The Great North - Hallormstodur, Hengifoss, Saenautasel, Troll Wall, Modrudalur

Wednesday kicked off with a visit to the nearby arboretum, which was hosting an art exhibit at the time.

Along with the typical sort of things you expect to see such as trees and flowers, we got a chance to see a few sights that you don't normally see in nature, such as a hot pink tree.

A Hansel and Gretel house, along with the requisite children's trap.

And what I can only guess to be a staircase for squirrels. Not that we saw any.

It was a really relaxing walk, and we returned to the car to drive to the big hike of the day, Hengifoss, a star waterfall of the area.

This is where having a guide really paid off. We took an alternate route to the guided path, which meant that we got some stellar views of another waterfall leading up to Hengifoss, Litlanefoss. The waterfall is surrounded by hexagonal, basalt columns that were created as the lava cooled after an eruption. It's pretty amazing to see!

But the hike was just beginning - we continued on until we caught our first glimpse of our ultimate goal from afar. Hengifoss is really beautiful, even from afar, and the red stripes are caused by oxidised soil.

I wasn't quite sure how far we were going, so we decided to keep pushing on until our guide told us to stop. At this point, our hike had degenerated to jumping from rock to rock and trying to avoid falling in the freezing cold water. J took to it like a regular frog, and I spent half my time hollering at him to be careful. And I just noticed how well he's camouflaged with the landscape!

Luckily, neither of us fell in, and we managed to reach the pool at the bottom of the waterfall. The water looked so inviting that it was tempting to jump in for a quick swim except for the fact that I'd probably die of hypothermia within minutes.

After we all returned to the car, we enjoyed a packed lunch in the car and drove to our next destination.

We reached the highlands and stopped at Saenaustasel, a highland farm. It looked incredibly beautiful from the car, but the wind nearly knocked us over when we got out of the car!

Although we managed to stay upright, the dogs that came bounding from the farm nearly finished the job. We were quick friends, especially since they found a more than willing playmate in J.

The wind was near about killing us, so we went rushing into the farmhouse, which operates as a teahouse/ shop.

We met with the owner, who still lives at the farm with his family, and he gave us his blessings to roam around the farm at our leisure. We bundled up in all our layers and headed back outside.

First things first, I wanted to visit with all of their animals. I don't normally like sheep (they tend to follow me around, which freaks me out), but one on its own wasn't so bad so I stopped to feed him some toast.

We also visited the Icelandic horses, and J went all horse-whisperer on me. They were nibbling at us to see if we had any food, but all they ended up getting was a mouthful of J's windbreaker.

We visited the other building, where the family does their day-to-day living, and I got to see a lovely family of kittens. So cute! I just hope my cat never finds out I was cheating on him during my trip!

Anyway, we went back outside and played with the dogs for a while before heading back to the teashop to warm up. Luckily for us, the owner and his son had built up quite the fire.

Once we were warmed up, we settled down at the table for a meal of traditional Icelandic pancakes known as Pönnukökur. It was an all-you-can-eat pancake fest, and we could either sprinkle a bit of sugar or spread some homemade rhubarb jam on the little cakes. I tried both and washed it all down with lots of hot chocolate - both were delicious!

It was really cosy indoors while the wind was howling outside, and our guide told us more about traditional Icelandic lore on trolls, elves and giants. And more than appropriate since our next stop was the Troll Wall.

We thanked the owner and waved goodbye to the dogs as we got back in the car to drive to the Wall. The landscape got pretty strange pretty quickly - it looked like the surface of another planet!

You could see the Wall in the distance, and it's a natural phenomenon that was likely created by the movement of the glaciers. The other explanation is that trolls built the wall. I had heard so much about the trolls that I could half believe it at that point! And of course, we had to climb the Wall - the view from the top...

It had been a long day, and it was an even longer drive back to the hotel. We made a quick stop at Modrudalur farm to stretch our legs, and I made friends with the farmer's young daughter. I had heard that she kept some baby arctic foxes, and she agreed to try to get them to come see us. We took a large platter of cold bones, and then she taught me how to do an arctic fox call. It was harder than I thought! Unfortunately, the weather was too cold to tempt them out of the warmth of their den, but it was really sweet of her to try. She really was the cutest little girl I've ever seen!

Once we were back at the hotel, we stuffed ourselves at the buffet and took ourselves straight to bed!