Remember these geography classes at school the place you learnt about continental drift and the movement of the earth’s crust? Iceland lies along the mid-Atlantic Ridge and exists since of the divergence of two tectonic plates – the North American plate and the Eurasian plate – and a great location to see this initially hand is at Silfra in the Þingvellir National Park. What is much more, this is the only spot in the environment wherever you can snorkel amongst two continents.
Silfra and the Þingvellir valley, located inside of Iceland’s Golden Circle, have been shaped by the divergent tectonic drift of the the two plates which drift about 2 cm farther apart each year. This builds pressure involving the plates and the earth mass previously mentioned which is relieved by means of periodic key earthquakes that happen at roughly ten calendar year intervals. These earthquakes generate cracks and fissures and Silfra, which lies at the rim of the Þingvallavatn Lake, is a person of the premier and deepest of these fissures.
This fissure is fed by meltwater from Iceland’s 2nd biggest glacier, Langjökull, which seeps underground into porous basalta lava rock right before percolating through an aquifer about a period of time of 30-100 years. This hugely filtered groundwater fills fissures this sort of as the one at Silfra, generating it exceptionally apparent and of massive appeal snorkelers and scuba divers, specially specified the exclusive place between two tectonic plates.
There are a range of firms that offer snorkeling and diving encounters. We went with DIVE.is who are a person of the specialists for this unique activity and the longest operating dive and snorkel business in Iceland. The course of action was pretty straight forward – we just turned up at the Silfra meeting level, had our reserving and disclaimers checked in the again of a van (it is necessary for each DIVE.is participant to fill out their healthcare kind), and we were good to go. With specific healthcare disorders this kind of as heart sickness, epilepsy or lung condition, it is sad to say not attainable to get aspect. With specified other medical conditions this sort of as bronchial asthma, significant blood stress, vertigo or cancer, you can only participate if you get health-related clearance from a health care provider.
We were then assigned a guidebook who would accompany us on the snorkeling tour – in our situation, a gentleman named Pau from Spain – ahead of remaining directed to a different van to get into a drysuit. Why all the vans you might question? It’s because Silfa is a UNESCO Entire world Heritage Location and new constructing constructions are not allowed in the spot.
In addition to a drysuit each and every, we have been of training course kitted out with flippers, and a snorkel and mask, also. The flies can be a little bit of a nuisance so you might also want to borrow just one of their mosquito and midge head nets if you uncover them bothersome.
The fit has seals on the neck and wrists that halt water from acquiring in. These can be limited and from time to time an further rubber strap needs to be worn close to the neck. This can be quite uncomfortable – if you sense it is way too tight, ask your tutorial to verify it for you.
We ended up also provided with neoprene hoods and semi-dry neoprene gloves. Our heads and arms were exposed to the drinking water by means of these but that was beautifully Alright. A tiny section of our faces were being not covered by the hood and these ended up the only components of us that ended up in immediate get hold of with the h2o.
Snorkelers are produced in small batches, ordinarily all-around 6 men and women as well as a guide, so there’s a quick queue as persons wait around to enter the h2o but it served as an opportunity to have a family image taken, even if it’s a wrestle to establish who is who!
Though some operators offer you this encounter in a wetsuit, DIVE.is only supply dry satisfies for the activity. The only benefit I can assume of for wearing a wetsuit would be that you’d be equipped to dive down beneath the surface area a little which you just can’t effortlessly do in a dry go well with. Offered that you are in the water for 30-40 minutes and the h2o temperature is 2° Celsius, a dry accommodate is in all probability a far better possibility. Whatever you decide on, it’s advisable that members have eaten breakfast or lunch ahead of the action because of the duration of time spent in the chilly h2o.
As soon as your time arrives to enter the h2o, your guideline will talk you as a result of the approach. There is a metal staircase that potential customers immediately into the water (you can see it in the length in the photograph) – we just walked down those and, right before we realized it, we have been deal with-down in the h2o. The to start with issue that struck me was not the cold – it actually wasn’t that bad – but just how distinct the water was. The drinking water is extremely pure and astonishly apparent, and it is believed that the underwater visibility is much more than 100 metres… very amazing!
If you have browse other content articles about Silfra, you may possibly have observed men and women explain remaining capable to outstretch their arms and contact each tectonic plates at the similar time when they dived. This is instead misleading to say the least – or they have extremely lengthy arms – as the tectonic plates are 5 kilometres aside! Remember, this is a fissure that’s fashioned due to the fact of an earthquake because of to the diverging plates.
As we drifted in the drinking water, mesmerised by the underwater spectacle all-around us, Pau swam amongst our group getting images of us on a GoPro. If you want to make your Silfra encounter a lasting memory, you can obtain these as element of your tour with DIVE.is and they will mail you a Dropbox hyperlink right after the snorkeling tour so that you can down load the pics to your gadget.
Meanwhile, we ongoing to marvel at the perfectly-filtered crystal distinct h2o which is perhaps the clearest and most pristine water on the planet. For the reason that the water is so crystal clear, the gentle plays on the floor like glittering diamonds – on sunny times, the rays go to excellent depths, even making rainbows on the rocks because the obvious water refracts gentle in the identical way that crystals do.
This is a after-in-a-lifetime expertise that is sure to be a emphasize of your time in Iceland!
You are going to hardly ever see fish in Silfra but you will see a range of various sorts of algae, including vivid, neon green ‘troll hair’ algae that gives the rocks a magnificent spalsh of color.
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In destinations, Silfra is basically surpisingly deep – up to 63 metres deep – despite the fact that really couple of divers go to nearly anything like these depths.
There is a slight existing in Silfra and members should be comfy swimming towards it throughout the previous section of the tour, but it is really not that sturdy so manageable even for beginner swimmers.
After we at last obtained on dry land, we were provided with incredibly hot chocolate which was a really welcome decide on-me-up just after our time in the chilly water.
Scheduling a vacation to Iceland oneself? You can observe a video clip from our journey to Iceland right here. You can see footage from Silfra amongst 1m 26s and 1m 49s:
Disclosure: This publish is sponsored by DIVE.is. Our journey to Iceland was also sponsored by Helly Hansen.