Caving in Leiðarendi and snorkeling in Silfra

I started the year of 2015 by going caving in Leiðarendi cave and snorkeling in Silfra. If you are traveling to Iceland in wintertime, this is a fun activity to spend the day doing, the tour in whole being about 7-8 hours. The tour is operated by Arctic Adventures. In summer they go to another cave which is called Gjábakkahellir but in winter time they go to Leiðarendi cave.

The drive from Reykjavík centre to Leiðarendi was about 30 minutes and the cave is situated right outside of Reykjavík in the Blue Mountain's area. When we arrived at Leiðarendi our guide, Hywell Lloyd (Wol) gave us some helmets with headlights on. The helmets turned out to be very handy and actually necessary as I bumped my head into the rocks a couple of times while inside the cave. 

The name of the cave, Leiðarendi, means "end of the road". The name derives from the fact that inside of the cave there is a sheep skeleton which you get to see. Presumptively the sheep fell down the cave entrance and wandered around the cave until it died, as there is no vegetation inside the cave. Anyway, there are a lot of hearsayes about how the sheep skeleton came to be inside the cave. 

    Entering the cave, we slid down the enterence (a couple of meters) which was really fun, like a snow slide! When inside the cave, we could stand up straight and for the first minutes exploring the cave, most of the ground was icy, which made it rather arduous to clamber around. It is best to have good shoes (hiking shoes or some kind of winter shoes), snow trousers and a good, thick coat to be able to enjoy the caving to the fullest. There are some parts of the cave where you have to duck down or walk bending over. Also there are some parts where you have to "release your inner spider" (quoting Wol, our fantastic guide) and crawl or creep around like Gollum (from Lord of The Rings). In my opinion, the parts of the cave where we had to crawl around on our stomachs, were the most exciting and amazing ones. Crawling around in that small a space, you could really feel the nature and it is probably as close as you can get to pure Icelandic nature. Leiðarendi cave is a lava tube, and the lava has formed in so many different, interesting ways, creating various shades of colours.

The lava has also formed "lava candles" which kind of reminded me of stalactites. When going out of the cave we went through a different entrance which is much more narrow, which also made it more fun, because before actually getting out, you had to scramble through some rough, big rocks. Wol, our guide, made the caving experience really fun and unique, Wol is a great guide and I highly recommend him. He made witty jokes, sometimes with a hint of sarcasm which he gets a couple of cool points for :).

    When we were out of Leiðarendi our journey continued to Silfra which is situated in Þingvellir. Þingvellir is a historically important place as well as being a national park. Þingvellir is important mainly because the parliament of Iceland was set there in 930 and remained there for many centuries, until it was moved to Reykjavík. Silfra is a beautiful fissure to go snorkeling in and when snorkeling in Silfra you are actually snorkeling between continents, between North America and Eurasia. Silfra is also special because the underwater visibility is so vivid. The water also has a mystical, amazing blue colour which is really special. All in all the diving was fun and such a different experience which I'd recommend to anyone visiting Iceland as well as Icelandic people. The water in Silfra is 2°C so obviously it is necessary to wear a dry suit, which you get at your arrival. I would not really recommend snorkeling in Silfra to people who don't know how to swim. Although you can go snorkeling in Silfra without knowing how to swim, I would say knowing how to swim is important in order to enjoy snorkeling in Silfra to the fullest. Time spent in the water was around 30 minutes. After snorkeling Wol and the snorkeling guides, Juan and Herméz helped us to get out of the wet drysuits and before we drove back home, we got a cup of hot coacoa. 

    After the trip I was completely drained and ended the day by going to Seltjarnarneslaug, one of the pools close to home. There is nothing like ending a hectic day by relaxing in a hot tub in one of Reykjavík's pools.