Monsters, Inc.

No other country is as deeply steeped in myth and legend as Iceland... anyone for a bit of troll hunting?

- TOM FORD

Photographer Mark chews slowly on a mouthful of wasabi-coated fish pieces and grimaces.

At my sudden outburst or the food, I'm not sure.

“Think of the premiums for covering mythological kidnap,” he says, as if imagining fable-led loss adjusting. “But I don’t think it'll be a problem.”

He's not wrong. Although he might be. Nothing is clear. We've already not found a mythical gold chest hidden at the base of the Gullfoss waterfall, failed to root out the legendary trout fishing ogress who occupies the Háifoss, can't find the Huldufólk (hidden people, although that just proves that they're really good at hiding) and our snacks are verging on human rights violations. Mostly fish or liquorice for some reason. It's nearly 2am, we haven't slept in 20 hours and the sun is still shining. Slightly delirious, but it's supposed to be like this - we're in Iceland at the equinox, and we are hunting trolls.

So not your usual Wednesday, but if you're going to come to a place like Iceland when the midnight sun is in full effect, you might as well embrace the local weird. And Iceland being as casually epic as it is, that involves folklore and monsters, legends and myths - with which, as anyone who knows me will tell you, I am obsessed. The wilder the place, usually the greater the depth/horror of the stories, and Iceland is Olympic standard wild.

It's also an excuse to test out Ford's new plugin hybrid Ranger Wildtrak, by doing really stupid things in it, mainly because this is a very sensible pickup truck and incongruity is the fuel of a good story. Also because we need to be self sufficient (ish) with all the camera gear and electronics, capable of light off roading without getting fatally stuck and comfortable enough to visit 1,250 miles worth of folklore in two days.