Have you ever thought about snorkeling Silfra Rift in winter?

Grey rain lashed against the windows as our little minibus pulled into a car park in the middle of the Icelandic countryside in mid November. Just the right setting for some snorkeling.

Louis, our driver, pointed to a little hut in front of us: the only sign of life in the immediate vicinity.

“Ok,” he said, “Time for you guys to change into your Silfra snorkeling gear!”

At Louis’s instruction, I headed towards a wooden picnic table strewn with various piles of drysuits, waterproof shoes, mittens and diving gear. Along with a group of shivering tourists, I began to stuff myself into the various layers on offer.

First up: tucking my thermal vest into my thermal leggings, and tucking those into my heavy duty socks (all of which I was already wearing); second, I tugged on a base layer suit made of something very thick and clingy, the insides of which were covered in talcum powder and zipped tight up to my neck; and third, I clambered into a huge dry suit with attached rubber boots, covered in zippers in strange areas.

Then I hopped around asking people to help me zip it all up.

Basically, getting adequately dressed for the Silfra rift takes quite a long time.

Why is snorkelling at Silfra Rift so special?

Iceland’s Silfra Rift, located in a lake at Thingvellir National Park, is the product of a natural split between the North American and Eurasian continental plates. They’ve been separating for millions of years but an earthquake in the 1700s created a significant fissure – and nowadays the gap between these two enormous tectonic plates has widened enough for people to go scuba diving and snorkelling in the Silfra fissure.

When you’re in the water, there are certain places where you can reach out and touch both continental plates at the same time. It’s an overwhelming feeling when you realise just what you’re splashing about in the middle of!

But from up above, the Silfra Rift doesn’t really look like much. In fact, for a casual onlooker, our snorkelling session would have seemed downright bizarre.

It’s below the water’s surface that Silfra really entices its visitors. 

Quite apart from Silfra being so geologically unique, this spot in Iceland boasts some of the world’s best cold-water diving – thanks to its insanely clear fresh water.

That’s because melting ice from the Lángjökull glacier, about 50km away, journeys into the Silfra rift after being naturally filtered through porous lava rock. The filtration process can take up to a hundred years to travel that short distance, but it results in an overwhelming water clarity which has ‘limitless’ visibility (about 70-80 metres).

The constant flow of freshwater arriving from the glacier means Silfra maintains a cool temperature of 2–4°C the whole year round, yet never gets cold enough to freeze. As a result, tourists can either scuba dive or snorkel the Silfra Rift at any point in the year.

In fact, the only thing you really have to prepare for is the cold.

Beginning our Silfra snorkelling adventure

After the Dive.Is team had firmly encased our hands and heads in breathable rubber gloves and hoods we stumbled up a rocky path, trying not to drop our various flippers and snorkel masks.

Once we’d reached the entry point for the fissure – a nondescript rocky outcrop with a metal ladder leading down to the water – we all enjoyed a lengthy period of attempting to put flippers on each others feet and simultaneously trying not to fall over in the mud.

By this point my feet were getting pretty chilly, and I was starting to regret wearing just one pair of thick socks.

Phase three: getting into the chilly water

When we finally walked down the metal stairs and stepped into the water, my previous worries about whether the drysuit was actually going to do its job were thankfully put to rest.

Not only did I stay completely dry, but the suit flattened around me as the pressure of the water pushed against it. I felt a bit like I was being vacuum-packed. The compressed air inside my suit then kept me lovely and buoyant as I floated out into the water. It was like being at the Dead Sea all over again!

And then it was time to actually start snorkelling. Face down in freezing water, teeth clenched on plastic, feet flailing in their flippers: I had the sudden realisation that there was an interminable depth of water and rock below us, and all of it was absolutely crystal clear.

Officially overwhelmed by snorkelling between tectonic plates in Iceland

I don’t think I’d properly thought about what I’d see at the Silfra Rift. I knew the water would be blue; I knew the visibility would be great.

What I’d underestimated was how beautiful a single piece of floating algae would be in this environment. How delicately the sand on the rocks would shift and move. How ethereal the strands of green plant life would look in the blue glow of Silfra’s water.

