week: 5 of 16
day: 35 of 113
weather: Hot and Sunny
country: Uzbekistan
nearest town: Samarkand
latt, long:N 39 38 966; E 66 58 000
distance traveled: approx. 6,500 miles
Since the last post we have travelled through Azerbaijan, across the Caspian Sea (a night mare boat journey of 13 hours crossing and 55 waiting to enter the port).
The crazy country of Turkmenistan (police state) the capital Ashgabat has many marble and gold buildings with no apparent use. The former leader 'Turkman the Great' died quite a while
back and now the country is run by his dentist! Coincidentally? many of the residents have gold teeth.
Following Turkmenistan a reasonable sense of normality has returned in Uzbekistan - nice people and the best fresh baked bread so far; although few members of the trip have escaped loosened bowel movements.
The picture opposite is of a 'gas crater' (diameter about the length of a football pitch) in the Karakum Desert in Turkmenistan. The are various stories about how it was created, the one I was told by our guide (all foreigners must be accompanied by a guide in Turkmenistan) is as follows.
During their occupation of Turkmenistan the Russians drilled for gas in the desert, one day at this site there was a big explosion all that was left was a crater of burning gas. No one seems to know how many people died or what exactly happened, even the local people did not know about the crater until the early nineties after Russians left. The gas has been burning for at least 20 years perhaps even since the 1950's.
Another couple of days riding in this country and then it is on to Kyrgyzstan and more off-road riding building up to the big one - Mongolia.
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