Iceland - The Silfra Rift

We had breakfast at the Hotel and I must say it was the best breakfast buffet at a hotel ever. Were talking a buffet featuring Icelandic skyr, fresh berries and fruit, smoked fish, eggs, sausage and more.  This gave both a tasty and auspicious start to our day.

We then were picked up by our guides for the trip and after picking up more people signed up for the trip departed Reykjavik and headed out into the countryside.

We soon reached Thingvellir National Park .  Home to the site of the first Althing, or democratic parliament of Iceland (since moved to Reykjavi) it is also home to the Silfra rift.

The Silfra rift is a glacier-water filled fissure that is the boundary between two tectonic plates - the North American Tectonic plate and the European Tectonic Plate.  

It offers a unique opportunity for a diver to be able to do something not many people get a chance to do: touch two continents at simultaneously.

The kids and Tash would snorkel, and I would dive the rift.  All of us would be wearing drysuits as the water is a cool 39 degrees Fahrenheit. 

So we all suited up and then split up. All entries into Silfra are required to be guided and  I would be diving with a divemaster, Julia, leading the tour, and a nice Australian fellow. We had a good safety and orientation brief, and were warned to be sure to make the turn at a certain spot with the divemaster, as if you did not and took the wrong turn, the current can pull you out to the lake, which would be problematic, and a rather long swim back to the exit point.

The area is rather crowded with snorklers and divers, so they time entries so you don't get crowded and have the feeling of being on a private tour all alone in the rift.

We were warned not to try and enter the caves along the way, as after all, caves are rather dangerous for divers and no one was equipped for a cave entry, but these ones have the added danger of being tectonically very unstable with a large chance of collapse.  No thanks.

We entered the water and descended down, dropping to 48 feet.

The water was amazingly clear, and was wonderfully fresh and cold, also very thirst-quenching.  Taking a sip at 48 feet revealed nice fresh, clean, and tasty water.

We then got to where the rift narrowed enough for divers to reach out and touch the sides.

Here I am touching two continents at once:

Bucket dive experience achieved.

That was a great dive,  I also earned one of the rarest PADI dive specialties as a result of this dive (and a little study and paperwork, including a written test) - Silfra Tectonic Dive Diver. Kinda neat.

We also got to see an Arctic Char swimming in the rift, which is rare as fish typically don't hang out in the rift as there is nothing for them to eat in there, and this fellow probably came in from the lake side of the rift. 

 Most divers and snorklers never see a fish in the rift, so we got lucky.

Then dive gets a little tight at times, and you end up constantly adjusting your buoyancy as the rift gets shallow, then deep, and then shallow again and on occasion you're crawling over some boulders. At some points depth was all of 3 feet.

Its amazingly beautiful though, throughout.

Here's a video of the dive.

 

The average depth for the dive was 18 feet and the whole experience lasted 20 minutes.

Kids and Tash had a great time snorkeling the rift, and they saw the same fish as well.

That was a great experience.