HSD Iceland Fieldtrip

SAGT Fieldtrip to Iceland

noreply@blogger.com (Mrs V) — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 19:56:00 +0000

Find more videos like this on SAGT.IS.2009

Prizewinning pics

noreply@blogger.com (Mrs V) — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 21:29:00 +0000

Congratulations to the following who won prizes in our Iceland fieldstudy tour photo competition....

...to Charlie Guest for this photo of Heimaey taken from the flanks of Eldfell volcano. It won the 'Essence of Iceland' prize.

...to Lizzie Webster for her captioned photo of lava in Landmannalaugar. Unfortunately, there is more than a little irony in the caption just at present but we know what Ian meant at the time. .....to Keira Ingram for her 'composition of thirds' taken from a cave on the beach at Reynisdranger.....

....and to Anna Mackenzie for her compilation of glacier, geyser, volcano and waterfall. These were her 4 images....

Well done to all of you who submitted your photographic efforts and to those who took many hundreds but were too modest to enter the competition. I hope your photos are a reminder in the years to come of a memorable trip. I will certainly remember Iceland 08 as one of my favourite school trips.

A Reminder....

noreply@blogger.com (Mrs V) — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 21:20:00 +0000

...of our follow-up evening next Wednesday (24th September) at 7pm in Trinity.

We are looking forward to seeing you, your folks and your guests next week.

P.S. Don't forget your photos for the competition!

"Iceland no pushover"

noreply@blogger.com (Mrs V) — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 18:24:00 +0000

OK... so they didn't win gold against France in the men's handball final in Beijing but this time Iceland are playing the team who managed to lose against Macedonia on Saturday! I am, of course, referring to World Cup qualifying matches and while I would normally be as keen to watch paint drying as watch a football match, I might just take a little more notice of the one happening tomorrow evening in Reykjavik!

"Iceland has had a very satisfactory start to their campaign, drawing 2-2 with Norway in Oslo and must be in confident mood about securing at least another draw against the Scots. They played with purpose and zest and although there were some obvious weaknesses in defence, they showed that they will be no pushovers on Wednesday night."

This is the logo of the Football Association of Iceland - the Knattspyrnusamband Islands and below the Laugardalsvollur stadium in Reykjavik where the match will take place tomorrow.

And here, from above, courtesy of Google Earth.....

Gold within sight

noreply@blogger.com (Mrs V) — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 20:19:00 +0000

Iceland will aim for their first ever Olympic gold when their men's handball team face France in Sunday's final. They earned their place by beating Spain 36-30 in the semi finals

By just making the final and the silver medal, Iceland have equalled their country's best ever Olympic performance . Iceland last won a silver medal in the triple jump in 1956. Wouldn't it be amazing if they took the gold?

Iceland's chance of a medal...

noreply@blogger.com (Mrs V) — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 17:13:00 +0000

Icelandic eyes will doubtless be glued to their TV screens tomorrow when the Icelandic handball team take on Spain in the semi finals of the men's handball competition in Beijing in a bid to win Iceland's first (and probably only) medal of the games.

If you want to find out a bit about handball (it's a bit of a cross between football and basketball), click here. The report of Iceland's progress in the competition can be read here .

And here are the Icelandic handball team....
And before you start thinking that one bronze medal would be a pretty poor final tally for Iceland, remember that it only has a population of 300,000. At a similar ratio of medals to population, team GB should have 186 medals instead of the 40 it has won by today!

Iceland socks!

noreply@blogger.com (Mrs V) — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 19:45:00 +0000

I am ashamed to say that I have just wasted half an hour making a video about a pair of socks in Iceland! Oh yes I have! However, having created a masterpiece about Thor and Thora (they are the socks) on holiday in Iceland, I cannot get my video to download to share with you. The best I can do is a still.... just to prove I am not making this up!!(This, is part of the sequence at Skogarfoss when Thora was staring at something that kept moving all the time.)

You too can make a video about a pair of socks in Iceland (just click on the image) ...

Go on.... you know you really want to!!

One week ago today (6)...

noreply@blogger.com (Mrs V) — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 19:42:00 +0000

... was the last day of our fieldtrip.

