Into Uzbekistan

6-7 August

After camping by the gates to hell we headed back through Ashgabat, where we got lost yet again, and then toward the border with Uzbekistan. We knew the border crossing closed at 6pm so it was a bit of a race to get there in time. Fortunately our little convoy were the last cars to be allowed across the border saving us from camping in no-mans land.  Since the guards wanted to go home we had a fairly easy ride getting through the border, apart from a little incident where the border guard wanted to share a cigarette with me (Rach).

The next morning we headed for Bokhara one of the ancient cities in Central Asia. The architecture was amazing with many tiled mosques and old city walls. After some time wandering around the market we headed on to Samarkand where we’re staying tonight. Tomorrow we’re going to look around Registan, before moving ever onwards.

Also as an FYI we’ve decided to have a slight change in our route and head in to Kyrgyzstan, since apparently we don’t need visas to go there any more, also after several day of above 40 degree heat we are excited to be heading into the mountains.

Long time no updates

Hi everyone.  Sorry we haven't been updating the blog so regularly. We've been in the backwaters of Kazakhstan and then in Turkmenistan the internet is severly limited, we've only just found access to Blogger.

We'll put up some photos as soon as we can, but for now we've just put up the text posts.  Please keep scrolling down.

Phone signal is also not happening, hopefully we'll get signal again when we reach Uzbekistan in a day or so.

Also just to let the friends and family of Red Dog Racing and To Infinity And Baatar know that they are convoying with us and are safe and happy!

Special thanks to CPP Ltd

We would like to send our particular thanks to Corrugated Plastic Products Ltd for donating extremely generously to both the Lotus Children's Trust, Mongolia and Mountain Rescue England and Wales!

CPP Ltd handles the design, manufacture, fabrication, assembly and supply of bespoke re-usable product handling systems. Their product range and capability is very diverse; from stackable boxing, to re-usable and collapsible pallet systems, to steel coil packaging.

Proudly displaying the CPP logo, as Matt from Red Dog Racing comes up with a plan to keep our suspension going.

If you know someone that is looking for an environmentally friendly and cost effective product handling system, then please get them in touch with CPP Ltd; they will be very happy to provide a high quality and effective solution using their extensive experience. I cannot recommend them enough!

Antony

Gates to Hell

4 August

One of the main reasons for going to Turkmenistan was to visit the Gates to Hell. This is a burning gas crater in the middle of the desert. Some years ago a soviet company were looking for oil when they found a gas pocket. To try and get rid of the gas the threw in a grenade to burn of the gas. 45 years later it is still burning. The first problem we had was trying to leave Ashgabat, there are no road signs and we drove round in circles for a couple of hours trying to leave the city.

The drive up to the crater was relatively smooth. We turned off the main road at dusk where we paid some locals with a 4wheeldrive to take us and our camping gear up to the crater. The gates to hell truly are an impressive sight, as you crest over the rise you see a the glow coming up out of a hole in the desert. Because we are in Turkmenistan not England there are no safety barriers and you can literally walk right up to the edge. Naturally we all did this, and then took a step back as the wave of heat hit us in the face. We spent a lot time mocking up photos in silhouette against the flames before camping nearby. In the morning we were told to use the crater as an incinerator to take care of our rubbish. I guess this at least keeps the camp ground clean! 

The race to Ashgabat

2-3 August

A few days later than expected we arrived at the Turkmenistan border, we knew this had the potential to be a difficult border to cross, but still hadn’t anticipated how difficult Turkmenistan makes things for foreigners. We had to buy our visas at the border and pay in advance to get the car into the country. Not to difficult you might think…. Think again. It’s not possible to get Turkmen Manat outside the country and there are no money changers on the border. So inspite of having a large stack of Kazak Tenge and Euros they wouldn’t accept our money. It turns out they do  take US dollars. But we didn’t have enough.

Luckily for us team ‘to infinity and Baatar’ had a healthy stack of dollar, so we very gratefully borrowed some of their dollar to get over the border. We entered the country at quite a remote border pass, so we had miles to drive oover salt flats and past an abandoned sodium sulfate works at Bekdash..

