Gulfoss - Tuesday 31st August

Our second stop of our jam packed day was to Gulfoss (which means the golden falls) – the waterfall with the largest volume of water in Iceland. After overlooking the waterfall we walked closer and closer to reach the waterfall itself. The sound of the crashing of water into the depths below growing louder all the time! We were then surprised at the spectacular view we were about to witness and then the amazement sinks in! After having the opportunity to take a few memorable snap shots of this once in a life time experience, we were then told by Mr Pittam that in the winter this magnificent tourist attraction is capable of completely freezing over. We can certainly say that this is the most phenomenal, natural sight we have experienced so far!

Sarah (Year 9) and Nicole (Year 10)

Thingvellir - Tuesday 31st August

First stop of the day and off to an interesting start! We visited Thingvellir (A national park and world heritage site). It showed the cultural spirit of Iceland.

We learnt that Iceland did not have a written language to start with in 800 AD and parliament met every year to try to get order in the country. They had one law speaker who had to remember all the laws every year- imagine how hard this would be! This worked because Iceland’s population grew and settlements grew.

We found out that women were thrown in the lakes to find out if they were witches or not! Supposedly if they sank they weren’t witches and if they floated they were witches and they were murdered. Not much chance of survival!

As well as learning about the history and culture we explored the fascinating landscape! We all climbed down a gap in the rocks which is caused by the two plates drifting apart. One side is the North America plate and the other Eurasian. Each year the plates move 2cm apart so in a million years this will be equivalent to 25km. This gap had a great photo opportunity as you will see in the picture above.

Becky and Amelia (Year 10)

The Blue Lagoon - Monday 30th August

From the Airport we went straight to The Blue Lagoon. When we first arrived there we had something to eat and drink, ham and cheese toasties - nice!

After that we were given some infomation on The Blue Lagoon's history and took and our first group photo from the balcony. We learnt that they use 2/3's sea water extracted from deep beneath the lava to heat their homes. The steam from this water is used to create electricity and the outflow from this process created the blue lagoon - a hot milky-coloured liquid full of salt and minerals where we couldn't see our hands a few centimetres beneath the surface.

We then went and got changed (which was quite awkward due to many Icelandic men walking around in the nude! - We went for the towel method!).

We then got into the water which was around 40 degrees celcius in the warmest parts. There were crates where silicone mud was kept which was very good for your skin and lots of people had it on as a face mask. We decided to explore the pool and found a sauna which smelt eggy (due to the sulphur). It was incredibly humid! We also went under a waterfall that felt like a massage!

All in all it was a amazing and unique experience and a great way to start our adventure!

Ben H, Dan and Joe (Year 9)

The Journey - Monday 30th August

Sorry about the delay on this posting - internet access at Gatwick proved to be troublesome.

We had a smooth and quick coach journey arriving with time to spare before the check in desk opened. Fully stocked up with food we easily circumnavigated passport control with only two of us being stopped for a more thorough search!

The flight was on time and although the cloud meant views of Iceland were limited, what we did see was a nice indication of the landscape that we encountered later on today.

After Toby's mishap with his passport (eventually found in the cover of his book rather than back on the plane - although we thanked the pilot for going back and looking with us!), our bags were all waiting for us as was the coach.

From there it was on to the Blue Lagoon!

CP

Whale watching

Our whale watching trip on Tuesday promises to be very exciting. Elding have an excellent website with a diary of each trip they run.
http://elding.is/tolbar/whale_watching/
They have an excellent record of seeing whales with the diary logging numerous sightings this week. However, it is an unpredictable business with several trips this week being whaleless - despite the previous and following trips being successful.
You can see from their blog what we saw - hopefully we shall be lucky and the forecast weather fronts passing through on Tuesday do not make the visibility poor and the trip too choppy!

What's the weather likely to be?

With only a weekend until we travel, the following website is a good resource to get some up-to-date weather forecasts to help us decide what to take! It is in English and easy to navigate.
http://en.vedur.is/
The good news is that temperatures are forecast to be above average (11-12 C) from Monday to Wednesday but we should expect showers on Tuesday and possibly some heavy rain on Wednesday...
Forecasts are less accurate the further into the future they project so we may be lucky...
Check the website out over the weekend to get a forecast over the entire week. The website also has links to pages on current seismic activity in Iceland - so far this week lots of earthquakes but none we will feel!