An earlier than usual start saw us on the road to Reykjavik by 8.15am . It was a beautiful day and we enjoyed some wonderful scenery along the way...

As we came near to Selfoss, there was much evidence of the recent earthquake in the new patches of tarmac across the road....

...which has also apparently stimulated a lot of new geothermal activity in the area. After a week in Iceland, we were now taking this sort of thing in our stride!

Long established geo thermal activity provides the energy source for this power station which we passed....

The former hot water supply tanks for Reykjavik which are situated on a low hill above the city now provide the foundation for a beautiful exhibition and restaurant known at the Perlan from where we enjoyed stunning views over the city...

Then, while most of you headed off to spend your remaining Kronur in the first'real' shops you'd seen all week, the staff went off for coffee and cake... or two!!

...before setting out to capture a few pics of Reykjavik...

Some of us also managed a quick visit to the huge 3D relief map of Iceland in the city hall and were able to see the Myrdalsjokull glaciers (which we'd seen just the day before) from a different angle..... And then finally, the 'wallow' we'd all been waiting for..... in the Blue Lagoon , just minutes from the airport. It was a great way to end what had been a fabulous week of new experiences....

I can tell from the web counter that a lot of you have been following this day by day account of our fieldtrip. Hopefully, you have also been sharing your photos and your stories with your parents. I have many more photos which I am 'working on' for the follow-up evening on the 24th September. Please make sure that you put the date in your diaries. In anticipation of that evening, we would be delighted to see your photos of the fieldtrip so please do copy them to CD for us to look at.

Remember that there is also the photo competition. The categories (in case you have forgotten) are :
1. Funniest photo
2. Best captioned photo
3. Finest composition (that rule of thirds!)
4. "Essence of Iceland"
5. Compilation - a geyser, a glacier, a waterfall and a volcano
We are really looking forward to seeing all your pics, some of which will be shown and rewarded at the follow-up evening.

In the meantime, enjoy the remainder of your holiday and revel in the memories of our trip to Iceland. I will look forward to seeing you all in school next week!

One week ago today (5)....

noreply@blogger.com (Mrs V) — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 20:18:00 +0000

...we had a day when water was our theme.

It started with a steep climb up an old volcanic cone, Stora Dimon, to gain an extensive view of the glacial outwash river Markarfljot...

From there we headed to the first of the two waterfalls we studied last Saturday. This is Seljalandsfoss, Iceland's highest cataract which, because of the intensive erosion and undercutting at its base, can be viewed from behind ...

From Seljalandsfoss it was on to the mighty curtain waterfall at Skogarfoss....

...which obliged with a lovely display of mini rainbows ....

From raging torrents we moved on to water in its solid form and got up close to a glacier - the Solheimajokull. This was the first experience for many of a glacier at close quarters and it was only possible to understand the scale when we spotted these people (centre left) walking on it......

We had lunch last Saturday sitting on a lateral moraine! After which, we headed in closer......to see ice in action where ice meets rock and plucks away at the valley side.

Sadly, the Solheimajokull, like many glaciers around the world, is receding as a result of global warming . Here is some evidence.

Firstly the snout in August 2004 photographed on on my first visit to Iceland.... and below, a similar view taken last week ... Our last visit of the day was to the south coast near Vik (Iceland's wettest town) where, apart from a bit of retail therapy, we looked at some evidence of coastal erosion.... .. before heading back to Hvollsvollur swimming pool near to Husid for our now customary wallow. A watery end to a watery day!!

And finally, this posting is something of a milestone since it is the 100th posting on the Iceland blog.

One week ago today (4).....

noreply@blogger.com (Mrs V) — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 17:37:00 +0000

.... we flew out to Heimaey in the Westman Islands (on the horizon in the photo below) from the tiny airport at Bakki.

Here's one group 'checking in' and heading for their little 9 seater plane

No room for a trolley dolly on this flight . In fact, someone has to sit right beside the pilot

The flight took only five minutes but gave us a great bird's eye view - a gannet's eye view, in fact - of the volcano we had come to see. This is Eldfell, which at 25 years old, is the world's youngest mountain....

