How the Highlands prepared me to count penguins in Antarctica

Maggie, who says she is happiest outdoors and discovering new places, previously spend two years travelling in Canada and Australia.

As wildlife monitor she will count and monitoring the island’s population of Gentoo penguins with data sent back to scientists based in the UK, external.

She said: “Being Scottish, I do spend a lot of time in the Scottish hills and in the winter they say the climate is similar to a Scottish winter.

“So hopefully that’s given me a little bit of preparation for what I’m sure is a very cold environment.

“I think going out to see the incredible wildlife and the landscapes will be amazing. I think it’s going to be the adventure of a lifetime.”

Maggie will be joined by base leader Lou Hoskin, museum manager Aoife McKenna, shop manager Dale Ellis and postmaster George Clarke.

Each member was selected with their interests and life experience in mind through a series of interviews.

Maggie said: “The process was quite detailed. We had an interview over Zoom and then we went down to a three-day selection event.

“We worked in pairs to do teambuilding activities – one was building a tent and one of us was in oven gloves and the other was blindfolded.

“Lots of different interesting and fun tasks we did as part of the recruitment process – but hopefully that’s my tent-building done.”