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.

However the event of the day that will no doubt live in our memories long after this trip, had to do with the safe we have in the truck for securely storing valuables such as our money supply. As background to this incident it is necessary to understand that we expected Iran to burn up a substantial amount of cash. Normally our budget is about US$1000 per week, but that will be a little less in Iran as fuel is cheaper. Offset against that is the expectation that entry to Iran may cost as much as US$2000. On top of those considerations we may need to pay for a few hotels in the larger cities. So the point is we needed a good supply of cash.

So at one point during the middle of the day Nina started to get all our cash together to see exactly how much we had. As part of this task she went down to the truck from our room to get all the money out of the safe. A few minutes later she returned with a worried look on her face to report that the safe would not open. Our safe can be opened with either an electronic combination lock via a key pad or via a key. Nina reported that the key pad appeared dead (no lights or beeps) and you guessed it the key (2 copies) were safely locked in the safe. We both returned to the truck so that I could verify for myself that there was a problem and unfortunately I had no more success than Nina. So there we were with the majority of our cash locked in a safe we could not open, no chance to get more and tomorrow we would be in Iran where we could also not get any more cash. I think it is accurate to say we panicked a little bit for a while.

What could be the problem? It finally dawned on me that the safe must have some batteries inside to supply the key pad and that perhaps yesterdays bouncing around on the sand dunes dislodged the batteries. Good idea, so I tried the old fashioned give it a thump remedy. We were both flabagasted, after a couple of big hits with my fist the key pad miraculaously started to work, we got the safe open and our money out. Needless to say we also took out one of the keys and have hidden it somewhere secure but also somewhere we will remember.

Lesson - don't put the keys to your safe in the safe and rely entirely on the key pad for entry.