“Always Coca Cola”

Departing the gas craters we headed further through Turkmenistan’s Karakum Desert towards Uzbekistan. It is the hottest desert in Central Asia, and did not disappoint as the temperature hit 44 degrees. We turned on the air conditioning (opened the windows) and settled in for the drive along some very dodgy roads (although apparently they were an improvement on last year and we made good time). We enjoyed mystery meat and desert bread sandwiches by an irrigation canal with the wind making it feel like we were in a blast furnace, and then an excellent decision was made to try to find another part of the canal in which we could all have a swim. Our local guide directed us to a lovely wide part of the canal and there was a collective hiss and sigh of relief as our overheated bodies hit the water! We were able to camp next to the canal, and so spent the afternoon in and out of the water and relaxing in the shade once the shadows lengthened. Penelope continues to yield new surprises, and this time it was kites, which turned out to be very useful in ensuring that the wind dropped nicely!

Canal bush camp:

Unfortunately the next morning saw the inevitable happen to me for the first time… A bug had taken root in my stomach and I was not well at all (I even skipped the champagne which we had for Terry & Lesley’s 31st wedding anniversary, so that is a sign of how unwell I was!). So Dr Pete prescribed flat Coke which I sipped away at gingerly, and attempted to sleep on the truck as we continued through the desert to the historical monuments of Konye Urgench near the Uzbekistan border. Fortunately it was a much cooler day (although that is a relative term!), and we wandered around the monuments which included the 2nd highest minaret in Central Asia which dates from the 1300’s (although it has a bit of a lean-up, so I would get here in a hurry if you want to see it!), and a hill down which women can roll (although disappointingly they just seemed to be walking down when we were there) to boost their chances of pregnancy.

It was then time to head to Uzbekistan, our 14th country (if you count France and Slovakia, both of which we just transited through). It was a pretty uneventful border crossing once we had sorted out the Russian customs declarations (fortunately it is much easier to leave Turkmenistan, than to enter it!), and we picked up our local guide Jalol and headed to Khiva.