Fire and ice: Iceland road trip, day 4

The roads have high poles in anticipation of snow

There was a snow warning for the following day. All drivers were advised to stay away from higland roads and tourists were advised to plan their trips accordingly. It was August, still summer in our minds, but Marko and I weren't sure how serious the snow warning was so we decided it best to get back closer to Reykjavik as we were due to return our rental campervan the next day anyway. Besides, it was cloudy and rainy again and there isn't much to do in such weather. We originally thought we might drive to the northwestern fjords but there was no point going there in complete fog. So we just drove to get as much distance on the ring road covered as we could.

Getting sheep home from pasture

The snow warnings seemed to be serious as we saw local people herding sheep from highland pastures closer to their homes. And many roads already had high poles along the sides in anticipation of snow. We later learned that the snow warning was taken so seriously by the locals because the year before, they had a snowstorm on September 12 and it was so sudden that many of their sheep froze. So this year they were better prepared for the onset of winter.

More rain and more waterfalls

We had to make breaks during the long drive but these were quick stops to take a photo and quickly return to the warmth of the car. I didn't even bother to go out each time we stopped, allowing Marko to go out in the rain, wind, and cold.

Rainy, windy, cold

Our last night on the road was miserable. Although we had the campervan with heating, which is much more comfortable than a tent (and yes, there were people camping in tents in the campground, I really felt sorry for them), there still wasn't anywhere we could go or anything we could do in the evening. It was not only raining, it was also getting considerably cooler, the temperature dropping to 6 degrees Celsius. We finally discovered that a nearby gas station had an adjoining fast food restaurant and mini supermarket and we just sat there in relative comfort, reading and having hot drinks until it was time to go to sleep.