Have you ever desired to practical experience the thrill and elegance of river rafting in the coronary heart of Iceland‘s Golden Circle? Given that 1985 Arctic Rafting have been doing precisely that, enabling you to take pleasure in a flawlessly-well balanced blend of serene canyons and adrenaline-pumping waves and rapids. Examine on to discover much more about their most well-known tour – River Pleasurable Rafting.
What to be expecting
You will raft down 7 kilometres of the Hvítá River fed by the Langjökull glacier, making the most of the check out, whilst floating downstream in an inflatable raft, with a couple of surprises together the way.
Who’s it for?
The rapids are explained as “easy to moderate” this extend of the river is graded 2+, with 1 staying the gentlest and 6 being the most intense, so means it’s obtainable for most men and women. No past rafting experience is necessary, and kids from 11 decades of age are welcome to take part. Just be geared up to get a very little little bit moist and a tiny cold… but it’s all well worth it!
The site
Drumboddsstaðir – aka Drumbó River Foundation – is where all Arctic Rafting’s rafting tours begin and the house of their raft guides. It’s 98 kilometres from Reykjavik and normally takes about 1.5 several hours by auto to get there from the funds. Drumbó is conveniently positioned on the route of the Golden Circle. The rafting will take put on the Hvítá River which comes from the Langjökull glacier – the 2nd biggest glacier in Iceland – and creates Gullfoss, one of Iceland’s most legendary waterfalls.
What’s involved
The tour incorporates a river rafting experience down the river with an expert guidebook, in rafts that keep 8-10 people. All required rafting equipment is offered, and that features wetsuit trousers and splash leading, daily life-jacket, neoprene sneakers, helmet and paddle.
Also provided is a take a look at to the famous Brúarhlöð canyon by using the river, and a warm shower and sauna soon after the chilly river vacation. If you want, you can seek the services of a GoPro with a Arctic Rafting-branded memory card by now loaded, which you get to maintain just after the tour. Some of the helmets come with helmet mounts alternatively, you can mount the GoPro to the front of the boat (and opt for to have it facing both forwards or backwards).
What to deliver
All you require to deliver is a bathing fit (for use below your wetsuit), a towel (for the shower and sauna after the rafting), a heat top rated layer to use under the splash top… and a sense of experience!
The knowledge
Our experience began with a briefing from Julia at the Drumbó River Foundation. We were recommended that we could depart things like iPhones guiding in the changing rooms because… perfectly, they presently experienced their individual. All the things was sent in a enjoyable, jovial manner, while even now obtaining crucial security information across to us.
As soon as we’d altered and grabbed a paddle, it was time to get on to a bus. Two buses headed down to the riverbank from the foundation, each individual pulling 4 rafts at the rear of them – a journey of possibly just 10 minutes or so.
We then had a second briefing by the river as the guides transported the rafts to the waters edge. We were talked by means of some standard security measures, yet again all accomplished in a enjoyable still specialist fashion. The paddle experienced to be held with your hand around the T-bar at the close, or else we would stop up with faces like the guides. And we were explained to that the rope that runs close to the outdoors of the raft is called the “oh, shit!” line because, if you are ever locate oneself falling out of the raft, you want to grab it and will most almost certainly shout “oh, shit!” in the process!
With the briefing about, anyone was put into groups and assigned a manual. We shared a raft with yet another family with two girls, and our tutorial was Anshul. At to start with it was a very relaxed extend of h2o, and we just acquired utilized to paddling on Anshul’s command.
But, prior to very long, we had been getting on extra complicated problems – rapids wherever we becoming thrown about a bit much more and splashed with icy cold meltwater!
It was al superior enjoyable, though… and, soon after just one established of rapids, we seemed again, only to uncover our tutorial was no lengthier sitting down on the back again of the boat!
Anshul was in the water and experienced grabbed the “oh, shit!” line!!! At 1st, we thought he was just messing about… but he wasn’t. This experienced hardly ever took place to him right before, he explained, after he’d managed to clamber back on board.
Our journey ongoing down river, navigating rapids of unique severity but hardly ever everything much too drastic, right until we had a halt on the river bank at Brúarhlöð canyon. This was a time when people could extend their legs, enjoy the see and, if they so wished, do a cliff leap into the icy river!
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And, of system, we have been stupid ample to give it a go. There was a mini-briefing for this – we were only informed to kind a queue if we needed to do it and, when our time arrived, we ended up not to dither… he would say “3… 2… 1… jump” and you have to go there and then. This was essentially a fantastic notion as it stopped folks more than-contemplating it. The only other two parts of assistance ended up to soar out as far as we could so as not to be close to the rocks, and to land like a pencil for a much more at ease landing.
As we neared our change to bounce, 1 of the guides checked our lifejackets to make certain it was limited and secure, so that it did not ‘ride up’ when hitting the drinking water.
A further stood by to say “3… 2… 1… jump”…
…and then there have been guides, producing certain that you swam to the edge immediately after jumping.
With all all those who required to soar getting jumped, it was back on to the rafts for much more pleasurable. There ended up not several rapids, but plenty of possibilities to lark about.
There was tons of splashing, guides pulling folks into the h2o, game titles balacing on the inflatable sides of the raft, and so and so forth.
Other guides would connect with out “where’s your tutorial?” and we would glance again in alarm, only to see he was continue to there. We had been specially gullible for this one particular, presented that our tutorial had in fact fallen out the moment already!
Again at the river base, we experienced entry to incredibly hot showers and a sauna. Our upcoming stop immediately after this adventure was the Friðheimar tomato restaurant but Arctic Rafting also has its very own cafe and bar on web page.
The entire tour experienced been excellent fun, and the guides seriously entertaining and engaging. It is a extremely successfully-operate operation from start to end and an knowledge that we would heartily propose.
Organizing a journey to Iceland you? You can watch a video clip from our vacation to Iceland in this article. Footage from our experience with Arctic Rafting can be viewed concerning 2m 22s and 3m 30s.