Le Journal de Bord

Dimanche 21 juillet

Tout le monde est bien arrivé à l’aéroport même si malheureusement pour deux d’entre nous les bagages ne sont pas arrivés... Espérons qu’ils arrivent demain ! Après ces péripéties nous nous sommes rendus au camping de Hveragerdi où nous avons installé le camp pour 3 nuits.

Lundi 22 juillet

Today, the trip started with the creation of the life rules and camp organization. Then, a few of us went buying food for the three next days. This afternoon, we went on a hike to the Reykjadalur hot river. Beautiful landscapes and hot springs were interesting : we took many pictures of them ! During the hike we drew the internal structure of the earth : crust, mantle, lithosphere, core, ... As a reward for the 2 hours hike, a rest in the warm water of the river has been delightful ! Unfortunately, we were caught in a cold rain and we came back to the campsite with wet clothes ! Anyway, we were still alive to eat the delicious curry chicken perpared by the cooking team. See you tomorrow !
Julien, Marin et Antoine.

News from the lost lugguages : they will arrive tomorrow morning ! Meanwhile, everybody share clothes with those who have not their bag ...

Mardi 23 juillet

On this tuesday, the day began with the smell of eggs and bacon. As we were waiting for the luggage (in vain), we talked about the drawings we made yesterday : the organization of the Earth and then what we were planning to take in order to do scientific measurements (temperature, pH, depth, width,...)
At twelve thirty, we left the camping and went to the Golden Cirle. First we saw the waterfalls, called Gullfoss, which are really impressive because of their 32 meter- high. We talked about the position of Iceland, located on the ridge, and also the multiple faults directed North-East/South-West, like the orientation of Gullfoss.
And then, we took the car to Geysir site. There, we saw the geyser Strokkur which reached at least 30 meters. And then, we took some measurements of other geysers, surprisingly, one of them was up to 85 °C (Geyser Blesi). We used a temperature probe and a laser to measure the temperature.
We couldn´t do the third site of the Golden Circle (Thingvellir) because we had to get back to the airport for the luggage (Finally !!!), we may do it at the end of the trip.
On the evening, the cooking group had planned a barbecue but it rained...
The wonderful Ethel, the awesome Maëlys and the amazing Iolène

Mercredi 24 juillet

Today, we had to leave our initial campsite so we packed up our luggage and managed to fit everything in the car. Our first stop was in Reykjavik and we ate some couscous on the seaside, where we lost a lot of our stuff under the boulders but we were happy to find our future mascot, a squishy pig toy. We then climbed back onboard and drove for an hour after which we stopped to do some aerial photography with a drone. We then ate some cookies next to a crater and we learned some scientific facts about Icelandic geology. We learned how to tell the difference between lava flows and rock projections from the volcano. After a two hours drive, we arrived at our campsite where we will stay for one night. We are expecting to eat pasta and have some fun on the campsite trampoline (with our pig friend, of course .
Jules, Clara and Alvar

Jeudi 25 juillet

Everybody was in a playing mood this morning so that after breakfast we went on the trampoline for an athletic awake. Then we used the trampoline to make some experiments on sismic waves propagation. We first used our mascot to estimate the waves intensity and we then used a sismoter app to mesure the ground acceleration. If we have a rainy day we will continue these experiments to learn more about waves propagation. Finally we leave the camping site for Akureyri, the second town of Iceland. We bought a lot of food for the next 4 days. We then took the road for Myvàtn our next destination. On the way we stopped in Godafoss a wonderful waterfall. We spent there more than one hour to enjoy the environment and to observe the structure of a lava flow. The river flows across lava flows and offers a cross-section of their structure with beautiful prisms. Finally we reached our destination in the end of afternoon. We installed the camp for 4 nights. For the dinner tonight it is pancakes

Vendredi 26 juillet
This morning has been very rainy, so we got up at only 9:30, with a nice breakfast : the remaining pancakes from Yesterday (Thank you Chloé for cooking them !) Then we went for a visit in the Krafla Geothermal Power Station. We learnt a lot about Geothermy, since it’s François’ speciality. We also saw the two turbines of the station, each producing more than 200 GWh per year !!! After this visit, we had lunch close to a crater, and then had a 30-minutes-hike around it. It was cold and foggy, so we couldn’t see well the blue lake inside the crater. There was also much mud, and we went back dirty and tired to the car, so Chloé and François offered us a very nice time in the Myvatn Nature Baths. The baths were warm and comfortable. Nobody wanted to leave, but we had to go back to the camp and cook the ratatouille for tonight.

