Rygsækrejsen 2015-2016: Door to hell

tirsdag den 21. april 2015

Wild camping in Turkmenistan #2

Early morning. Malene had set the alarm for 5:45 to be ready for breakfast at 6:30. Suited well with Mikkel's plans about getting up and cooking beans for tonight's chili con carne. All quiet in the camp only a few people getting up that early to prepare breakfast. Beans cooking and it turns out breakfast was not until 7:30 so we climbed the nearest hill and had a great view at the sun rising over the desert. Just another day at the office.

Breakfast, truck packed and ready at 8 am – and then we left for a full day of driving. There are not that many roads in this part of the country – mainly because there are no people living here and the road we were supposed to take was missing a bridge, so short detour.

One the way to the next wild camp we stopped at the Kunye Urgench ruins. You had to have a good imagination to think how grand the city used to be because nearly everything has been destroyed. But we heading to Uzbekistan tomorrow where there are similar buildings in a much better condition.

We got to the campsite not too late so we had time to relax and enjoy the warm evening, a superb chili con carne from Mikkel's cook group. People hung around the camp fire for a while after dinner so we had marsmallows as a nice treat.

Sunrise

Not much out there

Not much traffic

Monument and picture with the president

Lunch

Kunye Urgench ruins

Kunye Urgench ruins - watch tower

Kunye Urgench ruins

Getting back in the truck

Truck life

mandag den 20. april 2015

Wild camping in Turkmenistan #1 – Darvaza Gas Crater

This morning it was time to pack for two days of wild camping. Hotel has been somewhat of a luxury with toilet, shower, internet. Ahead was almost a full day of driving. But first the cook groups – which included Mikkel this time – had to stock up for the trip.

We were able to do lunch outside a local hotel who let us use their parking lot for the gypsy-truck. It wasn't really a problem for the hotel. Like so many places in Turkmenistan it seemed totally empty except for the staff. But with only 20.000 tourists a year in Turkmenistan (which might or might not be the correct number) we guess there are a few vacant rooms around in the hotels.

In the afternoon we had a quick stop at a small village. A very different world than Ashgabat with all the crazy monuments and broad boulevards. Here it was dusty and dry, the houses were small or they were yurts, there were a few chickens and goats running around and a couple of the families had a small camel outside their house.

Our camp site was close to the flaming Darvaza Gas Crater. Also known as The Door to Hell. In the evening we were picked up by a guy in a 4-wheel drive and driven to the gaz crater. Wow. Truly amazing. A huge burning whole fed by natural gas. It has burnt since 1971 though it's burning a bit less now. It's not until recently they've been able to make use of the gas. Our group were the only ones out there and there was no supervision what so ever. We could get as close to the edge as we wanted (though most kept a good distance). I guess in many other countries there would have been fences everywhere and a viewing platform. It was possible to walk all around the crater and you could really feel the heat from the fire when the wind blew a little.

Somehow our camp fire that evening didn't seem so impressive.

Turkmenistan do have more natural gas than just this crater. They hold a fourth of the natural gas in the world.