At Þingvellir it is easy see to that the North American and the European continental plates are drifting away from each other, because there are ravines and gills everywhere. Some of them are filled with water.
The most beautiful of them all is Silfrugjá (the Silver Gill), also called Silfra.
This is a narrow gill, filled with unbelievably clear water. If possible – do book a free diving tour here, it’s fabulous! You can choose between scuba diving, snorkeling and free diving. We chose the latter, as there is nothing you do in Silfra by scuba diving that you can’t do free diving. And the sense of freedom is higher with a wetsuit than a drysuit and without air tanks. We even let the tour guide do most of the photographing, so we could just concentrate on enjoying. The swim takes about half an hour, and goes through 3 different zones: The brown, the blue and the green. The brown zone is the narrowest, hence the color (because of the least light flux).
Here you can touch both continents at the same time. It’s fascinating! The blue zone is where Silfra is deepest, with a stunning beauty. The depth goes down to 63 meters.
The green zone is the shallow one, but beautiful as well. The water is pretty cold, only about 2 degrees C, but that will be soon forgotten. Free diving in Silfra is absolutely fantastic!
