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.
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| Bob cleaning the truck |
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| Lunch in the desert |
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| Desert |
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| Small village in the desert |
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| Camel in the village |
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| Neatly stacked fire wood |
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| Our new truck? |
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| Crater full of water |
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| Nico using our new mullet for the tents |
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| Decoration on the truck |
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| Putting up the tents |
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| Great wild camp |
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| Nico |
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| Mikkel on top of a hill |
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| Mikkel |
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| Neill |
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| Darvaza Gas Crater |
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| Incredible amazing - just a few meters from the edge |
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| Emer, Malene and Emma |
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