Last week The Royal Grammar School High Wycombe headed out to the remote Arctic edge of Europe for a once-in-a-lifetime Icelandic adventure! With a jam-packed itinerary the school’s budding young geographers were lucky enough to see many of the country’s vast variety of natural wonders. But what was it that the school’s staff and students most enjoyed about the land of fire and ice?
Although a truly unique and memorable experience, it wasn’t the Blue Lagoon’s chalky waters and surreal landscape…
Nor was it the magnificent thundering waterfalls of Oxarafoss, Gullfoss and Gljufrabui…
It wasn’t the towering convoluted basaltic intrusion creating the basalt columns rising from the black beach at Reynishverfi…
It also wasn’t the impressive lava tube tunnelling its way for 1.3 km under the Reykjanes Peninsula…
For some it was experiencing the raw energy of Strokkur at Geysir
…but far and away the majority of the boys considered walking on a glacier and experiencing its enormity to be their lasting memory of Iceland!
After climbing the snout, the sheer scale of the Solheimajokull (or sunshine glacier) is breathtaking. Here ash layers from Eyjafjallajokull’s eruptions and seasonally blown ash covering the glacier’s surface result in its unusual striped appearance.
The little black dots near the skyline are the students taking part in the adventurous glacier walk, braving the inclement and fast changing weather patterns during their expedition.
The trip concluded in the best way possible – with an appearance of the illusive Northern Lights. What an unforgettable ending to an unforgettable tour!