.. beyond, and a few hundred years older lies Helgafell with the tiny island of Surtsey (which has only appeared on maps since its eruption from the sea in 1963) on the skyline. In the shadow of the volcanoes lies the town of Vestmannayaer.

Once everyone was assembled at the airport on Heimaey (it took well over an hour to transfer the group), we set out to climb Eldfell. It was a steep climb and with ash and cinders underfoot, it often felt like two steps forward and one step backward. The stupendous view from the summit, however, made the effort worthwhile...

Picnic spots don't come much better than this one! After lunch we descended via the crater...

explored the lava flows where buried houses are marked by signposts....

...visited the harbour where there was an excellent coffee and cake shop

.....and then had a 'wallow' in the shadow of Eldfell. There was a swimming pool indoors but outside there was a number of hot pots ranging from a just comfortable 36 degrees to a distinctly hot 42 degrees.

We emerged - gently poached - and returned to the airport for our flights back to the mainland...

...flying over our lunch time picnic spot before landing at Bakki for our coach drive back to Husid.
That was one awesome day!

A week ago today (3)...

noreply@blogger.com (Mrs V) — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 19:41:00 +0000

.... we headed for the amazing landscapes of Landmannalaugar. The journey in the morning took us past past Mt Hekla (Iceland's most active volcano - seen below on a clear day!) and on further into Iceland's interior across terrain which became progressively more amazing!This is the view which I was getting out of the front window of our coach.... Do you remember this stop? Barren or what?

And just when you thought the landscape couldn't get any more amazing, it just did!

This was the colourful crater rim at Ljotipollurand next the Namshraun lava flow.....

.... the backdrop of which were our first glimpse of the orange rhyolite mountains for which the Landmannalaugar area is famous.

We reached Landmannalaugar just before lunch and headed for our picnic spot amidst the Laugahraun lava.

The weather wasn't particularly kind but the views were spectacular across the lavas to the lava dammed lake bed and the rhyloite mountains beyond... After lunch it was onwards and upwards to the head of the Graenagil valley where there are some very active fumeroles and steam vents...

Descending from Graenagil we enjoyed some more outstanding scenery - a 'canyon' cut through lava flows and ash ....

And the day ended with a 'wallow' - not in a pool this time but in a geo-thermally heated stream! With air temperature of 10 degrees, heavy rain and misty mountains all around it was a surreal experience to be swimming, in not just a warm but in places very hot, river!

One week ago today (2).....

noreply@blogger.com (Mrs V) — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 16:00:00 +0000

.. we followed the tourist trail along the Golden Circle Route. Our first stop was at the Haukadalur geothermal field where Great Geysir after which all geysers get their name, is located. Great Geysir now only erupts a couple of times each day and sadly didn't 'perform' while we were there. Its neighbour Strokkur, however, is much more dependable.... N.B. you may have to double click the 'play' button to launch these videos .

Nearby there are some beautiful mineral pools and an excellent interpretative exhibition...

Next stop was the mighty waterfall at Gullfoss which no image ever does justice to. We were all agreed that it was MUCH bigger and MUCH more powerful than photos suggest.
The people on the path in the video give a little hint of the scale.

The afternoon saw us exploring the Pingveller National Park where the rift valley and fissure lines reveal the stresses of crustal movement at the Mid Atlantic Ridge...... Last visit of the day was the hot pots and flumes of the pool at Selfoss. A few people swam but mainly... we wallowed!

One week ago today (1)...

noreply@blogger.com (Mrs V) — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 18:38:00 +0000

... this was our last view of Scotland - a view of Loch Torridon which you should recognise from a mapwork exercise you did in F3

...and this was our first view of the south coast of Iceland

Lunar landscapes and a geothermal power plant en route to our first stop...

..at the bridge between the continents which spans this fissure (Europe to the left of you, North America to the right).

Then it was on to our first sight (and smell!) of a high temperature geothermal field at Krysuvik ...which I managed to capture on video (though thankfully not in smellyvision!)

