Trumped

Desert Camp to Turkmenabad
September 2nd
129km (230m vertical)

No matter how good you are or how much you achieve, there is always someone who is better and has achieved more. Today we met a Japanese cyclist who is riding around the world...all by himself...for the second time...consecutively. He left 8 years ago and aims to finish 2 years from now. He has traveled over 130,000kms so far! We hosted him for lunch and dinner.

This morning, we were entertained at breakfast by a huge dung beetle. Max got a photo of a hairy tarantula too. We are not alone in this desert.

The day was tough with heat and headwinds. It was 107F for most of the ride and it got up to 117F by the time we got to camp. Riding through the desert is tough mentally, since the scenery is boring and doesn't change much. Over each little rise in the land lies another desert scene that looks exactly like what you just rode through.

Our camp tonight had a well with a hand pump, so everyone got to shower. There was also plenty of shade and Paul went on a cold drinks run. Everything you could ask for in a desert camp.

After dinner, some local guys that were loitering around stole James' cycling computer off of his bike. The dozens of police that are always around us caught the two guys, and got the computer back, although they ripped the wires off the bike so it won't work anymore. Not sure what the punishment for petty theft is in Turkmenistan, but one of the guys didn't want to find out. He ran out across the sand, with a police officer running after him...and a stray dog running after both of them.

Camels in the desert:

Japanese rider with 70kgs of baggage!

Sand, road and sky:

Apartment building in Turkmenabat. Each unit has its own sattelite dish:

Floating bridge across a canal:

Sand

Mary to Desert Camp
September 1st
135km (163m vertical)

Left the hotel in a police convoy, even though there was almost no traffic on the road. The police had their lights and sirens going though, and yelled at the other drivers through a loudspeaker. I think they are afraid both of us and for us: we might corrupt that locals if we interact with them or we might get lost. Either way, they always look very worried as they drive up and down the road, counting the cyclists. I stopped to pee at one point, and the police went past me. When I caught up with them again, I could see them thinking “Where did he come from? How could we miss him? How many others have escaped?”

Leaving Mary, we entered a sand desert for the rest of the day. The past few days have been more of a rocky, barren landscape...but not sand. There are still lots of little weeds dotting the landscape, so it doesn't look like perfect windblown dunes. But it was an interesting change of scenery.

Much of the road from Mary was being rebuilt, so there were long stretches of beautiful black new pavement that we rode down as the cars drove beside us on the old rough road. The new road ends abruptly at every little creek, and then starts up again immediately on the other side. Perhaps they are waiting for a special piece of machinery, or different materials before they can span the creeks.

There was a 10km stretch after lunch where large dump trucks were hauling loads of sand back and forth. It was related to some kind of road construction I think...although it looked very strange to see dozens of trucks moving sand around in a desert! The sand blew out of the open trucks and blinded us. We got absolutely covered in it - not ideal when you have 2 nights of bush camping with no water before your next shower.

We have yet to be caught in the really hot Turkmenistan weather. It was 105F on the bike today, which is manageable.

Camping in the sand tonight, beside a police checkpoint. We are happy for the shade from their building, and they are happy that they can keep a close eye one us.

Riding past a mosque in Mary:

A real Turkman...watching his flock of goats:

Big trucks made a big sandstorm:

Tiny village in the middle of the desert:

Local kids selling a warm yoghurt drink at the side of the road. I decided to pass:

Another young girl selling yoghurt at the side of the road:

Lazy Sunday

Rest Day in Mary
August 31st
0km

I was woken at 7am by a hotel employee returning my laundry. 7am on my rest day!!! To make matters worse, it was SOAKING wet, half of it was missing, and she didn't speak any English. After a few calls to the front desk and a lot of gesturing, I got everything sorted out. