Port Lockroy

Port Lockroy is on the west coast of Wiencke Island. A French expedition named the port after France’s Chamber of Deputies vice president, Edouard Lockroy. Port Lockroy is the number one tourist site in Antarctica. The attraction is British Base A, Britian’s first Antarctic base. Three people staff the base only in the summer. The base now thrives as a tourist site.

We entered the Bransfield House after waiting at a penguin crossing. In Antarctica you must always remember that wildlife has the right of way, and in most cases, it is the penguins. Inside the house you can learn the history of the base, see it restored to how it looked in the 1950s, buy souvenirs, and best of all, send a postcard postmarked in Antarctica. Most postcards are postmarked at the base and then sent back on your ship to enter the postal system in Ushuaia or whatever your end port is. It can take many months to get postcards, but I got mine in about 3 weeks. I was hoping to get it in a few months when I had forgotten I had sent it, but it was still awesome to have my own postcard postmarked in Antarctica.

Outside the house you can see sledges used in the early years of the base. There are also, of course, penguins, the ones here are Gentoos. The Gentoos here are so used to the base that they build their nests right next to the base, and young penguins have been known to play on the ramp leading into the building.