Geography Trip to Snowdonia 2016
On 28th September and 29th September, the AS Level Geography students made their way to Snowdonia in Northwest Wales. We were instantly greeted with harsh, cold winds! Luckily, we all stayed warm in our waterproofs and woolly hats!
We began our 4-hour expedition around a lake called Cwm Idwal. This was Wales’ first National Nature Reserve and a Site of Special Scientific interest. We stopped off at certain points to look at glacial features such as: corries, hanging valleys, glacial troughs and arêtes. Mr Bird and Ms Wharton taught us all about these glacial features. It was great being able to see the features at first hand.
Afterwards, we headed down to a roche moutonnee in the Nant Ffrancon Valley. Whilst it was only a 5-minute stop, we walked onto it and discussed in detail how it was formed which was fascinating.
Fortunately, after our 4-hour long expedition, we drove to the 5-star Plas Curig Hostel, where we relaxed and dried off. For the rest of the night, the Geography students took a trip down to the high street where we ate our dinner at the local pub.
The next day, for Human Geography, we carried out a questionnaire on the summit of Snowdon, looking into peoples’ different perceptions of place. Interestingly, we met some locals who didn’t consider the summit of Snowdon as special a place as those who were visiting; perhaps a sign that people take for granted what’s in their own backyard!? During our train ride to the top of Snowdon, we saw spectacular views which included many glacial features that we learnt about the previous day. The summit had winds up to 50mph which added to the exhilarating experience.
It was an excellent experience and one that brought our Geography studies to life thanks to Ms Wharton and Mr Bird.
Viren Sharma & Anastasia Martin
