teacher tour leader stephen pickard

Stephen Pickard

A bit about me…

My long held subject specialism and passion is Geography in all its attendants forms, which makes Iceland and its people such a fascinating and interesting place to visit.

As a teacher of over 32 years of professional experience, I have wide fieldwork experience both in the UK and abroad, including both Belgium and Iceland. An Advanced Skills Teacher in Geography for 16 years, I worked regionally with colleagues to develop their teaching pedagogy and student learning outcomes. Working with business and national conservation organisations, I developed web based teaching resources for sustainable citizenship, and contributed to published written research, and brief local radio and TV broadcasts.

Why I love being a Teacher Tour Leader…

Having planned and developed my own bespoke field trip to Iceland with the enthusiastic support of Discover the World Education, and travelled on many occasions with them to Iceland and Greenland, I had full confidence that working with Discover the World Education would be an ideal opportunity to share my fieldwork skills. It allows me to work with a new generation of colleagues and students, and to share in their excitement and enjoyment as they visit this country for the first time.

My favourite place in Iceland…

Walking Iceland’s hidden landscapes and wilderness continues to baffle and raise interesting questions in equal measure. Exploring a tectonically active country, studying the very building blocks of the earth’s crust, whilst at the same time find wildflowers in the crevices of the bleak and beautiful lava fields, which are constantly changing colour in the wonderfully clear Icelandic light is a real privilege.

The remote farmhouse ruins of the Viking Farm at Stong in the Upper Thjorsardalur Valley, and its nearby river gorge of Gjain, culminating in the columnar basalt waterfalls of Gjarfoss, draws me back time after time. Destroyed by the volcanic eruption of Hekla in 1104, the farmhouse at Stong combines Saga history with a wonderful walk through dwarf Icelandic woodland to the fairytale waterfalls of Gjarfoss. It is Iceland in a microcosm.