Quiz night

The evening entertainment was a quiz and fancy dress round. The teams were entertained by Mr Dickens as quiz master with rounds about Iceland, geography, music and fancy dress.

Some of the more creative entries came from Harry Walker as a witch, Sam Yearsley and Josh Serdet as Harry Potter and Ron Weasley and Rob who was beautifully made-up by Alice Dutton and Katie Lewis.

The winning team was 'The Dark Horses' consisting of Alice, Emma, Katie, Zoe, Rob and James!

Skogafoss waterfall & Reynishverfi beach

The action packed day continued as we went to see another magnificent waterfall which was 60m high and had a staircase for us to walk to the top. This provided another superb opportunity to see the textbook geography in the real world context.

From the waterfall we made the short coach journey to the Reynishverfi beach which is made of black volcanic ash. This is a superb example of the destructive nature of the sea as it shapes the beach. There was also the opportunity to have photographs with the spectacular basalt columns.

In a slight deviation from the itinerary Sam Yearsley demonstrated some superb flexibility for a big man as he performed a 7 out of 10 backflip from the basalt columns.

Eyjafjallajökull eruption 2010

Instead of the glacier walk which was cancelled due to high winds we visited a local farm which was next to the volcano which erupted in 2010 grounding European planes.

The farm now has a visitors centre with the owners discussing the impact that the volcano eruption had on their lives. The students watched a short film about the eruption and the impact it had on this small farm!

Seljalandsfoss Waterfall

We have just visited the Seljalandsfoss waterfall which spills over a basalt cliff resulting in an isotonic rebound of the land and its lava flow. Unfortunately we were unable to walk behind the waterfall due to the frozen conditions.

The students posed for photographs and climbed up the side of the hill for a better look. The majority of the students drank from the stream and some filled their water bottles with exceptionally fresh water.

On the journey to the waterfall we drove through a snow storm but true to their word the Icelandic people told us that the weather can change in minutes and soon the weather was glorious if not a little windy.

Best dressed or worst dressed?

Not sure whether Harry is wearing this as a bet, fashion or because he misunderstood the dress code. He has certainly caused a stir in Iceland, what will tomorrows outfit have in store?!?!

Blue Lagoon

Following a 4 hour flight we arrived in Iceland to be greeted with some particularly cold weather. We then made the short journey by coach to the Blue Lagoon geothermic spa. With the temperature at 0 degrees everyone was very quick to jump into the warm water which was approximately 40 degrees. The group spent about 90 minutes relaxing in the warm waters and taking advantage of the natural silica mud for a face mask and the sauna. This was a fantastic experience and is an amazing natural phenomenon which has got the trip off to a great start.

We are now moving on to the hotel for the evening meal and entertainment.

In departures...

We have safely got through departures and are now waiting with excitement for the flight to Iceland. On arrival we will be heading straight to the blue lagoon for a swim and spa experience!

1st Blog

This is the first test blog and hopefully will be the first of many as we keep everyone in the UK up to date with what is happening in Iceland.