North Berwick Geography Field Trip

By Clemi, Miriam, Ellen and Polly:)

Bonjour!

This morning we set off to visit the Beaufort Cheese Factory which was about 2 hours away surprisingly in Beaufort. We watched a film about the traditional way of life in the area which included a lot of cheese and then we were lucky enough to try some. It was very nice but not particuarly exotic as it is sold in Tesco in North Berwick!

Next we were back on the coach to visit Limestone Caves which are underground and were carved out by water thousands of years ago! It was very interesting but some of us found it a little too claustrophobic for our liking!

To finish off the day’s round trip we went bowling in Albertville and had a brilliant time. The champions at bowling were Liz Burgon and Laurie Pratt who put the rest of us to shame!

This evening we are having a ceilidh and a disco which we are looking forward to!

Au Revoir!

The vagaries of the internet mean this evening’s pupil blog post have been lost so here’s a quick update from Mr Rutter.

We spent the morning visiting the very impressive limestone Gorges of Fier - very spectacular and a great introduction to a new topic in Higher Geography.  In the afternoon we moved on to the exceptionally picturesque lakeside town of Annecy, conducted some land use studies, did a bit of shopping and finished with pedal’eaus on the lake itself.  A great day.

Normal pupil service will be resumed tomorrow.

Today we visited the historic town of Chamonix, commonly known as the mountaineering capital of the world, this is evident from the jaw dropping heights of the surrounding mountains. We took the vernacular railway up to the Mer de Glace, although the views were stunning, sadly we could not enter the ice caves due to maintenance. The beautiful mountains surrounding Chamonix can be reached by 2 railways, 6 telecabins and 3 chairlifts. In addition, there are 25 draglifts giving access to 53 ski runs.

After viewing the stunning scenery of the Mer De Glace we took the vernacular railway back down to Chamonix. At this point we were given tasks to find information about the town, such as, average population and the traffic that drives through Chamonix everyday. After we had completed these tasks we were free to explore the wonderful shops of Chamonix.

When we returned to La Clusaz, we had some free time for a swim in the local pool.

If you wish to view the route of the venicular railway up to the Mer De Glace then you can click on the link below.

View Montenvers Train in a larger map

Hey Zoe Jennie and Liz here.

today we walked up the side of a mountain to see glacier trient. it was hot and we enjoyed it. it got hard to breathe as we got higher because the oxygen levels were low. the bus journey was really interesting as the views were phenomenal, there were other glaciers that were amazing to look at everyone was astonished. the glacier was a lot smaller than we were imagining, as it is retreating due to global warming, 10 years ago the glacier was all the way down at the start of the walk we bagan. back on the way down the walk was really difficult because of the rocky path the glacier has left in its tracks but we had had a delicous lunch and ice cream which kept us going! when we had finally made it to the end of our walk, we filled in our booklets on information on the glacier.  seeing a glacier up close was a great experience and we all really enjoyed it. it was great to get some exercise after the long journey on friday. after a great night sleep from last night we were all still really tired. the walk really tired all of us out and were just relieved to get a nice nights sleep.

here is the link to the walk we experienced today. byeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
View Trient Glacier in a larger map

North Berwick High School’s random assortment of geog fanatics left North Berwick at 7:40 am on Friday the 19thof June, to embark on a deadly 26 HOUR BUS JOURNEY!!!! The first part of the trip was from North Berwick to Dover, where we would catch a ferry to Northern France, during this part of the trip we saw many different geographical features, such as, meadering rivers, ox-bow lakes and ribbon lakes.  We reached Dover after 11 hours of travelling, we were greeted by the magnificent Cliffs of Dover, a sight that many travellers have witness as they embarked on to new adventures. The ferry took one and a half hours, in this time we were able to play games in the arcade, chill in the lounge and buy food from the heavily over priced cafe. Once we hit Calais, the laughter was replaced by silence, well almost, as people tried to get some shut-eye. For some this came easier than others,  and the lack of sleep only made the journey longer, reminscent of the ski trip 2 years back. 

At 6am we stopped at a service station to have breakfast (not the best we’ve had, but it fought off hunger for a couple more hours). After breakfast we knew we only had four hours left til La Clusaz. The last part of the journey seemed to fly by, as the thought of finally stopping ran through our heads.

The first thing that hit us was the stunning scenery surrounding this small town. Weirdly, what most caught our eyes was the surrounding green vegetation of lush grass and tall trees, which overpowered the valley.

A swim after lunch helped us relieve the aches and pains of the bus journey, ready for us to tackle the long walk to the Glacier du Trientre.

(We also arrived just in time for the La Clusaz custom bike and car show)

As first impressions go, La Clusaz really leaves a mark.

We’re off! You can follow our exploits on Twitter at frenchalps09.