Silfra – in between two tectonic plates
Iceland Day 3
In the National Park (UNESCO protected) Tingvellir a crack in between the North American and the European continents is visible. I never saw or heard about this natural phenomenon anywhere else and here in the park it is even available for a snorkel (or diving) trip.
Silfra is actually a fissure created by the separation of the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates cutting through Iceland. The Silfra fissure fills with glacial water that has been filtered underground for decades through hardened, porous lava rock. The filtering process of the glacial water makes Silfra one of the clearest bodies of water on earth with up to 120 meters of visibility. How crazy is that?
We were a little in doubt as to whether this trip was something for us to try, but it was such a mind-blowing experience and we would recommend it to everyone thinking about it. Yes, it is cold, 2 degrees all year around, yes it is a somewhat transgressive decision to make, but I promise it is so worth it; 35-40 minutes of what feels like entering another dimension. Nature is just amazing.
The underwater images was taken by our guide and is available after a tour for 20 euros. We booked our tour with Dive.is and we highly recommend them as we had such a good trip and was well taken care of all the way through.
On the way to Silfra we did a small stop at the Oxaràrfoss and also saw the place where the first Scandinavian democratic meeting took place (it is marked).
There are probably a lot of other places to be seen in this UNESCO protected area, but on this day it was just so cold and windy, so after the snorkel trip we got in our car and drove to Laugarvatn Fontana geothermal baths. The drysuits did prevent the cold water from “cooling us down”, however we did get a little cold from the water and the high chill factor of the ice cold winds after walking back from the water to the changing rooms, so the 38-40 degree geo-pools was just perfect 🙏🏼.
Post geothermal baths and sauna, we drove back to Reykjavik and had dinner (very convenient) at the hotel, trying to digest another amazing day.
hee bune diaries 