countries. Sending a postcard from Port Lockroy costs only £2 (about $2.66), a small price for such a great memento. “We also sold souvenirs to the passengers to help raise money for the charity’s work,” Büllesbach says. “When a passenger ship docked, they brought along needed fresh water deliveries.”

Büllesbach and others on the team were often invited aboard the ships that visited Port Lockroy: “We gave talks about the history of Port Lockroy and the important work of the U.K. Antarctic Heritage Trust to preserve the heritage in Antarctica.”

Another important task was monitoring all the gentoo penguins in the area. Nests needed to be counted, as did eggs and chicks. “There were nine different gentoo colonies who shared the island with us. By the end of the season, we had around 1,200 adults and 800 chicks,” Büllesbach says. A noisy bunch, the penguins communicate with a trumpeting sound and deposit smelly pink droppings, the result of the krill the penguins eat. “The penguins poo every 20 minutes or so and can shoot it out as far as 4 feet!” she adds.

Still another task was monitoring the weather and collecting the plastic that washes up on shore. Maintenance to the Penguin Post Office was also required, especially to the wooden roof, which sustained significant damage from a heavy snowstorm. There was also the daily life of cooking, cleaning, and refilling water containers, so each day was quite busy.

But it wasn’t all work. “During our free time, we went for walks outside to watch the icebergs and wildlife, read books, or played board games,” says the postmaster. “Living in such small conditions, we enjoyed our time together as a group and became really good friends.”

November through March is the summer season in Antarctica; temperatures are usually around freezing, but the wind can make it feel a lot colder. Büllesbach and her coworkers wore warm coats, waterproof boots, and gloves, so the cold was manageable. However, she adds, “We did sometimes sleep with two duvets and a hat, which helped, too.”

The area is in almost continuous daylight during these months, and solar panels harness the sunlight to provide electricity for the staff accommodations building, a small, cylindrical Nissen hut with one shared bedroom and bunk beds. In the beginning, the only communication outside Antarctica was through satellite phones. Eventually, they were able to get internet service through Starlink, allowing the team regular contact with friends, family, and the rest of the world.

Despite the cold, the landscape couldn’t have been more amazing, with icebergs just outside the door. Büllesbach especially loved seeing the wildlife, from crabeater seals to giant petrels. Humpback whales, minke whales, and other varieties of penguins often made appearances, too. Her favorite memory was getting to watch the entire breeding season of the gentoo penguins. “It was amazing to see them put their first pebbles into the nests, lay their eggs, see the chicks born and grow into pretty big teenagers, and then leaving the island to go to sea.”

When her time at the Penguin Post Office came to an end, Büllesbach says it was really sad to say goodbye to her home of five months, to the team that had become such good friends over that time, and to the penguins. But the Penguin Post Office is not completely behind her: The U.K. Antarctic Heritage Trust has invited her to stay on as their interpretation consultant. There will certainly be more penguins in her future!

To find out more about Port Lockroy and the U.K. Antarctic Heritage Trust, visit ukaht.org.

Gail Skroback Hennessey is a retired educator and freelance writer whose work has appeared in numerous children’s publications. She is the author of eight books for teachers and more than 35 books for children. For more, visit gailhennessey.com.

About the Gentoo Penguin

Many people make the cold journey to Port Lockroy for the chance to see gentoo penguins in the wild. They are the third-largest penguin (after emperor and king penguins), averaging around 30 inches tall, and they are the fastest in the water, clocking in at up to 22 mph. They also have the largest and most prominent tails, which swish from side to side as they waddle along.

Gentoos primarily dine on fish, krill, shrimp, octopus, squid, and, in the summer and fall, grey rockcod. They must be mindful of danger while diving for dinner; they’re susceptible to attack from leopard seals and killer whales. On land, a healthy adult gentoo has no predators, though chicks can fall prey to skuas, petrels, and other seabirds.

Gentoo courting rituals involve bringing each other rocks, which are then used to build nests. Gentoo pairs normally mate for life; unfaithful gentoos have been known to be banished from the colony. After eggs are laid, usually two at a time, parents share the responsibility of keeping them warm, and they hatch after about five weeks.

With a breeding population upward of 600,000 birds, gentoo penguins are classified as “Near Threatened,” with habitat loss and human interference the top two stressors on the population.

This article is featured in the November/December 2024 issue of The Saturday Evening Post. Subscribe to the magazine for more art, inspiring stories, fiction, humor, and features from our archives.