Day two in Iceland was looking like another boring day.....
After a good night´s rest at Hotel Baron, 38 of the pupils made it down to breakfast in good time. A few nerves had been running through the camp about what an Icelandic breakfast would be like; most were hoping for a continental style and dreading the thought of lots of raw fish! I think it is safe to say that we were all pleasantly surprised by the wide variety of different foods on offer, including the opportunity to make your own waffles.
If you are wondering about the other three pupils that didn´t quite make it to breakfast on time, they slept through numerous wake up calls and ate their breakfast in five minutes flat before boarding the bus!
Once packed and on the bus, we set off for our first stop of the day, Þingvellir National Park (pronounced THingvellir). Lots of the pupils have been studying this very piece of Geography in their lessons on plate tectonics. In a nutshell it is where the Eurasian Plate meets the North American Plate and the gap between the two plates is increasing at approximately 2cm per year. An outstanding view point allowed us to see out across the largest lake in Iceland, Þingvallavatn, whilst taking in the breathtaking views of nature essentially pulling apart two continents.
Travelling on from here, we went to our next activity, lava caving. When the coach pulled up in the middle of a lava field with no sign of a cave and just two men in a car, it was hard to imagine where we were being taken. After a quick introduction we were given hard hats, torches and bright red overalls. As I'm sure you will agree from the photos, we all looked rather fetching in our outfits.
We were told the cave was just 400m long. This wouldn´t take much time under normal circumstances, but once in the cave, we were crawling over huge chunks of rock that had fallen from the sides of the cave and the roof. In all, it took just under two hours to complete this activity and it was thoroughly enjoyed by all.
After this strenuous event, we travelled on to view the Geysirs. These hot water jets erupt approximately every seven minutes and it is impossible not to be impressed with how they work. Although it was tempting to go and dip a finger into the water, it is usually over 100 degrees celsius, so not advised! Despite the lovely hot water, the smell of sulphur (rotten eggs) pervades through all of these areas.
Our final view point of the day was the awesome Gulfoss waterfall. Moving from boiling hot water to icy glacial water, this incredible feature is fed from the longest glacier in Iceland and crashes down over two layers of waterfall, totalling 30m in height. It then travels down a gorge 2.4km long. Being able to get so close to waterfalls, although jaw dropping for us teachers, it allowed the pupils to see close up the power of the water and also take some fantastic photos.
As we boarded the bus to the next hotel, the sun was setting and in front of us and we had a clear view of the volcano that caused so much disruption across Europe last year, EyjasfjallajÖkull. There was just one whisp of steam that we could see, gently rising from the still ice covered crater. Other than that, it looked very peaceful and not the ash cloud monster from last April.
Hotel number two is very close to a local outdoor pool, which is where most pupils have gone to relax for this evening.
Photos used for today´s post were taken by Finlay Tait and Sam Leeming.
Amazing landscape - beautiful
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