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If voices were audible underwater, the rest of my group would have been very irritated by my constant gasps and exclamations. As it was, the breathing tube of my snorkel got an earful.

At the infrequent moments when I thought to raise my head, I noticed that it was raining in the world above. And as I watched the rain fall, I realised that it didn’t just become part of the water; rather, the rain settled into tiny orbs on the surface, and stayed there, glistening, for seconds at a time.

Snorkeling Silfra rift was, quite simply, out of this world.

The current in the water (due to the constant influx of melting glacier ice) made it ridiculously easy to make our way around the rift. It moved us gently through the water and felt a bit like being in the world’s most bizarre waterpark ride.

But my favourite and most unexpected part of the whole experience? Taking off my snorkel and gulping mouthfuls of the deliciously chilled fresh water which once used to be an Icelandic glacier. I once did a taste-test of bottled water in San Diego (long story) and I can absolutely guarantee that the water in Silfra is the best tasting water I have ever had the pleasure of sampling.

After an amazing time in the water, the bus journey back to Reykjavik was a quiet one. I mustered up the energy to make some quick notes about the experience but soon I was falling asleep like everyone else.

Who would’ve thought that a mere ten minutes of snorkelling could be so tiring?!

My top tips for Silfra snorkelling in freezing cold water:

– Make sure you eat a good breakfast.

The pick up time for snorkelling is pretty early in the morning, and if you’re anything like me you find it a daunting task to ingest anything other than coffee and some toast at breakfast. Do it anyway. If you’ve eaten a hearty amount you’re much more likely to stay warm in the freezing water.

– Accept the fact that you’re going to be cold.

Most of your body is in a drysuit, but for easy manoeuvrability your head and hands are covered by wetsuit material and there’s no stopping them getting wet. You can try and offset the chills in those parts of your body by wearing as many pairs of socks as you deem necessary, good thick leggings and a long sleeved thermal top.

– That said, if you think you’re getting colder than you should be, tell someone. 

The snorkellers only do one session in the water but the PADI-certified divers go in twice, and one girl on our trip had unfortunately not tightened the dry suit around her neck enough, causing a bit of water to get in her suit. Her freezing cold skin was going a worrying shade of purple while they prepared for their next dive – not the greatest thing!

Make sure the professional divers check your suit for any possible leaks or problems once it’s on your body.

– If your fingers start to freeze, resist the impulse to move them around.

I spent the first ten minutes of the session surreptitiously clenching and unclenching my freezing fingers to absolutely no avail. Eventually, when another girl raised her head and plaintively moaned that her fingers were in so much pain they were about to drop off, I discovered the secret.

Just let go of tension in your hands. The less you allow the water to move around your hands, the better. Once I learned to keep my fingers straight and still within their gloves, they stopped hurting pretty quickly, and eventually I was able to forget all about them and concentrate on the gorgeous sights around me instead.

– You don’t have to take a waterproof camera – but you might be glad you did.

Dive gave me the copies of the photos taken on the trip and they were gorgeous (as you can see in this article!) but my self-indulgent side would have enjoyed a few more self-portrait candids.

– Bring some extra food with you for a snack afterwards. 

It could be a chocolate bar, some biscuits or that half a sandwich you didn’t finish eating on the bus ride over from Reykjavik. I’d underestimated how hungry I would be after my snorkelling experience, and even after gratefully accepting the hot chocolate and biscuits that the Dive guys doled out post-snorkel, my extra few bites of sandwich made me very happy.

– Make your most of the time in the water.

Because the water temperature at Silfra is so cold, it’s not recommended to stay more than about 45 minutes in the water. In fact, our snorkelling session lasted a maximum of 25 minutes before we got too frozen and made a break for it! So try to make the most of it: turn your head as much as possible and look at every little thing you can. Snorkelling at the Silfra rift is one of those experiences that stays with you forever!

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Many thanks to Dive.Is hosting me on their Silfra snorkeling tour. Special thanks also to Hossi from the Dive.Is team, who recovered my lost notebook in the bus and posted it the whole way back to London for me!