A dive plan from ocean diver Ben Coombs, Icelands Silfra Rift was on his bucket list.
A group of divers from Time2Dive took the pluge!
Silfra is a fissure between the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates in Thingvellir National Park that was formed in 1789.
Four of us took part in the dive which began with us inspecting and donning of our hired gear. This included rubber bands around our neck seals (making for a better seal apparently!).
We dropped in from the pontoon and headed straight down. The water was 4° and so clear (100m vis!). Swimming over what looked like a huge canyon, shortly reaching the part where you could touch both sides of the tectonic plates around 18m.
After taking it all in, we set off to the end of the gorge where we had to head to the surface as it got really shallow over a sand bank in about half a meter of water. As we got over that it opened up into a huge bowl shaped pool called the Silfra Hall.
In the center, its deepest point, was a hole with the fresh glacia water entered the pool.
A short dive but it was a fantastic experience.
Whale watching another day which wasn’t very successful. However we had a great day with lovely crew and on a beautiful boat.
We had two long coach trips to see the Northern lights again without success.
Our day at the Blue Lagoon spar was so much fun, although it was blowing a gale. A beer, facepack and sitting in 30 degree water and topped off with a brief visit to the sauna (too hot in there).
The Golden Circle tour.
Started our day out to an inactive Kerid volcano crater. Some walked around the mouth and then down inside to walk around the pond at the bottom.
Onto our next stop, the impressive Gullfoss waterfall. Again another long walk to this huge waterfall, amazing!
Back on the bus and off to the last stop of the day to see the geysers. The smell of sulpher bubbling up from these natural hot springs, standing and waiting for this giant explosion of water shooting into the air every few minutes. A few of us then walked to the top of the hill overlooking the site and the massive green valley on the other side of the hill.
The rest of the week was spent walking all around Reykjavik, there are some amazing things to see including Perlan museum and fantastic buildings.
We also tried the local swimming pool which is heated by natural strings.
A fabulous trip, I highly recommend it!
– Andrew Matthews
T2D Chairman
