Iceland Trip - October 2025

During the second week of the October Holiday 58 students and six staff undertook an adventure to Iceland for six days and five nights to encompass all that is great and new in Iceland. We were blessed with amazing weather just as we were on our previous trip in 2022; this time we enjoyed the experience of a thick coating of fresh snow—white snow on black basalt! Although there was fresh snow falling and occasional blizzards in the first few days, eventually we gained clear and sunny weather which made the snowy spectacle even more awesome and eventually the Northern Lights appeared on one of the midweek evenings. Some of the highlights included:

Monday – Vidgelmir Lava Cave and Langjokull Glacier

In the morning, we took a walk through the 1.5 km lava tunnel where the walls, ceiling, and ground beneath your feet are all formed from cooled magma. The basalt lava flowed at a temperature of 1200 °C to exit the lava tunnel and leave a cave. At the far end it was lights out in order to experience the eerie dark and silence of the interior of the cave. This is definitely the greatest lava tube or tunnel we have ever seen. In the afternoon we undertook the ‘into the glacier’ tour of the Langjokull Glacier for our second new experience of the tour. This included an unforgettable offroad journey by super truck or super jeep for around 30 minutes just to get to the top of the glacier. Once we arrived there we were able to explore the longest ice cave in Europe, some 500 metres long and down to a depth of about 30 metres beneath the glacier. There was plenty to learn about how the glacier formed over time through the compaction of snow preserved above the snow line, and we saw the annual layering, a little bit like tree rings, bands of pure white with a thin layer of grey dust accumulating in the summer season. One layer stood out – the 2010 layer offered a thicker and much larger band of dark volcanic ash from the eruption of Eyjfallajokull that year. A truly unique experience!

Tuesday – Golden Circle Tour

Although a bit of a whiteout day with limited visibility due to the blizzard, we made the most of what could be seen. At Thingvellir we saw the great western rift of Iceland, where the North American Tectonic Plate is moving away from the Eurasian Tectonic Plate at around 60mm year. A stand out moment was taking photos and selfies of the Oxararfoss Waterfall shrouded in snow and icicles. Moving on we visited the famous Strokkur Geyser which erupts at approximately an 8-minute interval some 25-35 m into the air. The magic of a geyser is created when near surface groundwater is heated by magma that lies beneath the earth’s surface. The boiling water is forced toward the surface through a tube-like vent around 20 metres deep, where it erupts with magnificent results. The water below Strokkur Geyser’s surface reaches around 200 °C before rising to the surface and shooting skyward. Next we moved on to Gullfoss or the Golden Falls which is a beautiful two-tiered waterfall, thundering down 32 meters (the first drop is 11 metres and the second 21 metres). It is located on Hvítá River (White River) whose source is from Langjökull glacier that we saw the day before. Unfortunately, all we could do was capture stunning photos of the falls from a moderate distance, as the walkway up to the closer main viewing point had been blocked off for healthy and safety reasons due to the ice and snow. Finally we stopped off at the Friðheimar greenhouses which grow thousands of tomato plants, all using eco-friendly methods. The smell inside the giant greenhouse is wonderful. Iceland has lots of cheap hydroelectric energy powering the lighting and heat from the nearby geothermal fields allowing this kind of closed growing system despite the freezing temperatures outside. Organic and biological pest control methods are used, rather than chemical pesticides; so up to 600 bumblebees, imported from Holland, work hard to pollinate the crop.