Day 1 ended with a 'wallow' in the pool at Hvaeragerdi (the 'greenhouse town') before arrival at our accommodation at Husid (a former schoolhouse built in 1929)....N.B. You will notice that I am not uploading any pics which are close up views of staff or pupils. This is normal good practice on a blog such as this. You will get a chance to see the pics I took of you all at a later date!

A message from Ian

noreply@blogger.com (Mrs V) — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 10:04:00 +0000

I opened my email this morning to find this lovely message from Ian to you all.....

Godan daggin to the HSofD '08 Geography Group,

I hope you all arrived safely home on Sunday evening. It was a great pleasure to be with you all for the 6 days of your tour. I am delighted to be able to report that I think you all "got" Iceland, its wonders, its sights, its emotions. Having been to Iceland once, I hope you will one day return - there is SO much more to explore. Iceland is a very special place and I hope you enjoyed the vast range of destinations and experiences to which you were introduced; I hope you have some grand photographs(perhaps competition winners?). I hope too that your mind was opened as well as your eyes; Iceland has many issues to consider.

I am very sorry to report that the weather continues to be absolutely great (and a blueberry picking expedition is planned for later today!). I am looking forward to hopefully seeing you all again in late September when you have your Reunion Evening; be prepared for emotional tears (that's TEARS ... not tears!). Until then, enjoy the remainder of your summer holidays; there's ages to go yet before the commencement of the new school session. I hope you said thank you to your teachers for organising your tour and also to all those people at home who supported you to enable you to have been part of such a wonderful Iceland '08 Geography Study Tour.

Skal, Ian

Many thanks for the nice messages I have been receiving from pupils and parents. It was a great joy to be able to take you to such a wonderful destination. For the first time ever after a long school trip, I am not feeling tired. On the contrary I feel as if I had a holiday!

Team 2008

noreply@blogger.com (Mrs V) — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 13:31:00 +0000

As promised, I have begun the long process of sorting out all my photos ... though apparently at 800+ I don't win the prize for having taken the most pics!

Here are a selection of the 'team photos' taken at a variety of locations during our trip....

Day one at the Krusyvik geothermal area..... our first sight of steam and smell of sulphur...

It was hard to turn your backs to a geyser but you managed and this was the result.....The view from Ljotipollur gave a glimpse of the interior of Iceland with distant volcanoes

The geothermal area at Graenagil in Landmannalaugar was very smelly....

The top of Eldfell on Heimaey in the Westman Islands took some beating as a 'team photo' location...

What you can't see here in this next photo is that we were all pretty wet after our drenching in the spray at the bottom of Skogafoss...

Water, in its solid form, forms the backdrop here at Solheimajokull..

And, finally, saying farewell to our host Hinrik at Husid yesterday morning...

Keep watching the blog and I will upload some more pics over the next week as a reminder of what we did on each day.

I have already started working on your souvenir CD which will get its 'premiere' at the follow up evening in September. In the meantime, remember to get your entries ready for our photo competition. The categories (in case you have forgotten) are :

1. Funniest photo

2. Best captioned photo

3. Finest composition (that rule of thirds!)

4. "Essence of Iceland"

5. Compilation - a geyser, a glacier, a waterfall and a volcano

We are really looking forward to seeing all your pics, some of which will be shown and rewarded at the follow-up evening.

Greetings from Iceland

noreply@blogger.com (Mrs V) — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 21:19:00 +0000

Godan dag to all our readers! Just reporting in on day 3 of our wonderful fieldtrip. We are having an awesome time here in Iceland seeing and experiencing many natural wonders in this amazing country. We have just returned from a thrilling day in the Westman islands, the highlight of which was lunch on top of a still warm volcano and then a swim in a geo thermally heated pool before a return flight in 5 seater planes with obliging pilots who let some pupils take the controls!! I have some stunning photos which I will share with you on our return.

Added 11.08.08

.....And here are the still warm volcano viewed from the air and our wonderful lunch spot...

View looking south from the top of Eldfell on Heimaey. The island of Surtsey (which erupted from the sea in 1963) is the furthest island just visible on the horizon.