We pulled into the sea for our last night by the Caspian, in what happened to be a Turkmen holiday resort. We were taken around by the locals who were as friendly as the Kazaks, the beak had some hot springs, the guys were taken off to the mens side where they had an ’interesting time’.  I chatted in broken English to some of the girls on the ladies side. We  re-convened as we’re fed fresh fish and chocolates by a local, before going to a slightly awkward disco.

In the morning we moved on to Turkmenbashi where w hoped to be able to exchange some money to pay back infinity, but no joy. The lonely planet guide told us that there was one bank in the capital Asgabat where you could use foreign cards to get money. So all three teams filled up using ‘Infinity’s money and began the long drive to Asgabat. Fortunately fuel is subsidised in Turkmenistan so it only cost the equavilent of £4 to fill the tank.

The drive into Ashgabatr was not terribly pleasant,having turned inland from the Caspian we there was no cooling breeze. I sunck into Red dog racing’s car to cathch an hours worth of Air-con before taking my turn driving in the heat.  We finally go into Ashgabat at 11pm and spend about 3 hours trying to find a hotel. We eventually succeeded and after long showers went straight to bed.

In the morning we had a bit of a goose chase around town trying to find the bank that would give us. Money, we eventually managed although they only accepted Master card. Relieved to be able to pay back ‘Infinity’ we re-stocked on food and water and headed out of the city.

Ashgabat is acompletely insanse city, the last dictator they had decided everything should be clad in marble, even the drains are marble. Everywher you go there are  golden statues of the great leader and pictures of him hanging up everywhere. We have some pictures of the city but not to many because if the police catch you taking photo they make you delete them.

The road to Shetpe: We did it so you don’t have to…

31july-1August

I wrote the last post in the car very shortly before the tarmac ran out. Between Belaya and Shetpe the road is recommended as 4-wheel drive only by the lonley planet guide, all 3 teams knew this, what we weren’t expecting was just how awful the road actually was. Not only was there no tarmac but there were pot holes the size of cars. Progress slowed to a crawl, we averaged somewhere between 10 and 15 mph, even this was too fast in some parts. The road stretches on for some 200miles, it took us two full days to cover this section.

Halfway through the first day on this forsaken piece of ‘road’ we discovered that you could cover more ground by driving on the dust tracks forged by the lorries by the side of the road. Most of the other vehicles we saw were driving on these. The main problem with this method is the volume of dust kicked up by the cars as we went along. Everything in the car is covered in dust, since we had the windows open to keep cool. During this period we also discovered the joys of riding on the roof rack!

On the second day, we approached a sign saying ‘the dangerous section’ we continued with trepidation. As it turned out this was the easiest part as the road surface was almost levelled and we headed down a 10% slope.

After finally reaching Shetpe we the road surface improved marginally and we carried on to the Turkmenistan border. All three cars in our convoy had taken a battering, we’re all very grateful to Matt from team red dog racing for helping us check out the dings we’d put under the car. We spent another night by Caspian, to wash off and watch a spectacular sunset.

Kazakhstan first impressions

30July

Since our last post we have been convoying with the two team we met in Astrrakan. Teaming up has exponentially increased faff levels, however japery and banter is also on the up.

We crossed fairly quickly into Kazakhstan, the road surface immediately decreased, to about 50% pothole. Ant did an excellent job of weaving through the good bits of road. Just 10 minutes after entering the country the convoy got stopped by the police apparently it was illegal for us to be driving without headlights on (in the glaring sunshine). While the drivers were taken off to pay a $10 fine, the only policeman that spoke any English stayed behind with the passengers to chat. The whole exchange was quite friendly and we were soon back on the road.

As evening fell we turned off the main road on to dirt track into the nearest village after some confused pointing with the local we were directed to the water. We made camp by the edge of the Caspian Sea about an hour before sunset. I tried to go for a swim, however after walking about 100m into the sea it was still only up to my knees and I settled for paddling instead. The Kazak people are some of the friendliest people we have come across, as we set camp some families wandered over to say hello, take our picture, and make conversation in broken English. After watching the sun set behind the Caspian all went to bed.

The morning greeted us with slightly improved road surfaces as we are currently in oil country. After a game of French cricket we continued making our way around the Caspian. The Kazak steppe is both flat and barren, we pitched our camp in a windy spot leading to some dust in our dinner.