From 15th to 19th February, myself and 32 other Gumley House geography GCSE students, explored the astonishing country, Iceland! We toured around the south and south west of Iceland.

As soon as we got off the plane we went to The Blue Lagoon, where the land is natural (the lava shapes the pool), and the waters are a light blue colour. The temperature of the lagoon varies from 37-75 degrees celcius. We went swimming every evening; other pools/lagoons we visited were:

  • The Secret Lagoon – Which is a smaller and less known version of the Blue Lagoon, apart from that the Secret Lagoon is naturally heated by a hot spring and the water is clear. The temperature of the water was 38-40 degrees celcius; after we had been in there for 10 minutes, we found it too hot and had to sit outside!
  • Hvolsvollur Sundlaug – This had an outside pool and hot tubs varying in temperature.
  • Laugardalslaug – This pool was near the capital city, Reykjavik. It had flumes, hot tubs and a large swimming pool.

During our stay we visited all the attractions in the Golden Circle. The Golden Circle is a popular tourist route around Southern Iceland. This includes:

  • Strokkur Geyser – This is one of Iceland’s most famous geysers, and it erupts every 6 – 10 minutes. Its average height reaches 15 – 20 metres; sometimes even 40!
  • Gulfoss Waterfall – Gulfoss is 32 metres high and 140 cubic metres of water fall a second in summer and 80 cubic metres in winter.
  • Hellisheidavirkjun turbine and generator – This power station is the second largest geothermal power plant in the world. It provides heating and cold water for 67% of Iceland’s population. It is located at Hengill volcano where the magma is used to heat the water.
  • Thingvellir National Park – The park lies between the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, which is where The North American and Eurasian plates are pulling apart from each other. Also the national parliament used to gather there since 930 AD to 1798.
  • Kerid – This is a volcanic crater lake. This crater is approximately 3,000 years old.

Iceland is a beautiful country full of varied landscapes and natural phenomena, and I would love to go again!