This morning we left the lovely Hotel Laki and set out for our last day of adventures in Iceland. Sadly, the weather still wasn’t on our side, but that didn’t stop us!
The first stop and possibly most important, was the toilet stop! After this we drove to the coastal town of Dyrholaey to look at some coastal features. Now these weren’t just the usual cave, arch and stack formations; these were black basalt columns that towered high above the beach, forming a huge cave. The view across the beach was very bleak, added to by the black pebble beach and enormous grey waves that were crashing down. Although safety rules had been delivered prior to going down to the beach, we weren’t quite prepared for the speed of every ninth wave! Robbie Thompson and George Jones were caught quite unawares by a wave that managed to knock them off their feet.
All safely back on the bus, 39 pupils pretty damp, two completely dry due to a change of clothes, we set off for our main activity of the day; glacier walking. We arrived at the snout of the Solheimajokull glacier. This is a “tongue” of a glacier that is 9km long and extends down from the Myrdalsjokull glacier. Interestingly and slightly frighteningly, underneath this great big glacier is a volcano. This volcano is called Katla and is apparently overdue an eruption. Again, the vast size of the glacier makes it incomprehensible to imagine just how much water is held in these features. When the volcano does erupt, glacier walking will not be the place to be when it happens!
Getting ready for the glacier walk involved harnesses, hard helmets, crampons, ice picks and being roped up. For everybody in the group, this was a first time wearing crampons and walking on the ice was surprisingly easy. The way to do it is plant your feet down heavily through the heel and walk like a penguin! We walked along, all roped up in groups of ten for about two hours. During this time, we saw some phenomenal features that are not done justice in our text books! Our guide Christian pointed out that since he has been visiting the glacier (which is about twenty years) it is approximately 50metres thinner and 400m shorter.
One of the most exciting things for the boys seemed to be hammering away at the ice with their ice picks. Being able to look down the glacier at the moulins, there were amazing colours and watching the water swirl down these features to the bottom of the glacier was something to behold.
By the end of the walk, it is safe to say that everybody was drenched, but definitely in high spirits. It was just a fantastic piece of Geography alive and kicking and lots of fun for all involved.
Back on the bus again with the heater on full blast, we were probably all ready for the long journey back to Reykjavik, but NO! There was one last waterfall we had to see. Skogafoss Waterfall crashes down an amazing 60m drop and even though the rain was falling and we were all wet and tired, it was well worth the stop. This was a lasting memory of yet another brilliant part of Iceland.
Finally, it was time to get comfortable and enjoy the trip back to the first hotel we stayed in, Hotel Baron. It seems like a long time since we landed just last Wednesday! With a half an hour turn around, we all got on the bus at 1930 to go to a pizza restaurant in town. The aim of tonight’s meal was to eat as much pizza as possible. Winner of this competition was Chris Harrison, who ate a mammoth 19 slices of pizza! Joe Bolton came a close second, consuming 1 slices. For the rest, it was a relaxing way to spend our last evening in Iceland.
Tomorrow is an early start; breakfast will be served at 0430 and our flight is at 0800, but the pupils are well versed in early starts now.
It has been a truly tremendous first trip to Iceland and the group have been fantastic company and I think they have all got something from the trip. Without a doubt, the trip has been made even more special by having such a fantastic guide, Tota (pronounced just how it sounds) and our bus driver Tovfi (pronounced Tovey). Between the two of them they have tried to imbue us with as much interesting information about their country, it’s culture and fascinating geographical and geological features. They have gone to extra lengths to ensure our comfort and enjoyment during our five days here and they deserve huge thanks from us.
The blog has been gaining more attention from the group as the week has gone along and despite the long days, many of the pupils have kept me company in the evenings, providing photos, helping me reduce them in size for uploading and giving me ideas for what to write. More of them have been willing to write little bits about their days, but with the days being so jam packed and tiring, it has sometimes been a bit too much to do for them.
