Chasing Waterfalls - Litlifoss, Dettifoss, Godafoss, Jökulsárgljúfur, Asbyrgi

Our first visit of the day was to the underground bakery by Lake Myvatn where they make Icelandic rye bread aka "thunder bread" due to the noises that you would make if you eat too much of it! Too funny. It's made of molasses and rye flour and baked in the heated ground for many hours.

We took a peek into several of the pits, but alas, there were no buns in the oven. Sad.

It turned out that we were going to see a slew of waterfalls that day. After seeing Gullfoss, I was really excited to see Dettifoss, Europe's most powerful waterfall. But first, we stopped by Litlifoss, a much smaller waterfall that's in close proximity to Dettifoss. I guess it was like a waterfall appetiser.

I made J more than a little nervous by sitting on the cliff edge, but it was worth it since I got a great view of the black sand beach below.

We walked along the alien landscape to get to Dettifoss.

I'm sorry to say, but I wasn't that impressed. I thought Gullfoss was much more impressive - it's cleaner looking and easy to get close to.

The landscape got even weirder when we drove to Jökulsárgljúfur canyon to explore the rock formations there. There were more elf churches...

And the most amazing geometric rock formations that looked manmade!

We moved on to the Asbyrgi oasis, where we could see a beautiful calm lake where it's possible to see a variety of birds. There's even a purpose-built viewing platform, and the canyons provide amazing acoustics. Our guide told us about rock concerts they would hold nearby, and J and I had fun yodeling into the rocks.

We had one more waterfall we had to stop and see, Godafoss, which translates to waterfall of the gods. Legend has it that when Iceland made the official switch to Christianity, they threw the carved Norse gods of old into the falls.

It was a very short hike...

With a very big payoff.

It turned out to be a short day with a lot of driving and a little hiking, which was probably just as well since our feet were taking a beating from the rough terrain. We finally reached Akureyri, the northern counterpart of Reykjavik, where we settled in for the night.

Believe it or not, one of my law school chums was in Akureyri at the same time with his girlfriend. Or I should say fiancee, as they had just gotten engaged that morning! It's the oddest place in the world to run into someone, but I was really happy to be able to congratulate them in person on such a happy occasion. We had drinks at the lounge at Hotel KEA and ended the night with some hot chocolate at the local pub. I wonder where I'll run into them next?

Heading West - Krafla, Namaskard, Lake Myvatn, Hverfjall, Dimmuborgir

Wednesday kicked off with a walk around the brand new (relatively speaking) lava fields of Krafla. I never got such a sense of the earth as a living, changing thing until I walked these fields.



The steam made for some fun photo ops with J. Don't worry moms, we don't smoke in real life!



We had been really lucky with the weather thus far, but then the rain started to really come down. The wind decided to join in on the fun so that the rain came down sideways. Fun. The path, which was already a little muddy, got even more slippery, and we had to be careful not to slip from the path and fall into a nearby boiling vat of sulphuric water.



After our walk at Krafla, we made the short drive to check out the boiling mud pools of Namaskard. And it was super stinky! We tried to stay upwind of the steam coming from the mud to avoid the worst of it, but the smell was pretty overwhelming. I beat a hasty retreat to the car due to the smell combined with the general miserableness of the weather.



The day turned out to be kind of a dud for us with the weather being so bad. It's hard to enjoy the scenery when the rain is going up your nose and your hiking pants and boots are soaked. J and I decided to stay at the hotel while the others made the sojourn to the geothermal pools at Lake Myvatn for a good soak. It was just as well since we had tried out the Blue Lagoon, and we both realised that we are just not bath people.

I woke up Thursday morning with my fingers crossed that the weather had improved during the night. It must have worked since it was nice and dry for our walk around the pseudo craters by Lake Myvatn. The pseudo craters are formed by steam explosions as hot lava travels over a water source.



The view from the top was quite nice, and I could spot some of the farms nearby.



We then drove around the perimeter of the lake and walked down to its banks. The lake is quite beautiful, but one caveat: Lake Myvatn translates to "Midge Lake" and there were loads of them to greet us as soon as we got out of the car.



I have an inexplicable fear of bugs getting in my ears and pulled up my hood while I walked around. The water was remarkably clear, and we could see straight to the bottom.



We continued our hike around the lake, and our guide took us to these amazing rock formations. And yep, we could still see the bottom!



