With another mammoth day ahead of us we were up again at 6am the next day and hit the road 2 hours later heading for the Uzbekistan border another 300 km away. On the way we’d stop off at the historical city of Merv and then we would drive through the Karakum Desert before reaching the border one hour past the city of Turkmenabat. Once we crossed the border we would then have to drive another 90km to Bukhara. Anxious about the heat we had a flying visit around the historical site of Merv. Being a UNESCO world heritage site Merv didn’t disappoint and it was hard not to be impressed. Driving through the Karakum desert was amazing. The sand had a bronze tinge and was slowly been blown across the road by a strong wind. Thankfully, this stretch of the road was in much better condition than the previous section and we were able to get up to 50mph again. By midday the temperature had reached 45 degrees and the water spray and fan began to loose there effectiveness. Later the strong wind seemed to die away, which only made it feel hotter and added to the impotence of the water spray. Every mile we completed seemed to take a lifetime.
When we finally reached the border that day I felt like an exhausted wretch. I found that it was a huge effort to talk and even hold myself upright. Thankfully (again) Turkmenistan have recently built a swanky new border post with air conditioning, which came as a great relief. I had to sit under the air-conditioning unit for 30 minutes before being able to go through the border rigmarole. In record time we crossed the customs department but when we went out side again the heat hit me like a giant custard pie and no sooner had we gone outside did I have to shoot back into the air-conditioned building. ‘Please can we stay here a little while longer?’ I asked the border official. Thankfully (again) he agreed. I think he could tell that I was in a bit of a state by how I looked. Sitting under the air-conditioning unit (again) Chrissy gave me 3 Iranian plums (and 2 more to a extremely inquisitive Uzbek lady who wouldn’t leave Chrissy alone. Until that point I had never heard of anyone bribing someone to stop asking questions = well done Chrissy!) and one dry piece of bread that seemed to boost my energy levels. Strangely, my tonsils had swollen and where hanging down in the back of my throat like couple of old cow’s teats? I didn’t know what was going on and wondered if the heat had caused this problem? Sorry for all the breast analogies but that’s what I imagined it must feel like. Thankfully (again) I felt much better after 45 minutes and my swelling throat had subsided, so we decided to cross no-mans land to the Uzbekistan border control. Still feeling the heat I managed to convince the guard to lift me into their air-conditioned building whilst Chrissy went to get a declaration and other paperwork filled out. Unfortunately, the Uzbek border control wasn’t quite so new or swanky and to my disappointment they didn’t have air-conditioning. Thankfully (again) the two stern looking females who were stamping all the passengers passports beckoned me to sit next to their oscillating fan and even gave me cups of ice cold water. Whilst I waited for Chrissy to return I watched Uzbek ladies drag huge bags of sanitary towels past me (Chrissy later told me what they were?) after they were made to wait for ten minutes in the doorway whilst the border guards finished their conversation or what they were scribbling down in their books. As the time drag past, Chrissy still hadn’t returned and I could see that the female guards were beginning to feel the heat because I was blocking the breeze from their fan. This turned out to be a godsend and the most Russian looking lady asked me what Chrissy’s name was. In a strong Russian accent she then shouted something impatiently on her short wave radio. The only word I could pick up was ‘Christine’ and not long after the radio message Chrissy walked in through the door with the completed paperwork. After they had stamped our passports in record time I thanked them for their help and by the large grins on their faces I guessed they were relieved that I was finally leaving them alone so that they could have their fan back. We left the border behind us as the sun was sinking towards the horizon and we finally arrived in the historical city of Bukhara one hour later.
Turkmenistan was the most challenging country so far. The travel restrictions enforced by the government meant that we had to transit through the country so quickly otherwise we would have had to pay extra money per day for the guide and it was illegal not to stay in government registered hotels, so we couldn’t wild camp either. We did really enjoy our time following an ancient part of the silk route and meeting many really nice Turkmen people. However, Turkmenistan with its expanding marble cities and broad canal’s irrigating acres of cash crops in a desert made me think about a trait that human’s have across the world and it’s the ‘want’ to have more. That thought, along with watching the BBC World News for the first time in months and witnessing the climatic disasters in Pakistan, China, Russia and Greenland all at the same time made me wonder how long humans can carry on depleting the world’s resources for their own good before the bubble really does burst.
intersting
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