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.

There were two more craters to see in the neigbourhood, one with a few flames and boiling mud, and one full of artesian water, I guess the gas explorers did not learn very fast. After these two short stops we were on our way to Ashgabat.

After about 100km of highway travel we stopped for a a look at a village where, until recently, the people lived a traditional life style. According to our guide electricty came to the village only very recently and since then the lifestyle of the people is changing. It was a facinating place matching what we would have expected of a real desert village even down to camels and roads being covered by drifting sand.

There after followed a long hot drive south into the sun and on into the amazing city of Ashgabat with its large number of highly ornate and simply fantastic (in the true sence of the word) buildings. We followed our guide at what Nina thought was breakneck speed through the traffic towards our hotel.

(It was the same speed we were doing on the open road without the million plus people)

At one point we were stopped by one of the numerous police patrols and told that "trucks cannot go this way". Eventually our guide convinced the policeman and we continued on our way to the Aziya Hotel on the southern side of the city. We were a little disapointed with the hotel. Old Soviet style hotel with no wifi, hot water that is only luke warm, but it is close to the road we need to get to Iran.