Le Journal de Bord

19 juillet 2020

Victor is here with us in Reykjavik for this first day. After un Quick breakfast, what’s better than a bath at the swimming pool to start this long day ? After this good time in hot water, we clean the camp and load the car. We hit the road, direction Grindavik, our first stop. We set up the camp at the Grindavik campground. At 4pm the biggest part of the group landed at the Keflavik airport. Marc, Eléonore, Joshua, Marie Lys, Leo, Alexandre, Thomas, Raphael and Gauthier arrived in Iceland safely. The first group arrived at time for the supper : Icelandic hot dog with soup and salad. We ended with chocolate banana on fire. After small earthquakes, we all slept pretty early except for Benoit who drove to the airport to get Tao the last participant.

21 juillet 2020
Today was the first time we packed up the tents and the camp. With a few difficulties we managed to leave quite early. However, once on the road, tragedy struck : our van had issues with his tires. After consulting several gas stations, it was decided to return the van and take a new one. For this reason, this afternoon’s trip was only with Sandrine. Hugo and benoit went to pick it up the new van.
The group and sandrine went on an exploration of the nearby mountain and its hydrothermal sources. We obviously had our load of unexpected on the way : we got lost, twice, Tao lost his sunglasses, we tried to mesure temperatures, Victor fell into the river 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. a quid of puddle and Marc drones was attacked by birds.
In the end, we made it back to our new camp safely to enjoy a calm evening.

22 juillet 2020

Today, we went to a highly volcanic area. The landscape was really beautiful because the water was smoking , it was hot. We walked a long time between horses’ dung and tourists. We ate some wraps we made ourselves with multiple ingredients. Then the group bathed in natural hotspots, the hottest at 48°C. Afterwards, we measured the temperature and the pH of the water at different spots across the river. Tonight, we will sleep earlier because we are tired.

23 juillet 2020

Today we woke up early to leave the campsite of Hveragerdi and drive eastwards. On the way we stopped several times, we saw 3 waterfalls, all coming from the famous glacier above, Eyjafjallajökull ! We had a quick lunch because it started to rain and then we had a look at the first glacier : Solheimajökull. We saw different glacial features, such as moraine (small hills created by the glacier) and how much it has retreated since 1997, thanks some pictures. After that, we had a last stop at a nice view point where we saw plenty of birds abs especially the Puffin. Finally, we arrived to the campsite, had delicious pasta for dinner and had a small walk to the beach before sleeping.

24 July 2020
We did a little midnight trip with Sandrine to the beach and the church before going to sleep. Today we traveled from Vik to Skaftafell National Park. First we saw the basaltic columns which corresponds to the lava flow’s cooling and above were nests of puffins which were going fishing in the sea.
Then we ate with a great view of the Myrdalsjokull where there is the Katla volcano.
After that, on the road we stopped in the Laki lava flow of 1784 : the bad weather he pushed towards Europe created famines for a few years. They angered the local populations and lead to the French Revolution of 1789.
Finally, once we settled down we went to the Skaftafellsjokull glacier which’s water flow was 1.2°C.

25 July 2020
Today, we woke up at 8 and we started a hike at 10. First, we went to the Svartifoss water fall, which means the dark waterfall. After, we went to a view point where we took a picture of the Skaftaffeljokull glacier. After the short stop, we split into two groups : one group did a short hike back while as the other group took the long route passing through Kristinandar viewpoint (20 km). We also saw that Victor carried a lot of very useful stuff like plugs, headlamps, a chess game as well as other random objects. The long hike took approximately 9 hours to complete. When we arrived, we were exhausted but dinner was ready thanks to the short hike group. We finished the day off with some closing activities.

26 July 2020
Today is half of the camp. We woke up at 7:30 but 8:15 for some of us to tidy the tents and our bags. Apart from some glacier observations stops, we drove. After that, we stopped next to a hot spring to eat wraps (again). Following this, we drove 2 hours to get to a very relaxing pool ! Afterwards we continued driving to the campsite. There we installed the tents and ate burgers. Now we’re gonna take a great night of sleep.

27 July 2020
This morning we stayed at the campsite to chill. We were so tired, it was nice to do nothing. We ate some chocolate, then sandwiches, then chocolate again. Some of us tried to do some trick shots but most of them failed. After, we drove to the Hengifoss waterfall to take some pictures and study the different layers of rocks surrounding it. We had a good time but it was very windy. After, we took the car to a harbor where we saw some very beautiful but odd fashioned houses. Afterwards, we played in a children’s pro gaming area in which we jumped on a huge airbag. We drove back to our campsite at six o’clock. When we arrived we did the cooking, it was delicious, especially the rice. We finished eating at ten. See you soon. Hugs and kisses !
Kossar sjáumst fljótlega fyrir nýjan þátt.

28 July 2020
This morning we left Egilstadir and the east fjords on the N1 and we reached Detifoss, the largest Iceland’s waterfall. Then we took the road and we arrived at Myvatn lakes. We had a long bath at the Myvatn Nature bath. We stopped to visit a hot spot before the campsite. We had a dinner pretty late with the sunshine on the lake.

29th July 2020
Today, we went back to the hot spot near Myvatn that we visited yesterday to take temperature measurements of the fumaroles. We hiked up the adjacent mountain and ate lunch on one of the peaks. The landscape resembled that of Mars. Later we went to a small underground lake that used to be a popular bathing spot. Nearby, we could see a divergent continental fault. After the short stop, we went over to the largest tephra cone in Iceland. We climbed up the cone and walked around the 1 kilometer wide crater. We then split into two groups, one going to the local pool and the other staying at camp and cooking dinner.

30th of July 2020
Today we woke up early at 8:30 am to prepare ourselves for a long trip through Island. After breakfast we tidied up our stuff and got the cars running.
I can’t tell what happened between our departure and the first stop, which was the Godafoss waterfall, because I was sleeping. During the voyage, we listened to some music, read, and slept for some of us.
At Godafoss (the falls of the gods) we used the drone to make some pictures of the falls then we ask a person to make a group picture. Then we travelled to our next step, Akureyri. We took our lunch in a restaurent and ate ice-cream. We left the second greatest town of island to go swimming in a pool with a beautiful vue one the sea. We continue our trip for the final Step a camp next to a fjord. We eat some Icelandic sheep pasta and yogurt from Iceland.

31th Of July 2020
A windy morning and a quick breakfast. We took the road around 10am throw the mist and the Icelandic wind. We reached the golden circle around noon for the lunch. We visited Þingvellir, the old parlement and the the famous site of geysir. After 2h hours of road, we arrived in the capital of Reykjavík. We walked in the city, had a burger in front of the famous church. We went to bed pretty early at the youth hostel because the campsite was already full because of the Covid situation.

1st of August 2020
Reykjavík day. After a good night in a real bed, we arose towards 9h30, quite different from our usual 8 am, we had a classic breakfast. We then had time on our own in the city to visit, admire and mostly spend what was left of our cash in cool souvenirs 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. warm Icelandic clothes. We had our daily recap of the day and of the week where everyone opened up there hearts on their impressions of the trip on every level : scientific, logistics and the group dynamic. Finally, we ended our stay with the traditional Reykjavík pool and it’s hot spots and finished on a healthy meal of pizza and marshmallows.

Bilan scientifique du séjour : à venir très prochainement

Bilan du séjour :

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