As you may know from my last post, last week I set off on an adventure of a lifetime to Iceland with my sixth form geography class for a five day field trip. If you haven’t read my previous post on my first two days in Iceland you can find it here!
On day 3 of my Iceland trip we were meant to be going out on a ferry ride to the Westman islands with the prospect of seeing whales and puffins, however the trip was cancelled due to bad weather conditions. Instead it was reorganised for us to spend the day in Iceland’s capital city – Reykjavik. Although, I was excited to visit my first ever capital city other than London I was slightly heartbroken at the fact that our day wildlife watching out at sea had been replaced with a shopping trip, but little did I know that our trip to Reykjavik would result in me ticking off several lifers!
The two hour long coach ride there held quite a few exciting moments of it’s own. I saw many skeins of geese flying over including greylags and pink-footed geese that I surmised were probably on their way back to the UK. Next time I see a gaggle of geese I’m doubtless I’ll find myself wondering if these were the same geese I saw in Iceland! Then About an hour into the journey it suddenly began to snow. The whole landscape went white and we were driving into a blizzard – but it was only for ten minutes or so and stopped as suddenly as it had started!
We arrived in Reykjavik at about lunchtime. Reykjavik is located in Southwestern Iceland, on the southern shore of the Faxaflói Bay (in English Faxa Bay). The population of Reykjavik is around 120,000 which is over a third of Iceland’s total population! As we came into Reykjavik we followed a main road that lead along the harbour front and sat in the bay, not more than a couple of hundred yards in front of us were Eiders!
When we got off the coach we were given a short tour of downtown Reykjavik. First we saw the presidents house and then we went onto the official parliament building. It was very odd as both were absolutely tiny and there were no police or guards outside of either of them – you could literally just walk right up to them and place your hands on the walls if you wanted! We were told that the flag above the parliament building meant that there was a government session in progress.
Right in the middle of Reykjavik is a little lake known as Tjörnin (which apparently translates as ‘mountain lake’). The lake is surrounded by winding paths and little bridges and is a famous landmark for birders all over the country as it is frequented by between 40 – 50 species of birds! Although we didn’t have long to spend there, I did see my first ever whooper swans on the lake, and after having heard them call it’s very apparent why they were given that name!
We then went off on our own to explore Reykjavik. My first stop was a re-fuel session at a lovely little coffee shop we spotted on the high street; there I had a very nice coffee and sat by the window watching the redwings and starlings flit up and down the street gorging themselves on the berries of the rowan trees lining the pavements! Then it was off to do a bit of compulsory shopping where I’m ashamed to say I went full tourist and bought a copious amount of tacky Iceland knickknacks and then had my photo taken with a very handsome troll couple…
We then returned to our evening accommodation which was a lovely farmhouse called Vatnsholt right out in the countryside. After a delicious traditional Icelandic fish dinner we headed outside with our hot chocolates into the cold (and by then it really was cold outside) as it had been forecast a high chance of the northern lights appearing that night! I waited up outside until almost midnight, and the northern lights did eventually appear, but only as a sort of white haze in the sky as sadly there was too much cloud cover. I have to said I was a bit disappointed – but it was still very beautiful and better than no view at all!
On day 4 I was greeted with this stunning morning view…
What better way is there to start a day? However believe it or not, these photos were actually taken at 9 O’clock in the morning and the sun had only just started to rise!
After an amazing waffle breakfast we set off for the day’s activities! First thing we went to Eldhestar Horse Riding school where we were able to ride Icelandic ponies. That was a very novel experience, but my horse seemed more intent on eating the grass than walking and would stop to do so every couple of seconds nearly throwing me off in the process each time…
Then we went to see the waterfall Gulfoss. I had thought the waterfalls we’d seen earlier in the week had been spectacular, but they just didn’t compare to this. Gulfoss is a double fall with the first dropping around 33m metres before the second which plunges down into a mile-long gorge – the size of them, the sound and sight of the crashing, tumbling water and the spray that just filled the air from miles away was completely overwhelming!
We then went onto visit the geothermal field in Haukadalur to have a look at the geysirs! Most of the springs are aligned along a 100m wide strip of land running in the same direction as the tectonic lines in the area. There we saw the geyser Strokkur (which translates as ‘the churn’) which was formed during an earthquake in 1789. Strokkur is currently the most energetic geyser in Iceland and sprouts every couple of minutes to a height of up to 40m! I stood in the cold filming Strokkur for a good 10 minutes to try and capture it exploding on film – the link to the video of that is here! 
Our final stop of the evening was Thingvellir national park. The national park is where Iceland’s parliament was established in 930AD and continued to convene there until 1798. Many major events in the history of Iceland have taken place at Thingvellir and therefore the place is held in high esteem by the Icelanders.Not only that, Thingvllir is scoured by the mid-Atlantic ridge and rift valleys can be seen there where the Eurasian and north American tectonic plates are pulling apart (increasing in width by about 2cm every year). The lake at Thingvellir (Thingvallavatn) is one of the world’s most spectacular lakes! The surrounding catchment area is made of lava which is very permeable to water so there is a constant influx of groundwater into the lake and because the lava is relatively new, it means lots of minerals are carried into it creating an amazing diversity of life ! Despite the freezing cold temperatures the lake is very fertile and filled with vegetation and algae almost to a depth of 30 metres; a total 150 types of plant and 50 different types of invertebrate have been found living in the lake!
Iceland has relatively few species of fauna due to it’s distance from the mainland, however in the lake can be found three of Iceland’s five species of freshwater fish: brown trout, Arctic charr and the three-spine stickleback. As we crossed bridges going over the lakes we were lucky enough to actually see the brown trout! They were absolutely gigantic – I’m not sure how heavy the fish we saw were, but trout living in the lake have been known to reach weights of 30 pounds! I’ve never seen a freshwater fish so large, they were quite spectacular!
After that we returned very worn out to our evening accommodation in Reykjavik. Tomorrow I will publish the final post on my last day in Iceland! 🙂
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