By this time tomorrow...

noreply@blogger.com (Mrs V) — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 13:37:00 +0000

... all the months of waiting will be over and we should be standing on the Mid Atlantic Ridge where there is a bridge crossing a large fissure! On one side the crust forms part of the Eurasian Plate and on the other it is part of the N American Plate.

I have just opened my email to find a message for you from our guide in Iceland, Ian Hardie ..... Iceland is ready and waiting for the arrival of the High School ofDundee. You are lucky to be arriving at the start of this week and not during the weekend just gone by. The first weekend in August is always a "crazy" weekend in Iceland; it is called Verslunarmannahelgi(Merchants' Weekend). This is a weekend when all Icelandic families traditionally like to try to come together and catch up on all the news (and, no doubt, gossip!). Families gather in all of the campsites around the country and meet, eat and have good, honest, family fun together. This involves much eating and making merry; BBQs are the order of the day (and night) no matter the weather! It is actually a celebration too of Icelandic nature and the joy of the long days and light nights of Iceland after the long and often darkand challenging winters. Today, Monday, there will be long tailbacks of traffic heading back in to Reykjavik ready for the new working week that starts tomorrow. Garages will be choc-a-block too as Icelanders stop off for some sustenance, a regular Icelandic need, with 'pylsur and is' being in high demand (hot dogs and ice cream); all should be back to normal by Tuesday, however. I am very much looking forward to meeting you all at Keflavik International Airport tomorrow; soon Iceland will be come a reality after all the months of anticipation. Don't forget to pack some extra"tuck" (as if you would); even with the favourable exchange rate such items are still frighteningly costly here. Mind you, dried fiskur is a bit of a bargain at the moment!

Goda ferd, Ian

I have had a few communications during the holidays via email from pupils and parents. If there are any last minute questions, email them to the address you were given in the parents' pack and I will check my In Box later. In the meantime, here's another 'sticky' for you

OK... I am off to pack. See you in the morning!

Mrs V

Weather looking promising...

noreply@blogger.com (Mrs V) — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 10:49:00 +0000

The map above shows the expected weather for next Thursday in Iceland. If you click the map, you will link to the Icelandic Met Office website and be able to access the interactivity of the map. The slider allows you to see the forecast weather for each day.

If you scroll down the page on the website, you will see some maps like these which are also 'clickable'...

They give even more detailed info about forecast wind, temperature and precipitation for next week.

A note of caution .... Icelandic weather is VERY changeable and the forecasts change from hour to hour! What seems clear from the pressure maps, however, is that there will be a lot of 'rubbish' weather in Scotland next week associated with Low Pressure systems crossing the country. Greenland will be dominated by a huge area of high pressure. This means that winds generally over Iceland will be from the north and east (because winds circulate anticlockwise around the centre of High pressure). This will bring cool weather to Iceland but probably drier than if it were in the path of a westerly airflow.

And here's your 'sticky' for today

Reminders!

noreply@blogger.com (Mrs V) — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 20:51:00 +0000

If you are anything like me, with just 3 days until we leave, you will be making lots of mental 'stickies'. Here are some virtual stickies to help you with your packing. Remember that if possible you should bring a small rucksack as hand luggage .......

More stickies tomorrow!

Geology of the Blue Lagoon

noreply@blogger.com (Mrs V) — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 09:49:00 +0000

I know that you are all looking forward to a dip in the Blue Lagoon on our last day in Iceland

This morning I have found a video which explains the geology of the Blue Lagoon.
There is no sound track - the graphics, however, are self explanatory......

N.B. the blog may take a little longer to 'load' today because of the size of the video file.
Also, I have just discovered that if you draw your mouse over the slideshow which I embedded yesterday, you can control the progress of the slideshow.

Hot, hot, hot

noreply@blogger.com (Mrs V) — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 14:28:00 +0000

Perhaps we should have been in Iceland this week!According to today's Iceland Review Online , a heat wave has hit Iceland setting new temperature records ....Temperatures rose to 26.2°C in Retkjavik yesterday, which is an all-time record for Iceland’s capital. It has never been as warm in Reykjavík since temperatures were first registered 150 years ago. Other heat records were also broken yesterday.
In Thingvellir National Park in southwest Iceland temperatures went up to 29.7°C, which is also a new record. The last record was set in 2004 with 29°C. I took the photo above of Thingvellir on that day in 2004 when the last record was set.

