Up early! Eurgh! Sun wakes me up every morning now, it just makes the tent feel like an oven even though we’ve started just pitching the inner part. Packing up our last camp in Iran, I can’t believe we’ve been here for a whole week, it’s been one of the best weeks I’ve had in ages though, we’ve met so many friendly people. They’ve all been very helpful and hospitable and pretty much treated us like celebrities at times. What an amazing place to be!
Sitting in the Iranian side of the border waiting for passport control to give us back our passports, James’ American stamps may have something to do with it.
Now we’re through to the Turkmen side, lots of trapsing around collecting a million different bits of paper, but at least we’re allowed to wear shorts on this side. A team from Calgary has caught up with us at the border, The Canuckleheads, they’re a father/son team and are going to convoy with us for a while, see Ashgabat and the underground lake at Kol-Ata.
We’ve just stopped at a bank in Ashgabat and WOW! The city is incredible! Everything is marble and gold and it just appears out of nowhere after a steep pass through the mountains, through a HUGE marble archway. We’re also a lot lower than we have been for the last while and it’s HOT HOT HOT! No idea what the actual temperature is, but I’d happily make tea with the water in the car.
We’ve spent the last hour driving around looking for a hotel from the Lonely Planet book which is actually under reconstruction so now we’re sitting around trying to decide what to do and keep out of the sun. I think the idea is to go for a closer look at the centre of town, then drive out towards the underground lake and camp near there then double back and head for Merv, the other side of Mary tomorrow.
Just back from a lengthy trip to the supermarket (where we met a couple more teams and had a chat) and the sight seeing - The Presidential Palace, Arch of Neutrality and other huge marble buildings in the middle of the city - all very impressive. Still haven’t seen a single postcard since Istanbul though!
Now we’re through to the Turkmen side, lots of trapsing around collecting a million different bits of paper, but at least we’re allowed to wear shorts on this side. A team from Calgary has caught up with us at the border, The Canuckleheads, they’re a father/son team and are going to convoy with us for a while, see Ashgabat and the underground lake at Kol-Ata.
We’ve just stopped at a bank in Ashgabat and WOW! The city is incredible! Everything is marble and gold and it just appears out of nowhere after a steep pass through the mountains, through a HUGE marble archway. We’re also a lot lower than we have been for the last while and it’s HOT HOT HOT! No idea what the actual temperature is, but I’d happily make tea with the water in the car.
We’ve spent the last hour driving around looking for a hotel from the Lonely Planet book which is actually under reconstruction so now we’re sitting around trying to decide what to do and keep out of the sun. I think the idea is to go for a closer look at the centre of town, then drive out towards the underground lake and camp near there then double back and head for Merv, the other side of Mary tomorrow.
Just back from a lengthy trip to the supermarket (where we met a couple more teams and had a chat) and the sight seeing - The Presidential Palace, Arch of Neutrality and other huge marble buildings in the middle of the city - all very impressive. Still haven’t seen a single postcard since Istanbul though!
Just arrived at Kol-Ata and found a place to sleep, next to what looks like an abandoned trailer home or something. Super tired now though, and getting fed up of the heat.
Photos from the day.
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