What a great colletction of photos. Some of them quite amazing.
Here is my favorite 2008 with minor text:-)
As far as I know this crack hasn´t been explored before and definitely not photographed...
The whole area is quite exotic and one of a kind. Positioned in the midst of Kelduhverfi at the bottom of Oxarfjördur, with the national park in Jökulsárgljúfur and the famous Ásbyrgi nearby. The day before our trip we contacted the landowner to explain our plans, fortunately he was almost as excited as we were but emphasized that diving in his land was totally at our own risk. By 9 in the morning after we stood in front of the farm in such wonderful weather. His daughter guided us to the cracks witch we had passed a few minutes earlier without noticing them, positioned on both sides along the road to the farm.
To begin with our hopes went sour because of the amount of sediment afloat in the biggest crack. But with some exploration in the area we found one bit with especially clear water, similar to the famous lake at Thingvellir with Silfra crack as a favorite spot for many divers. The formation of the area here is of the same geological sort as in Thingvellir, lying on the North-Atlantic Ridge where the North-American and Eurasian plates drift apart. The water is very cold, varying from 2-6°C. The crack is divided by rock slips in several places. In the south end we could swim under the hanging rocks into quite small and shallow bits, though it can be very dangerous. Surprisingly we saw small trout swimming curiously around us, but not to close though. Later the landowner told us that as a young boy he used to fish there with some result but the catch was never big. 30-40 years have now passed since the last fish was caught there.
Before returning home we thanked the 83 year old farmer for sharing his knowledge of the area and great hospitality and showed him the photos we had taken.
We are determined to go back for better photos and stay for a longer period of time. One more hidden treasure has now been found and simply must be explored further.