Samedi 27 juillet

Today, we woke up at around 8:30, we were only ready to go at 10:30, after having an amazing breakfast made by Chloe and Francois with bacon, eggs, and tea. We started our day by a small hike of 2 hours and a half, with 270 meter high and 2.4 kilometers. We climbed the Vinbelgjarfjall with a fantastic view of the Myvatn Lake and drew there table top vulcanoes and rootless cones (also called pseudo-craters).
Just as we came back to the car, we had lunch near the lake. In the afternoon, we went to the Namafjall Hverir Zone. We made some temperature and pH measurements as this zone is full of hot mud pots and fumaroles. After that, we hiked to the top of the mount on this geothermal high temperature area.
On the way back to the camping, we stopped at the Grjotagja site, where there is a cave, which has contained a popular bathing place for several decades until the 1975-84 vulcanic eruptions at Krafla. These eruptions brought magma streams under the area resulting in a sharp rise in water temperature to nearly 60°C. Nowadays the temperature is only 43°C (we checked with the probs and found a temperature of 44°C and a pH of 8.14). On the same area we found out that there is a fault linked to the Krafla volcano. While the majority of us returned to the camping and made mashed sweet potatoes for dinner, Marin and Antoine stayed with François to take some pictures using the drone.
Ethel, Maëlys and Iolene

Dimanche 28 juillet

Today, all of us woke up a little bit earlier, to make sure that we wouldn’t be too late.
That effort was worth it : We ate bacon and eggs for breakfast. As always, it was great !
We were ready at 10:30, and we took the car to a point which was quite far from a giant mountain (the side of the Krafla’s Caldera). It seemed so far away, and we unterstood that we had to walk all the way before climbing it ! (In fact, it took us eight hours)
We first made measurements again, for the project we have, and we then began our hike on hardened lava. We passed under many lava caves, admiring the desertic landscape : Rocks, mountains, rocks, mountains...
As we arrived down the huge mount, we let our bags in the grass, and we continued the hike. More or Or Métal précieux. Dans le cadre du séjour Le TrésOR des MINES nous chercherons de l’or dans le Val d’Anniviers, à la batée. less one hour later, we finally arrived on the top, and it was amazing ! What took us long was that there were some trapeze bars : we played with them by trying to make flips around them.
When Jules finally made it, we got down, and it was easier.
Then, we had a one hour hike before getting to the car, but it was nothing compared to earlier. We all were delighted, dreaming of a good shower and of the Tartiflette...!

Maëlys and Ethel.

Lundi 29 et mardi 30 juillet

Today we visited a last place in Myvatn : Dimmuborgir. This is an impressive area with lava tubes and high pillars of basalts. These structures were formed when a lava flow came on a pound and formed a lava lake. The water of the pound went up through the lava and solidied it forming basalts tubes. Then the lake was drained, all the lava went away and only the pillars remainded resulting in this beautiful landscape. After that we leaved the area of of Myvatn lake to continue our trip.

We stopped in Dettifos, a huge waterfall. We saw also two others waterfalls around Dettifoss.

Then we searched a place to sleep. Tonight we want to try to wild camping. Unfortunetly the weather was rather cold and very foggy... Anyway, we installed our tipi and we had a very good evening all together. In the middle of the night we had to pack the tipi... in the strong rain... and a thunderstorm... (the wind was too strong for it)
We looked for the van in the fog and we were thinking *where did the van gogh ?* we eventually found it so we continued our road and we are now having a good breakfast in a bakery in Eggilsstadir. This night will stay in our mind !
After the heartwarming meal, we climbed back in the van and lost Clara`s shoe. We had fun rating the camp during a PE activity and we then visited multiple waterfalls along the way. The road crossed huge basalts plateau incised by disapeared glacier and river. We finally reached the south of the island and we ate lunch sandwiches on the beach. François and Hugo had a bath in the Atlantic ocean ! At 3 PM, we arrived at our new campsite and got prepared to eat some chili con carne.

