The participants of the camp SEEDS 077. Environment & Photography - December took it upon themselves to summarize each day of the camp.
 

Cassandre = Environment Camp Leader
Luís = Photography Camp Leader
Cherry = Photography Camp Leader
Kasia = Office Volunteer

December 1st → Bernhard

"On our first day together we went to visit the Reykjavik city center. Although it was freezing cold and hard to find trash for the city cleanup, we still went on the pretty snowy way to see Hallgrímskirkja church and the amazing view from there. Even if it was well known for some of us, it was good to see and remember it again. We cannot say the same about the COVID test later that day. But this was soon forgotten once we were back in our cosy hut and played some very funny icebreaker games."

December 2nd → Maik

"Today is the 2nd of December 2021, a day none of us will probably forget. Luís and Cassandre took us on the well known Golden Circle Tour which consists of the three wonders of Iceland.

The first stop was the National Park Þingvellir. Besides the beautiful mountains we saw, we were also able to learn a little about the history at that place. For example there was a spot that used to be the old parliament where politicians had a meeting once a year. During that time politicians used the opportunity to spend a few more days there with their family. They even celebrated and threw parties together.

Back in time Icelander executed men and women in different ways. Men were headed by (blunt) axes and women were drowned in the river that was located in the National Park.

Despite the freezing cold weather, it was an amazing view. All of us were able to take a lot of pictures with our cameras and not with our phones after Luís taught us the night before how to use them.

The second stop was the waterfall Gullfoss. It is probably the biggest and most beautiful waterfall all of us have seen so far in life. The view was amazing and stunning. So fascinating that you didn’t want to leave the spot. But the cold wind convinced us otherwise.

Even though we couldn’t spend too much time there, I think we can all agree that it was the best one out of all three.

Last but not least, the third spot was the Geysir. We all kind of knew what it was because we all know what a Geysir is. When we arrived, the first thing we noticed was the boiled-egg-like smell. It was really strong but we could bear it. From far away, we saw our first Geysir outbreak. It was quite cool but we weren’t prepared at all. A few minutes later, we stepped near the Geysir, all prepared with cameras and smartphones, trying to catch the moment.

We saw the outbreak about 5 times, every time caught with another device and from another angle. It was so cold, especially when we had to hold our phone with our bare hands or even with our gloves on. After many shots, we decided to head back home. On the way back home, all of us rested until we arrived at home."

December 3rd → Carolina

"On Friday we started the day with a workshop about color theory and we were able to put our photo skills in practice! We also had a good time during the workshop of Kasia, learning the basics of knit. But the cherry on the cake was when we went Aurora hunting. We were lucky to see them and put again in practice the photography skills Luís taught us! Everyone will remember this night because it was the first time we saw an Aurora, we were speechless!"

December 4th → Jenny

“On saturday 4th December, we started our day early in the morning for the hot river hike excursion. We all rested in the van before we went on our hike up into the mountains. Going up, we had an amazing view, the sun was rising and the sky was clear. The first half hour was the hardest part of the hike, the path was steep and slippery. After a while of walking we got used to the cold and hiking in the snow. On the top we got rewarded with the hot water of the steaming river. Some of us even went up and lied down in the snow, but only to quickly run back into the cozy warmth of the hot river. After approximately an hour we left the heat and faced the challenge of changing in the snow and frost. The way back down was way more comfortable, but everyone still had to be very careful since it was still slippery. On our ride home we tried to find some trash at the beach, luckily or sadly we didn’t find too much litter and the beach was  almost spotless.

Back home we heard an interesting presentation about global warming by Alex. In the evening nobody wanted to go out so we stayed in and enjoyed the time together in the cozy living room.”

December 5th → Roxane

"Today we enjoyed a lot. In the morning, we had a workshop with Cherry about photography, then a workshop with Cassandre about the environment.

Then, we went to ice skating and we went to the swimming pool and bernhard cooked pasta for us.

In the evening, we had a workshop about photography with Luís."

December 6th → Risako

"6th December
Today we started with visiting the museum of marine animals. We had a guide with our own language so that we could understand the content of the exhibition and the explanations of how we humans affect marine life. We went to the office to pay the fee and we got our SEEDS t-shirts. Everyone tried it on immediately and seemed happy with it as it looked good on everybody. During our free time some of us enjoyed going around the city, the others went to the blue lagoon. We enjoyed the beautiful warm water, a pack of mud on our face and one cup of wine in our hands."

December 8th → Bernhard

"Today we went on an excursion to the southern part of Iceland. Therefore we had to leave very early to see all the spots within the sunlight hours. At first we saw the famous black sand beach. From there we went up a slippery road to Dyrhólaey lighthouse and further to our first waterfall, Skógafoss. Even if we could not see the usual rainbow over the waterfall it was still impressive. After that we went to Seljalandsfoss waterfall and Gljúfrabúi waterfall just close by. We finally visited the glacier lagoon Solheimajökull. There we could see some beautiful blue ice formations. Late in the evening but fully packed with pictures we arrived back to have a tasty dinner all together before we shared our top ten pictures."