It was a nice and easy hike, other than swatting at the squillions of midges, and it was just a warm up for our steep hike up to the rim of Hverfjall, a massive crater by the lake.

It was a steep climb, but we did manage to huff and puff our way up to the top.

It's hard to grasp the enormous size of the crater - the diameter of the rim is 0.6km!



We walked around the top, and it's true that whatever goes up must come down. The hike down was just as steep and a lot harder than the hike up! It was a series of switch backs, and I got a ton of dirt in my shoes slushing my way in the dirt toward the bottom.



Safe and sound and shoes emptied of rocks and dirt, we left the crater to walk to the nearby lava forest, Dimmuborgir. That's the crater in the background - I told you it was massive!



The forest was filled with curious rock formations, and we had a chance to look around while we picnicked amongst the rocks.



We even got to visit a church for the elves. It's crazy that all of this is naturally occurring!



That was quite enough hiking for the day, and I was grateful to return back to the hotel so I could take off my shoes and socks and get rid of the rest of the dirt, which was no mean feat!

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!

In the North - Egilsstadir, Dyrfyoll, Bakkageroi, Hallormstadur

When J and I discussed our holiday, I floated the idea of joining a tour and J was more than agreeable to the plan. He knew there was going to be a lot of hiking on this trip, and I have a feeling that he didn't want to trust just our sense of direction. I think he was still traumatised from the time I made him climb a million stairs and when we came across a herd of too curious farm animals during our hikes in the Lake District.

So on Monday morning, we flew out of Reykjavik's domestic airport to Egilsstador to begin our tour with the Icelandic Mountain Guides. Believe it or not, the domestic airports don't have security checks, which made flying so much easier! We met up with our tour guide, Herdis, and a father-son team that was also on our tour.

Herdis wasn't one for messing around, and we drove straight from the airport to our first big hike at Dyrfjoll mountains. But first, we stopped by a self-serve snack shack in case we needed any sustenance. There's a vending machine that's run on solar/ wind power once you open the doors, but unfortunately, it wasn't working and kept spitting my coins back out. Boo.

We drove up to where we were beginning our hike, and I thought that the view was pretty damn good from there, but Herdis promised that the view would be even better from the top.

We took her at her word and started our ascent. The ground was covered in a thick layer of moss that made it feel like we were walking on fluffy pillows, which was a nice surprise for these old bones of mine. It wasn't long before we were pretty warm and stripping off our many layers. And it turns out Herdis was right - the view was amazing!

We got bored of waiting for the others and decided to head back to the car on our own while the others enjoyed the view. I was also freezing from just standing around for so long! And I don't care what anyone says, going down is harder than climbing up!

Anyway, by the time we were all back at the car, we drove to a nearby coastal town, Bakkageroi, for lunch and a jaunt around town. We stopped in at Alfa Cafe, and we all had smoked salmon on brown bread. It was delicious, but the portion was quite small so I was glad I had also ordered a French Chocolate cake, which was a warm, chocolatey concoction similar to a brownie.

After lunch, we had a wander about town where we took in the various sights such as the turf house.

I also checked out this really cool wood carving, which was right by the water. I kept looking for something similar to this during the rest of my trip (in miniature, of course), but no such luck.

I couldn't help but walk down to the water to check the temperature, and it was freezing cold!

There really wasn't much to see so we drove to the nearby harbour to check if any of the puffins were still around.

Unfortunately, they had all flown the coop for the summer, and we caught a few faraway glimpses of the lazy stragglers that hadn't got a move on yet.

We continued to drive on to our next hike with Herdis pointing out interesting facts about area. In order to have a safe journey, you're meant to kneel and pray to God before you continue your journey, but I opted to take some photos instead.

We had a quick walk around a riverbed, where I amused myself by eating berries and picking wildflowers while the others explored the rocks. It was so odd to me that so much of the land that I saw was covered in vegetation - I was expecting it to be a lot more barren and desolate so I was more than pleasantly surprised to see wildflowers like heather and bluebells growing everywhere. J was nice enough to hold my little bouquet for me for a little while.

Our accommodations for the night were at Hotel Hallormstadur, which is in the middle of one of the few forests, and our room had an incredible view of the lake. Trees don't grow very tall in Iceland due to the weather and the wind, and there's a joke that if you're lost in a forest in Iceland, all you need to do is stand up.

We were pretty tired from our first day of exploring, so J and I stuffed ourselves at our buffet dinner and took a quick walk down to the lake before calling it a night.