Snorkelling The Silfra Fissure

I have wanted to snorkel in The Silfra FIssure, the only place in the world where you can snorkel between two continents and touch them both at once, ever since I knew it existed. I'm not a particular fan of snorkelling (and definitely not a fan of getting cold!) but have done a few resort dives and snorkels over the years and something about the photos I had seen of Silfra had drawn me in. It looked mesmerising. Silfra is also listed as one of the top ten dive sites in the world by Padi and as one of the most adventurous experiences around the world by Conde Nast Traveller. I was in from the get-go! Being 'in' though, doesn't mean I didn't have any reservations of course and even once we had booked our recent hosted small group tour to Iceland, including the Silfra Snorkel, I wasn't totally convinced I would be able to actually get in. The water that is. We had already visited Thingvellir National Park the day before and so I knew what the surrounding area looked like. Snowy. I had read a few blogs about the snorkel and all mentioned that it was a physically uncomfortable activity and COLD. I had also seen mention of tight straps around the neck potentially being needed to keep you, well, dry, inside your dry suit. I have to admit, I had reservations about most of this and so did the majority of our group of ten people who had chosen this optional activity. Regardless of any reservations, we were all still excited as we were picked up in the minibus by the dive company and driven the forty-five minutes or so from Reykjavik to the car park in which we would get changed. Yes, a car park. Thingvellir is a Unesco World Heritage site and as such is a protected area. We had all known to wear thermal base layers, so no one's dignity had to be tarnished luckily... I actually wore two sets of thermal tops and leggings and two pairs of socks. I'm not sure if I mentioned, but I do hate being cold... We were all handed a thin, padded thermal all in one suit to put on and then began the fight (for me anyway) to get into our dry suits. Or halfway in. We then all had a safety talk, completed by dive team member Jake, who was especially entertaining and at least some of our nerves about the talk of tight neck straps vanished when he came out with the tag line 'better to be choked than soaked', which was followed by raucous laughter and a much more relaxed vibe amongst us. I had been really worried about perhaps feeling claustrophobic when the neck (and wrist) straps went on, but actually, the guides were brilliant, and it didn't feel any more comfortable than the dry suit already did and we all felt ok once furnished with semi dry neoprene hoods and gloves. We were split into two groups of six (with two fantastic Americans who were great helping us get photos of the whole group, looking our absolute best in our get ups!) and it was the walk of around 100m to get to the entry point. This went without event and on the steps the guides helped us with our snorkels and fins and before we knew it, we were about to get in! The air temperature was in the minus degrees, Silfra stays a cool 2C all year round, but I was still very surprised to notice that the water didn't actually feel cold on entry. Or not to me at least. Except my face was exposed and when that hit the water it took my breath away with such a sting I did consider just getting out. (This is the only chance to get out. Once you are in, you are in, you can't get out halfway, which is one of the reasons safety is so strict) Then our guide, GC, called out that the cold feeling would subside after a few minutes, so after another short safety brief in the water, checking we all knew the 'safe' position, we were on our way! It's incredibly hard to describe the feeling of being in the water. You glide along at what seems like a great height. The visibility is so very clear at up to 100m because this glacier water had been filtered through volcanic rock for up to 100 years. I have no idea if it was adrenaline, but I genuinely didn't notice the cold. Snorkelling has always felt serene to me, but this was something else. In a world that is so fast paced, to just drift along being carried by the current, looking down through all the clear blue water felt like indescribable. It was totally different to any snorkel or dive I have done before and not least as there are no fish. I now understood what people mean when they say it feels like you are flying. The time seemed to pass so quickly. Before we knew it, we were at the sand bank where we had been told we needed to swim left against the current into the small lagoon where we would exit. This was so sandy compared to the rocky fissure we had just come through and pretty. It turned out getting out was possible the biggest challenge of the day, I found it impossible to right myself in a dry suit, but it seemed the guide wasn’t new to this scenario and he helped us all get out onto the steps. The mood was high! We had all ticked off a huge bucket list challenge, even those of us who had been nervous. There is no doubt that being in a group like this helped us get in. Everyone supported everyone else and the guides made the entire experience feel safe. They made us feel safe. Once we were back at the car park, what tasted like the best hot chocolate ever was handed out, along with biscuits. I, along with our clients, felt that perhaps this was a one-off experience, that didn’t need repeating. It was slightly physically uncomfortable and emotionally exhausting. However, the entire hosted small group trip to Iceland was so successful, we are planning a variation on it for next year that will again feature an optional Silfra Snorkel and yes, I am absolutely in!