Breath-taking Northern Lights

A group of Sixth Form students left school in the early hours of Friday 21 October to head off to Iceland, for the incredibly popular five day Sixth Form trip. The trip started with a tour of Reykjavik, stopping at a number of places, including The Pearl (or Perlan Centre), where the city’s natural hot water is stored prior to distribution to be used in heating systems, showers and taps throughout the residential districts. The centre also features an indoor geyser. The group then visited Hallsgrimkirkja – a huge concrete church built to reflect the columnar basalt of natural lava flows, with a glass font shaped to resemble an ice cube. The lift to the top of the tower gave a 360 degree view over the city. After a brief interlude, shopping in the Kringlan Centre, the group went to the world famous Hamburgerfabrikan (Hamburger Factory) for an excellent meal.

On Saturday the group walked behind waterfalls and basked in the Blue Lagoon, before exploring the black back south coast on Sunday, with its caves, arches and stacks. Donning climbing gear complete with ice axes and crampons, everyone scaled the Solheimjokull glacier, with an expert set of guides who led the group across an amazing blue landscape of slowly moving ice. The day concluded with a dip in the local swimming pool, which had a 50m outdoor pool, a leisure pool with an expectedly fast flume, a set of hot pools and a number of hot tubs ranging in temperature from 38 to 44 degrees!

Saving the best for last, on the way back from an evening meal the girls saw a fine display of the Northern Lights; they started slowly, with a green band arching across the sky, before gradually becoming better defined, with clearly visible ripples. As the group was walking back, the sky exploded with dancing curtains and streams of light, ranging from green though to violet and purple, to white and almost red. The lights waved, pulsed and undulated in great ripples and everyone was in awe – Iceland is an amazing place and everyone on the trip felt very privileged to have seen so much of it in just a few days. View the photo gallery here. 

‘Best’ awards

Best head gear: Kirsty T., for always looking very stylish – everyone agreed she looked like the daughter of a Russian oligarch!

Best postcard writer: Frances K.

Best picture of the Northern Lights: Roulan Y.

Best interest in landscape: Ella B.

Best attitude and outgoing, positive, approach to all the activities: Flores W.

Best at being last but still smiling: Raphaella d.S.