We went arctic rafting on the Hvita River. Water from the Langjokull Glacier flows through lava canyons which is where we rafted. They told us that the water was probably between 38 and 41 degrees Fahrenheit. It felt colder than that to me.

Our whole rafting excursion took four hours. That included lots of time donning wetsuits and getting safety instructions plus some brief practice time before heading downstream.

These photos are from Karen Gries and Kathy Vitale, two of our fellow travel companions. We thank them for sending us these photos.

The start of our raft trip was more out in the open like you see below. We hit two strong sets of rapids right away and then things calmed down after that. I'm sitting in the front on the near side and Vicky is right behind me in the boat.

I don't know why Vicky is so excited in the photo below. Either she was glad we made it through the last rapids or she was excited about the ones ahead of us. We are on the right.

You can see the lava canyons in these last three photos. It was interesting to see the different formations and types of rock as we floated through the lava.

Despite the cold water, it was a really nice day and we were bundled up pretty tightly in our wetsuits, vests, and helmets.