Notes from the Field: 26 September 2015
Reykjavik-Þingvellir-Reykjavik
Another home-style day: windy with horizontal rain, all day. Not a good day necessarily to be topside but underwater is a different story! Incredibly clear water at Silfra, at least 100 feet and probably way more than that. The water is glacial melt that has gone through miles and miles of filtration through volcanic soils – it’s drinkable straight from the lake, though I didn’t try this as I wasn’t sure how well I’d accomplish drinking a mouthful of water while still managing to breathe with my regulator. Not a whole lot to see but be able to swim in the rift between tectonic plates is just pretty damn neat.
Silfra is in Þingvellir National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage site, so I spent a bit of time walking through park of the park when I got done diving – until my feet were squishing in my shoes and the water was wicking up my socks. I was right next to the edge of the North American plate – I could’ve (and probably should’ve, since my shoes were already soaked) waded across a creek to touch it. The Eurasian plate is a kilometer or so distant – couldn’t see it because of the weather – and the area in between the two is laced with deep cracks and ponds/lakes like Silfra. The two plates spread a bit less than an inch per year.
After a warm shower and some fresh dry clothes I headed to Matur of Drykker for dinner – fantastic meal using all locally grown/caught/collected ingredients, including an Icelandic white ale flavored with thyme, cod chips, cod liver, cod tongue and cod head. Who’d o’ thunk cod parts could taste so good?!