After 4 days of water - sand, sand, sand

As part of our visa requirements, we needed to be escorted at all times by a Turkmen guide. Ahead of us we had a 600km ride across the Karakum desert - as we had to keep together (and with the truck) a potential 11 hour ride !

First things first - fuel - 15p a litre, thankyou very much. Unfortunately, fuel stations in Turkmenistan sell fuel, and that is that - no water, no food, no oil, etc,
Fortunately, once out of town, the Turkmen escort let us procede at our leisure, so target number 1; water. We stopped in Nebit-Dag (approx 100km from Turkmenbashi) at the first shop we came across - the cafe had no water left, so after some pigeon Russian, and gesticulation, we ended up in the car shop down the street to buy water;



By the time we got back to the bikes, we had created some interest;








For the next 400km we rode in a strong crosswind, blowing sand straight across the road. Together with the 45degC heat, and being sand blasted, it was a difficult choice to ride with jackets (and vents) open or closed;



The desert crossing was occastionally punctuated by the odd camel action;



Captain Jack, commandeered a local ural for a spin;



whilst we sought refuge, with ice cream;



On the 600km trek, we passed through police checkpoints every 50km or so - luckily we were not stopped at any, so our progress to Ashgabat was fairly straight forward.

As lunch time approached, we veered off into a local town, to try and find somewhere for a cold coke - drinking 40deg water was getting rather tiresome;



After miles of desert and ramshackled buildings, we eventually arrived at Ashgabat - the great Turkmen capital - a showcase of white marble, gold, extravagance, and under cover cops;



We stayed in a USSR styled hotel, complete with ladies situated on each floor of the hotel, to serve the guests;




The hotel was situated next to a presidential building, and as such, we were told that we were not allowed to have bedroom windows open, if our rooms looked out onto the street (incase the president passed by)