How are you spending your Christmas? While many will be curled up on the sofa in front of a roaring fire (or at least with the central heating on), spare a thought for the hundreds of people working in the Antarctic region, surrounded instead by penguins.
Thousands of miles from home, those employed by the Cambridge-based British Antarctic Survey (BAS) are spending the festive season at five research stations and on board the Harwich-based vessel, the RRS Sir David Attenborough.
Some of them have been sharing their Christmas plans – telling us how they will be spending the big day.
‘Penguins – and a cheesy movie’
Derren Fox, 52, is a zoological field assistant at Signy Island Research Station, which is on one of the remote South Orkney Islands, about 370 miles (600km) from the Antarctic Peninsula.
Originally from Cornwall, he now “lives on a yacht just about anywhere”, he says.
“On Christmas Day I’ll head over to Gourlay Peninsula on the south-east shores of the island to carry out the almost daily checks on the chinstrap and Adelie penguin colonies to monitor productivity,” he said.
“This will probably be followed by some sledging or snowman building with some of the other station members before returning to base for a traditional Christmas meal, this year cooked by our station leader, and then probably falling asleep in traditional Christmas style in front of a cheesy festive movie.”
‘Turkey and trimmings sorted’
The task of rustling up a full Christmas dinner falls to Signy’s station leader, Sarah Clark.
The 42-year-old says she has moved around “my whole life… but over the last six years I’ve been living in North Wales,
The post Penguins and iceberg-watching: Marking Christmas in Antarctica first appeared on EnviroLink Network.