Mary, Turkmenistan
Trip Start
Jun 01, 2008
1
23
35
Trip End
Nov 12, 2008
Mary,
Mary,
Turkmenistan
Saturday, August 30, 2008
Well I actually have arrived in Buhkara, Uzbekistan after 6 days in the desert of Turkmenistan and of course having spent an enourmour amount getting across the Caspian Sea. The internet is extremely slow (non existing in Turkmenistan) and not many computers available so I am just able to do the 3 days cycling in Turkmenistan to Mary and do the last 3 days incl the day in Uzbekistan at my next rest day stop in Samarkand where we have two days rest....how perfect. Buhkara is beautiful as well...but will send you photos next time, if it is possible.
Spirits are up... we are all so glad to be back on the bikes. Speak to you very soon and thank you all for your great emails. I unfortunately haven't been able to reply to you all, but thinking of you lots
Camping in the desert
.Love
M
DAY 86 & 87 "Desert and dromedaries" - Asghabat to Bush camp (two days riding, 240km's)
When we left Asghabat we left it in great Turkmen fashion. Police convoy at the front and back and on the side a television crew, filming us till we reached the outskirts of town. I wondered what they would be saying about us on TV, and a few different scenario's came to mind....'what are these foreigners doing in our country', or maybe the nicer one...'tourists in town!!!, be nice and wave when you see them on the road'.
Over the next two days we were blessed with flat roads, I guess that is what you should expect when you cycle in the desert. It has been interesting though, the desert has been surprisingly different with moments when it looks like a moon landscape with craters to a green area with lots of vegetation, cotton growing, one of other commodities besides gas Turkmenistan exports. As for gas there are two pipelines, one leading to Russia and the other to Azerbaijan and negotiating a third one to Iran. This country is full of natural gas and one of the reasons it is pretty much free to the locals
Dromedaries in the desert
. Approx 0.85 cent for our support van to fill up its tank!. Matches however cost money so Turkmen are known to leave their stove on to save using up too many matches. The dry heat reached 48 degrees when we were cycling; leaving you feel rather dry literally as there was no sweat pouring off you. The second day we even had overcast, probably the first time since Hungary, which cooled it down nicely and a tail wind...thank god as I unfortunately had caught another stomach bug which had kept me awake all night. We all try very hard to avoid getting the bug and keep clean but it still seems to move around. Anyways lucky for me the day wasn't tough and I just needed to focus on keeping my pedals moving and the wind did the rest.. Only the occasional group of dromedaries made me slow down. And whilst I was taking a picture of one group of dromedaries I didn't realize how non shy there are of the camera and was almost cuddled by 20 of them. In Turkmenistan the luxury of being able to stop at petrol stations for a quick coffee or water stop was non existing. Turkmen must be carrying it all in their car as well as the 8 passengers they try to squeeze in into a small Lada. I am starting to forget all the hassles and horrible introduction we had when entering the country, people have been gorgeous and cycling through the Karakum desert is definitely something. You can understand how Turkmen were nomadic and would like to still be them, rather than living in ugly built USSR towns which look dirty and sterile if that makes sense at all.
the days on the ferry
.DAY 88 "6,000km...and still smiling (135km)
Sometimes hard but mostly without problems...I have managed to cycle 6000 kms sofar. I think we missed around 1200kms all up not cycling in Georgia and some of Turkmenistan...so we probably have another 7500 km's to go. If you put it that way a strange feeling comes up, on one hand I wonder whether I can stand doing this for another 7500 km, but then the feeling of freedom and the many amazing and above all weird adventures experienced and more to come I am sure, I cant stop smiling either. Today's cycle was a slower one as I was still not feeling 100 percent, but just took it easy. The police who have been with us since the start, I understand there are 3 police cars taking care of us, decided to drive behind me. Initially we thought they just wanted to have a look at a Dutch bum!, however they stayed with us till lunch even when Graeme was the last one in the group. At one stage we had a quick drink stop and the police hushed us out of the café, hurry!! Hey buddy give us a break...there are still cyclists behind us, go and pester them. But this was obviously not what they had been ordered to do as they just stayed with us the whole day. I guess it doesn't hurt having a bit of extra security, but it was definitely over the top. Even when we stopped for a pee break, they stopped as well.
Turkembashi
. Overall it was tough riding as the road surface was uneven, very tiring on the body and the tail wind had changed direction and was now nicely blowing into my face. Around the 100km mark I ran out of steam, the battery was empty...it desperately needed recharging however there was no place to stop and put your head down so head down and the thought of a glass of chilled chardonnay and chocolate I made it into Mary. Mary is interesting, it appears all of a sudden whilst you cycle through the desert and expect this beautiful small town however it looks ex communist, Russia era and all the town has is massive buildings built for the crazy president, Turkmenbashi. I even found a what I thought was a run down amusement park, but it was operating and I couldn't resist going for a ride in the bumper cars, 5 out of the 10 were working...was worth to have a good laugh with the locals. Turkmenbashi also wrote a book called the Ruhnama, which needs to be read by all people, even when you do your drivers licence you need to pass the ruhnama test, more important that the driving test. There are millions of statues across the country of him but the craziest is the one in Asghabat which is him with his arms spread open and it rotates as it follows the sun. It is massive and from gold!! In 06 he died and his supposedly illigimate son has taken over.. 
Comments
Wow
Great story you wrote about Turkmenistan. I very much enjoyed it. It sounds thrilling, challenging and tough, but I can tell you are loving it, so that makes me happy. Have you finished Foreign Devils by now? I recently started it, after Graeme pointed it out to me in A'dam. Did he have a nice birthday?
Stay well, stay safe, keep smiling!!!
xxxx