Wednesday – Solheimajokull Glacier Walk and Vik Coastline

The day started with a visit to Skógafoss, one of the biggest waterfalls in Iceland, with a drop of some 60 metres and a width of 25 metres; you can walk right up to, but be prepared to be drenched. It is just overwhelming standing next to it, if you could get there, as the paths to the plunge pool were much of an ice rink. Many fell on their back, including, rather amusingly, Mr Berry. At the end of the day, we also briefly viewed the Seljalandsfoss waterfall, which you could normally walk behind, but again, not today. We enjoyed an extended visit to the Sólheimajökull Glacier in the sunshine while walking on top of the glacier using a set of crampons, trying to avoid the deep crevasses which had formed due to its slow extensional movement. Sadly, like all the glaciers in Iceland bar one, Sólheimajökull is shrinking rapidly. A glacier lagoon at its base reveals how quickly it is receding: the length of an Olympic swimming pool every year. It seems like this change is already an irreversible consequence of climate change, and it may be gone within decades. After a lunchtime visit to Vik for some shopping and R&R, the group headed for the south shore of Iceland and the black sandy beaches of Reynisfjara. Here we found huge caves carved by the force of destructive Atlantic waves and tall cliffs that contain the columnar joints of thick basalt lava flows that had cooled there, similar to the Giants Causeway in Northern Ireland. Many students, and the incredibly athletic Mr Pallant, took the opportunity to scale the columns in the cliff. Our coastal exploration ended with stunning views of the large coastal arch at Dyrhólaey. Clear skies extended into the evening and we were able to see stunning views of the Northern Lights. Mr Poon managed to get some of the best shots with his iphone tech, with many avid sky watching students hot on his heels.

Thursday – Hellisheidi Power Station, Grindavik Lava Disaster and Reykjavik

In the morning we visited the third-largest geothermal power station in the world, Hellisheidi is a state-of-the-art facility run sustainably This site is of interest to visitors because along with Iceland's other geothermal station at Nesjavellir, Hellisheidi provides 30% of the island's total electricity and over 90% of hot water. The Power Station creates electricity through the constant geothermal activity that takes place way below the ground. A fantastic talk on the stairs of the lower hall of the power station, and a series of visitor display rooms, told the story of the power plant and also the evolution of Iceland. Around midday we visited the town of Grindavik. In 2022 we managed to get a delicious hotdog at the café in the centre of town but not today. A series of basalt fissure eruptions in 2023 overwhelmed the north end of the town and several buildings were destroyed, so that by 2024 almost all of the 4000 inhabitants of the town were relocated elsewhere on Iceland. The group took an opportunity to see the damage created to the buildings on the edge of what is now an eerie ghost town. In the afternoon we made a brief stop at the Krysuvik geothermal area to see its typical features. A series of boiling mud puddles amidst steam vents and yellow, sulphurstained country rock. The smell is that of rotten eggs. In the late afternoon, we arrived at FlyOver Iceland, a relatively new attraction in Reykjavík, located in the Grandi Harbour District. It’s a ride that dangles you in front of a spherical screen taking you through Iceland’s most memorable landscapes. You soar back and forth with the camera, giving you a sensation of flying. Special effects like mist as you fly by waterfalls makes it an even more immersive experience. This is a fantastic way to review all of the landscapes that we had seen across Iceland over the last four days. After our Flyover Experience, we had a walking tour through Reykjavik’s downtown area, have a hot chocolate ahead of an evening meal at Hamborgarafabrikkan. It was a great chance to marvel at the Hallgrímskirkja Cathedral with its columnar façade and to see the Sun Voyager in the bay, a piece of metallic art that has a striking resemblance to a Viking longboat. Our final meal at the Hamburger Restaurant, a choice of delicious burgers followed by ice cream, went down a treat.

Friday – Blue Lagoon

On the last day we headed off to the Blue Lagoon. A traditional end of trip experience and for many a further highlight of the tour. Iceland’s Blue Lagoon is not a natural spring. While Iceland is a country brimming with natural hot springs, the Blue Lagoon actually isn’t one of them. The land is natural, as are the lava flows that shapes the pool, but the hot water is actually the result of runoff from the Svartsengi geothermal power plant next door! The water temperature in the lagoon averages 37–39 °C. Everybody enjoyed the experience—applying white silica mud packs to your face, while swanning around with your friends and getting your favourite soft drink from the in-pool bar. Iceland really is a Wonder of the World! The trip was amazing, I would say the best yet for the GGS Geography Department, and as tourism opportunities continue to grow in Iceland we will continue to enjoy the new opportunities and celebrate many of the old (such as the Golden Circle tour) too.

I hope the Department will run another trip to Iceland in the near future for the next generation of GGS Geographers to enjoy (probably in October or November 2028). JLW