Icelandic Song sung by our Harpa guide Ingibjorg Frida

South Shore Day

6:30 rise this morning and a long drive down to the south coast. First stop a beautiful waterfall that we could walk behind.

Then a lesson in how to pronounce Eyjafjallajökull before a visit to see the earthquake site and visitor centre.

Lunch was taken at the tongue of a glacier. The scale of the glacier is difficult to convey in words but it was a humbling experience.

Mr. Nye tried to make sense of it by using the hydrophones to record the sound of a melting glacier!

During the afternoon we received an email with a truly not-to-be-missed opportunity of tickets to Don Giovanni at Harpa performed by the Icelandic Opera which meant altering our plans on the move...
A stop at the beach with the wild "sneaker" waves that come all the way from the South Pole and the basalt columns was refreshing to say the least.

A quick stop at the town of Vik to refuel and then a race against time to make it back to the hotel for a very quick meal, code word "Match Day" and on to Harpa. Big thanks to Icelandic Opera for the very kind gift to the pupils of tickets to the opera which was a first experience for many. 

The pupils were again an absolute credit all day and sat through the first act of Don Giovanni impeccably after which we walked back along the esplanade to pack and get ready for the last day with the Blue Lagoon planned as the first stop...

Another Fullish Day...

Today we went to the Fakasel horse park with a long demonstration of the wonderful Icelandic horses including a backstage tour.




Following that we had a short stop at a little fishing village with an interesting black sand beach.
These images are from a normal lens and then a macro lens to see the sand is not as black as it appears...

 


Then hot springs at Gunnuhver with some fantastic landscape and hydrophonc recording opportunities. The lunch was rather sulfurus smelling but the children seemed to enjoy their time here!



Back to Reykjavik with a stop off at the Pearl to see the water tanks with the central dispersion unit for the hot water from the power plant.



An informative time at the Whales of Iceland exhibition with a real sense of the scale of these wonderful mammals.



A short drive to Harpa with an energetic and thorough talk from Ingibjorg Frida. The acoustic demonstration and explanation was fascinating and we even bumped into the cast and star of the Show rehearsing for Don Giovanni.



The day concluded with a talk from Hafdis Bjarnadotttir at the hotel who shared some of her work and gave us lots of tips for developing our own found sounds.



Tomorrow is another early rise with beaches, basalt columns and volcanoes to look forward to.

Icelandic Lullaby

We collected lots of sounds on our busy day in The Golden Circle, but the first recording we want to share is the lullaby sung on the coach by our guide Svana whilst out searching for the Northern Lights.

A fullish day...

The day started with a hearty breakfast followed by a trip to the geothermal powerplant at Hellisheidi. 

The smell of sulphur was overpowering but the children hardly seemed to notice anything other than the snow!

   

After an informative visit we got back on the bus to visit the Crater Kerið .

After that we moved on to the Friðheimar greenhouse cultivation centre. It was amazing to see the amount of tomatoes that can be grown with the least amount of energy consumed in such a sustainable way. The clever use of technology was fascinating and the bees were the friendliest any of us had ever met!

      

Then to the Geyser Centre to see the Strokkur Geyser and a have a bite of lunch. Some great slow-mo footage to follow soon…

    

After the rush of the geyser we went on to the beautiful Gullfoss waterfall.

    

To round the day off we decided to visit America, well at least the American tectonic plate!

 

Mr. Nye was particularly happy to get to use the new hydrophones and is busy now adding some of the recordings to the soundcloud… Exhausted children all went happily to bed before another early rise tomorrow and another busy day!

The Dumpton Iceland Trip is getting closer. We now have a Soundcloud page active ready for posting the sounds that the pupils collect. Click here to have a look and we will let you know as content is added.