DAY 4

Early departure again but worth it for a the opportunity to get two more dives and see the splendours of Silfra once again.

Back to the Thingvellir National Park for two dives and the first dive site,  Nikulásargjá, next door to Silfra.
The day is virtually cloudless, with the sun shining brightly. However a bitter wind brings the temperature down to minus 5 making dive suits a fantastic option for keeping warm. Hands become painfully cold within a few minutes when left to the elements.

We enter as quickly as possible climbing down a rock shelf and jumping the last foot into the pool under the bridge. below us we can now clearly see the thousands of coins that have been dropped by tourists for luck.

View of the entry point to Nikulásargjá

The Nikulásargjá rift 

The dive is spectacular, through gin clear water against a slight current. The walls on either side tower above us. Gradually they get higher as we continue towards the end where the stream disappears under the rock into a cavern system. At this point we take our regs out and have a drink from the rock filtered glacial water. The return dive is a gentle drift back to the bridge with the rift's cliffs gradually lowering and the sunlight penetrating to the depths.

Clambering out we wander back to the van with huge grins in place, this was the dive of the week. It was fantastic, an unbelievable experience diving the rift between the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates.

It is so cold that ice crystals freeze on the outside of  our dive kit and when we go to kit up our gloves and hoods have frozen solid so we thaw them out using the vans heaters.

We returned to Silfra for our final dive of the week.
What more can be said? The sun brought it to life as it turned the water blue. We worked our way slowly through each of the sections, drifting along with the gentle current.

Silfra diving at it's best

Finally we reach the end and float around trying not to finish. Eventually we have to exit and walk back to the van. It is now so cold that ice has formed on our suits.

The divers next to us look rather concerned about the amount of ice but our grins, enthusiasm and sheer joy enthuse them and they leave towards the entry point with eight divers looking enviously on.

Three happy divers with frozen suits