Don't get too excited, though. The same article says “After next weekend it will turn colder again with wind from the north.”

Further to yesterday's posting, there's more to the Gordon Ramsay in Iceland story. He almost died when he slipped off a cliff and I certainly wouldn't gloat about that. But, apparently, a puffin also bit him on the nose.... mmm!!

P,S. Many thanks to my good friend Alan Parkinson (a Geography teacher in Norfolk who is very techno savvy) for helping me to get the new slideshow feature into the sidebar of the blog.

Puffin with too many 'f's!

noreply@blogger.com (Mrs V) — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 16:19:00 +0000

You may remember that three weeks ago I told you about Gordon Ramsay's visit to the Westman Islands to hunt puffins. If not, you can read that posting here. His visit was to obtain footage for his 'F Word' Cookery programme for Channel 4. While I don't really like the idea of hunting puffins (or Gordon Ramsay's choice of adjectives!), I did tune in to Channel 4 to see what he made of his visit to the Westmans. There were some lovely shots of the landscape - as well as the puffin hunt - and, in addition, viewers were shown how to make Icelandic 'lava bread' cooked in a tin buried in the still hot debris on Eldfell volcano.....Remember to take a plastic pen with you when we go up Eldfell to make a really original souvenir. There are places on the summit where you can bury the end for just a few minutes and it will melt. It makes an intriguing story and visual aid when you get back. "I melted this in a volcano" has a good WOW factor!

If you'd like to watch last night's F Word programme, you can see it on Channel 4 Catch Up . And if you can lay your hands on some fresh puffin, you could think about making Marinated Puffin with Skyr Tzatziki with Volcanic Bread . Of course, you also need to have a dormant volcano handy!

This time next week it will be........

noreply@blogger.com (Mrs V) — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 22:41:00 +0000

Farewell Scotland.......and hello Iceland.....
After all those months of waiting, this will be you in just a week's time.... With a week to go, it is probably too early to be making any weather predictions. However, I came across this today which sounds promising for Sunday and Monday at least.

Please see to this.....

noreply@blogger.com (Mrs V) — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 14:04:00 +0000

I hope you are remembering that when you arrive at school next Tuesday, you should have your passport (NOT in a fancy leather wallet but ideally with a label with your name stuck on the cover), your Icelandic Kronur pocket money, your EHIC card and your up-date medical form (inside the parents' pack) ready to hand over to the teacher responsible for your group.

In addition, could you please bring with you a photocopy of the photo page of your passport. I am not anticipating lost passports but if it should happen for whatever reason - there will be brief spells when you will need to be in posession of your own passports - it will make the business of obtaining a replacement much easier if we have a photocopy.

I would be very grateful if you could spread this message to any any participants who may not be reading the blog.

P.S. I am pleased to see that the hit counter for the blog is turning over regularly- hopefully it is the right people who are reading it!

Into single figures!

noreply@blogger.com (Mrs V) — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 07:29:00 +0000

With the Iceland countdown now into single figures, I thought we might celebrate with a posting for chocaholics (not that I'm one! )

If you want to sample the Icelandic equivalent of Dairy Milk, then this is what you need to look for...

...and the full range includes fillings with hazelnuts, raisins, hazelnuts AND raisins, and Rice Krispies.

Sirius chocolate is definitely a local delicacy you have to try when in Iceland though you might want to give this a miss...

Click on the picture for an explanation. "Good for the circulation" they claim. What a waste of good chocolate say I!

While we are on the subject of dairy products, you will almost certainly find another Icelandic delicacy in your packed lunches....

Skyr (pronounced skeer) is like a cross between yoghurt, fromage frais and crème fraîche and is supremely delicious! Even if you don't care much for yoghurt, you will love skyr
...and you can eat as much as you like because it is virtually fat free. Click here for more info.