On Friday 29th March 2024, 35 excited Geographers and 4 staff members left for Heathrow to catch an early morning flight to Reyjavik, Iceland! We got incredibly lucky with the weather as clear blue skies and sunshine shone over Iceland and we could see the active volcano erupting as we flew in. We were met by our Icelandic coach driver who led us on our first day of excursions around the capital city. We explored the Sun Voyager Sculpture, Reykjavík City Hall and Albingi Houses of Parliament, where we stopped for lunch. Finally, we were able to see the largest church in Iceland; Hallgrimskirkja and then some free time for shopping on Laekjargata Street before we headed to the hotel to settle into our rooms before dinner.
The next morning, we were up at 8am for a leisurely breakfast before departing the hotel at 9am to start our day of excursions. We met our fantastic Iceland tour guide, Kat, who we now know is famous for her singing and Led Zeppelin renditions…! First stop was the Eyjafjallajökull Volcano, located underneath a glacier, we were able to remember the 2010 eruption here. Next stop was Skógafoss Waterfall, which is 200ft high where we witnessed a beautiful rainbow here too! Stop 3 was Reynishverfi, a black sand beach with sea stacks and Dyrhólaey, a good coastal arch, we stopped here for lunch and were able to observe (with caution) some of the ‘sneaker waves’! We then walked to Sólheimajökull, a glacier tongue, that lies to the south of Mýrdalsjökull Glacier. The final stop of the day was Selialandfoss waterfall, in which it was very icy due to the cold temperatures with clear skies. After dinner, we got wrapped up warm again to go for a walk along the harbor in the hope of seeing something in the night sky and this evening we got lucky and saw a glimmer of the northern lights!
Our final day was the coldest of all, with clear skies again and temperatures as low as –12 degrees. This day we visited Þingvellir National Park, which we got to walk through a beautiful canyon where two tectonic plates are being pulled apart to form the mid-Atlantic ridge. Next, we walked to another ‘mini’ waterfall, followed by the famous Gullfoss Waterfalls then the Strokkur Great Geysir, spouting up to 25 meters every 5 minutes or so. Our final excursions of the day were to walk within the Kerid Crater of a volcano that erupted 3000 years ago and some pseudo craters before settling into the hotel for dinner and some board games.
Ultimately, the EBS Geographers from our KS4 and KS5 cohort had a fantastic trip and loved seeing the amazing geographical landscapes Iceland has to offer and it certainly helped their understanding of tectonic process and coastal processes! A huge thank you to Ms Williams, Ms Brown, Mr Baxter and Mr Richman who accompanied this first international Geography residential and made it a roaring success.
