A Watford FC fan with a "passion for adventure" will endure freezing conditions, constant daylight and a social media blackout during FIVE months working in Antarctica.
Shabir Alidina, from Carpenders Park, will be embarking on the trip of a lifetime to work in the Antarctica gift shop as part of the UK Antarctic Heritage Trust.
He is part of a team of seven who leave in three weeks to live and work on the football-pitch sized island for five months.
Shabir Alidina said: “I feel so fortunate to have been selected for such a unique opportunity to support the heritage of Antarctica whilst living and working in such dramatic landscapes.”
They will be dealing will almost constant daylight, freezing temperatures, no running water, flushing toilet or any access to social media and the internet.
And the team will be “living on top of each other” as they sleep in bunk beds in a hut on the remote island - even spending Christmas together.
“The things I will miss most are my family dog Iggy, being able to watch Watford FC and obviously my family and friends as well as the everyday comforts I won’t have when I am away," he added.
The 49-year-old, who has a “passion for adventure”, will be taking on the role of gift shop manager during his trip and is expected meet 18,000 people during the season.
Shabir and his teammates will be living off tinned and dehydrated foods for the majority of the time on the island, but he hopes that the visiting tourist ships will let them “use facilities and have hot meals”.
He has previously visited places such as the Arctic and North Korea, as well as being involved with wildlife conservation projects across the world.
The team will work on restoration of the area and conduct a penguin count as part of a long-term study of the breeding of the gentoo penguin colony.
He told the Watford Observer: “I’m looking forward to managing a gift shop located at the end of the world. It will be good to unplug from regular life and I’m looking forward to working with the team and visiting the white continent once again.”
Shabir and the team will be staying in Port Lockroy as it marks its 80th anniversary.
The UK Antarctic Heritage Trust took over the port in 2006, decades after it was first established as a British Antarctic base in 1944, due to a secret mission during World War II.
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