In November 1997, just two years after graduating and nine months after joining the army, I was aboard HMS Leeds Castle heading for the remote Antarctic island of South Georgia, writes Captain Philip Carter (MBChB 1995).

The island appeared out of the gloom at 5am, but only just. It wasn't until five hours later, as Leeds Castle navigated its way into Cumberland Bay, that the mist lifted and the island began to show off. I was to spend the next five months surrounded by high mountains, freezing seas and the island's huge populations of penguins and seals, and all I had to do was provide the medical cover for the small number of British soldiers and civilians that live there. As my predecessor waved a cheery goodbye it began to dawn on me that the nearest hospital was 900 miles away on the Falkland Islands and any help was going to take two to three days to arrive.

South Georgia made the headlines in 1982 when, as part of their invasion of the Falkland Islands, Argentinian troops occupied the British Antarctic Survey Base at King Edward Point. It was liberated shortly afterwards and the island has had a British Garrison ever since.

The job for the garrison is daunting. Maintaining the sovereignty of an island that is eighty percent snow and ice requires special skills. I spent several early days battered and bruised trying to master cross-country skiing and other cold weather movement and survival skills. Once proficient, I was able to take part in many of the patrols around the island.

The patrols took us to various vantage points along the island's mountain ridges and peninsulas and on good days the scenery really came into its own. The sight of glaciers rolling down to sea level and "calving" or splitting off into the water accompanied by the thunder of ice hitting the water below was worth every painful metre of climbing. Occasionally the patrols took us past some of the world's largest penguin colonies. The opportunity to photograph and study these birds was unforgettable. Their almost human curiosity is hugely entertaining.

However, we didn't just visit them. Often it was the other way around and penguins and seals would come ashore at King Edward Point, waddling around the settlement watching the soldiers at work and investigating disused buildings. When I arrived in November, the massive elephant seals were mating on the beach just yards from our accommodation and we were able to watch the seal pups as they suckled, grew and were eventually left to fend for themselves. The fur seals also came ashore nearby to raise their pups, and it was not uncommon to see King and Gentoo penguin chicks close to the abandoned whaling stations that litter the coast of South Georgia.

South Georgia was the hub of southern ocean whaling from the turn of the century until the mid 1960s. Thousands of whales were killed around the island, and their populations are only just beginning to recover. The derelict stations remain as they were left over 30 years ago. They now provide a tourist attraction and South Georgia is visited by about 2000 tourists a year.

My tour in South Georgia was an experience of a lifetime. Now I have returned to the UK I only have one question. What next?

That's a question that might also be asked by dentist Christopher Southwick (BDS 1975), another graduate who has experiencing the magic, and the rigours, of that farflung part of the globe. Although normally based in Dundee, Christopher has become a regular working visitor to the remote South Atlantic island of Tristan da Cunha.

Dentists are, it could be said, like hen's teeth in that part of the world. Indeed the nearest surgery to Tristan da Cunha is 1200 miles away in Cape Town, South Africa so when Christopher and his Dundee team drop anchor, the islanders welcome them with open arms... and mouths.

The 300 strong community have to rely, between visits, on basic dental maintenance work carried out by a local nurse trained as a hygienist. Root treatment, crowns, drilling and filling have to be put on hold.

Electricity is generated from diesel shipped in from South Africa and paid for with the proceeds of the crayfish catch. Christopher : "On a normal night the lights will go out at about 11.30pm but on a day when the boats land their catch the parties go on until about 2.30 am!"