Four women chosen to run Antarctic outpost and count penguins

British women beat 6,000 applicants to spend five months working on Goudier Island

It was one of the strangest of job alerts: a call to run the world's most remote, coldest post office - on an island with no permanent residents - and count penguins in almost continuous daylight.

But bizarre or not, it struck a chord: 6,000 people applied for the four jobs on Goudier Island in Port Lockroy, and now the winners have been announced: a newlywed, who will leave her husband behind for what she is calling a solo honeymoon" and three other British women, who are equally thrilled by the adventure ahead.