Alvar and Chloe

Mercredi 31 juillet

Today, we quit the camping of Hofn at ca. 10:30, and we stopped several times to admire the Vatnajökull Glacier. This glacier is the biggest of Europe with a surface of 8000 square kilometers, which is 10 percent of Iceland (around Corsica’s surface). Its maximum height is 2000m, which is really low compared to the Alpes. But its maximum thickness is 1000m for 150m in the Alpes. We stopped at Jökulsarlon where we saw impressive icebergs, it was breathtaking ! We also saw seals and some big birds who attacked us on the beach. Then some of us decided to swim in the freezing water (around 3 degrees). We then ate wraps near the beach, so sadly there was sand in our food… After eating we went for a quick walk near the laguna, and talked about rocks and minerals. Finally, we drove one more hour to the camping where we ate great Croque-monsieur. Good night !

Ethel, Maëlys and Julien.

Jeudi 1 août

This morning we woke up early, ate some eggs and toast for breakfast. We then got ready for the big hike planned for today and we climbed in the car and drove towards the trail. After that, we started our ascent of the mountain. We saw a beautiful glacier, ate lunch great a staggering view. We also did some scientific activities by taking a photo of the evolution of an Icelandic glacier witch is taken every year by OSI teams. A few hours later, we started climbing a cliff with a beautiful view of the mountain range. Tired and hot, we began our descent of the mountain and the weather cooled down (thankfully . A few kilometers later, we stopped next to a pond where we ate our snack and watched Jules get soggy in the water. We came back to the campsite after the 20 km walk in the mountains and we ate some pasta and vegetables for supper. After dinner, the Journalist team started writing this summary and right now, I`m wondering why I am up so late writing this, so goodnight
Alvar, Antoine and Jules

Vendredi 2 août

The best word describing this day might be variety. We started by the waterfall above the campsite, a quick hike for a good awake. Then we hiked along the Svinafell glacier and we realized that the « small steps » on glacier that we saw yesterday are rather huge ice walls, several meters high. Then we took the road toward Vik, located south-southwest of the Vatnajokull glacier. We crossed a huge desert of black Sand transported by flood coming from glacier. When an eruption occured under a glacier, the ice melts and may form a big water reservoir. If the ice broke suddenly because of the water pressure, it involves a huge flood with water, ice and sand running from the glacier toward the ocean. This is a « jökulhlaulp ».
After waterfall, glacier and sandur, we had the lunch on the beach in Vik. There we climbed in basaltic prisms on the black sand beach. We also observed some puffins.
We then drove again toward Thingvellir, our final destination for today. We had two stops on the road, to admire two waterfalls : Skogafoss and Seljalandsfoss. We have also seen the famous Eyjafjallajökull,which erupted in 2010, involving closure of some airports in Europe.

Samedi 3 août

We started our last day in Iceland by visiting the Thingvellir national park. This is one of the most famous site in Iceland. The area is very important on an historical point of view because it’s here that the first parliament, the Althing, was created in 930. Nowadays, the Althing parliement still exists, making the oldest parliement in the world. On a geological point of view, the Thingvellir national park is also very important becauses it is located on the boundary between American and European plate. The morphological features of the rift are here very well expressed. For instance, we can walk in a kind of canyon, between two normal faults.

After a lunch on the edge of the lake, we drove to Reykjavik to visit the country’s capital. On the evening we ate in a small restaurant that celebrated its two years. We spent a very nice evening : icelandic meal (soup in a bread), music and dance ! Finally we drove again to reach a place near the airport. We spent our last night in Gardur, along the ocean. Some of us decided not to sleep because we’ll wake up very early !

Dimanche 4 août

Despite some delay of flights everybody is finally well at home. We’ll keep very nice memories of this camp in our mind. See you soon !

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