Iceland
Iceland is a great natural wonder.
It seems like the nature is not quite finished with
her work here, and already it looks so well done,
like hardly anywhere else.
In 870 the first Vikings discovered the island in the North Atlantic on their adventurous boat expeditions. From here they should also discover Greenland and then travel to North America, later. Iceland became a Viking colony and today most Icelanders see themselves as direct descendants of the Vikings with great pride.
National Hero is Leifur Eriksson, son of Erik the Red. According to the records he was significantly more down to earth than his father who probably had to go on discovery tours that often because of various murders he had committed.
By the way, these voyages of discovery by the Vikings were only possible because they had exceptionally high-quality travel provisions: the dried fish – cod, which is caught at the end of winter and hung up to dry for about three months in wind and weather. Dried fish as a snack can be bought in every supermarket in Iceland.
Icelandic cuisine has more to offer than the notorious Hákarl – massively rotten shark meat that is supposedly comparable to a strong cheese. But Icelanders admit at a late hour that it can only be enjoyed with plenty of schnapps (which, by the way, also applies to various other Scandinavian fish specialties).
Today Iceland is a well-developed country for tourism. In the past ten years in particular, the number of visitors has multiplied. Many of the natural sights have long ceased to be insider tips.
The by far most famous diving spot on the island -Silfra -was visited by hundreds of divers and snorkelers every day at peak times. But there are also the lesser-known places and a large part of tourism takes place in the vicinity of the capital Reykjavik.
We explore Iceland as a mobile diving and exploration tour, usually this means a complete circumnavigation of the island on the well-developed ring road. Every single day is packed with a wide variety of dives and experiences. Waterfalls, basalt columns, hot springs and geysers, glaciers, sulfur springs, lava deserts, volcanic craters, crystal clear lakes, bird rocks and much more await us.
We dive both in the sea and in crystal clear rivers and lakes and see grim but very peaceful wolffishes, rays, cod, lumpfish, trouts and arctic chars and all kinds of small marine life. There are kelp forests, steep walls, ravines and even underwater hot springs.
The river Litlá with its own warm spring is just as essential to visit on the tour as Strýtan, the hydrothermal chimneys at the bottom of the fjord, or Nesgjá, a freshwater canyon with extremely good visibility. In the east we meet deep fjords that have hardly been dived before and can visit a large wreck from the war.
And if that’s not enough for you, you should take a closer look at our Greenland-Iceland-Highlight tour.
The east coast of Greenland offers more adventures – just two hours from Reykjavik by propeller plane!
