Posts From Turkmenistan

Tonight in Dashogus we had dinner at a local hotel and french fries were on the menu so I could not help but order some as we have not had, nor even seen, french fries since we left the USA nearly 6 months ago. They were not great, but still a treat. So now I should go back and start at the beginning of the day.

Our guide turned up at the agreed time, with a GSM chip for my phone as promised and we set off towards the no-longer existing town of Davaza (Derweze) about half way to Ashgabat. According to our guide book the town no loner exists because the previous president decided he did not like it and had it "removed". So if it does not exist, why go there? Well it is famous for a man made wonder called Devils gate, but we will get to that.

During the course of yesterday afternoon I started to think (fear?) that the sandy track we had traversed on the way in to view the crater yesterday afternoon may not be as easy to get over on the way back. There was one good sized sand dune along the track, and on the way in the track up to the top of that dune had a hard base but the track down was very soft. On the way out the soft part of the track would be up hill and I was concerned it would give our mighty-mog some trouble. As it turned out I was correct and I struggled for some time trying to climb the dune in the soft sand. My struggle was amplified by a few locals who insisted on reversing down the same hill I was trying to climb at the time I was trying to climb it and forcing me to avoid them. Eventually a more judicious selection of route overcame the problem and we were back on the highway.

We spent the day preparing for tomorrows crossing into Iran. That meant cleaning the truck, finding our way to a supermarket,and getting some more money as there is no international banking in Iran. Each of these chores had their own little challenges as we had to find our way around Ashgabat by taxi and work out the Turkmen system for such mundane things as ATMs, internet and groceries.