47 students and four staff visited Iceland over the half term
break on the annual Upper Sixth Geography trip. The accompanying
photos taken by Ben Smith show some of the sights. Having set
off from Rossendale at 1am we were tired out when we reached
Iceland in the afternoon but were quickly re-invigorated by
being lightly poached in the Blue Lagoon's boiling water and
then scrambled under its hot waterfall, not to mention being
dry roasted in the hot dry room and steamed in the sauna.
The first day saw us getting lost because the driver could not speak English
but the volcanic scenery and plate tectonics made up for that. The Earth did
not, unfortunately, move for us but it did spit at us at Geysir and we enjoyed
a nice slide down to Gulfoss with Adam doing some of it on his back! The strange
juxtaposition of a banana plantation where you could eat humungous elaborate
ice creams in a country as cold as Iceland rounded off the day apart from yummy
pasta at the cafe and more cooking of human flesh in the geothermal swimming
pool next to the youth hostel in Reykjavik.
On the second day we went off to the south past Hekla, the volcano which is the
doorway to The Journey to the Centre of the Earth apparently and we endured wonderful(!)
stories about Saemundur the Wise. The winners in the race to the top of Valahnjukur
mountain are on one of the photos - where do they get all that energy from? A
special round of applause was given to Mrs Helm who had been training for weeks
to get to the top with her two sticks. The stupendous views were followed by
heroic efforts by the male students to get the young ladies across the Stakkholt
river several times without getting their feet wet (well done Iain!) so they
could experience the unique features at the end of the gorge. Gigjokull glacier
was the end of the day but we then had birthday cake for Mrs Robinson at the
hotel.
The Fellowship of the Ring came out in force to see us safely get on and off
Solheimajokull glacier on the third full day. The temptation to dispose of certain
students down crevasses was resisted by the staff and safety procedures were
again observed to the letter as we ascended a nearby mountain for more stupendous
views. Skogafoss waterfall was the background for yet another group photo after
efforts by certain students failed to find the giant's treasure which is hidden
behind the fall and gave them a thorough soaking. Thorthur Thomasson, the curator
of the wonderful folk museum told us about life in the area long ago. He was
thrilled when Oliver played a hymn in the church where everyone has to go to
sing from Icelandic hymn books! After that it was back to Reykjavik for some
retail therapy (at those prices?), more pasta and another broiling in the swimming
pool.
And so up we got at some unearthly hour the next day to fly back to Glasgow and
home sweet home after a fabulous trip, the essence of which these few words hardly
begin to portray.
Blue Lagoon
Blue Lagoon
Blue Lagoon
Thingvellir
Thingvellir
Thingvellir
Thingvellir
1st 10 up hill!
Geysir
Geysir
Gullfoss
Gullfoss
Gullfoss
Ice at Seljalandsfoss waterfall
Ice at Seljalandsfoss waterfall
Kerith
Tindfjell volcano
Myrdalsjokull with Solheimajokull
in the bottom right corner
