"Look at it this way"

Cross posting from the LivingGeography blog.  I spent five days of the first week of my half term in Iceland, exploring the magnificent landscapes of the country.  This introduced me to a couple of new locations which I hadn't visited before - including the car parks and tracks leading to the recent Fagradasfjall lava flows - and also reminded me of a great many that I'd been to previously before the pandemic and I enjoyed experiencing the power of Gullfoss (and the taste of the ice cream at Efstidalur). There had been some changes in tourst infrastructure in familiar locations with others being constructed e.g. a nice new toilet block at Thingvellir for visitors, and new paths etc. I will be working with Rayburn Tours  to lead future tours through 2023 and beyond. I've got a special Iceland blog which will host all the reading and planning I'm doing around these tours, which already hosts the year long 365 blog project which I completed in 2020 (when I was originally...

  We love Danny MacAskill videos at King's Ely Junior: to help introduce students to landscapes and ways of 'seeing' them in different ways. The mountains of Skye are volcanic in origin, and have been shaped by millennia of weathering... We can explain their formation and their slow breakdown, but Danny sees the chance to ride his bike in skilful and exciting ways. His latest film 'The Slabs' is set on the Dubh slabs above Lock Coruisk, which also featured in his last film 'The Ridge'. He descends the slabs. I've climbed them the other way, and I didn't take my bike. Thanks to Matt Podbury for spotting the new film and letting me know about it.

The Ordnance Survey is launching a range of handheld / cycle mounted GPS units, which make use of Ordnance Survey mapping. We were shown the details at the GetOutside Champions launch a few months ago, but the details are now emerging on the OS Leisure Blog. Our four new handheld GPS devices come with advanced navigation yet simple functionality. Designed for hiking and off-road cycling, they’re rugged, water-resistant and come with all the accuracy and detail of our world-famous large-scale leisure maps. Not only that, they’re packed with features to keep you on track with your performance, and let you and others know exactly where you are. You can also sync with other products to plot and share routes, or monitor your heart rate, energy and speed. Find out more details HERE.  Sign up to get the news on features and pricing. I am hoping to get my hands on one for a while, to trial them for use in geography fieldwork and similar contexts.

Check out Danny MacAskill's new video , where he explores the Scottish Landscape in his own special way - I think this is the best one yet in many ways (although the Cuillin Ridge video is the most dramatic) and the choice of music is also very fine...

Summer holidays are here, when I will be getting ready for the next year, when we will be teaching the Adventure Landscapes topic again. This is a great topic, and will offer a lot of options for us to teach about landscapes and our relationships with them. Which landscapes are you going to visit over the summer?

Play it full screen. Ascension from Ascension Le Film on Vimeo .

Started teaching my Year 7 Adventure Landscapes this month... plenty of Landscape stuff to come.... Got a small 'England in Particular' book from the library - focussing on journeys... The big book is one of the most useful to dip into for those exploring UK landscapes. Sometimes available in bargain book shops....

Thanks to all those who contributed to my survey on Adventurous activities that had been carried out and the link with places, towards the end of the summer holiday in preparation for the new term... Here are all the results summarised from Google Drive... Adventure Landscapes - Results of survey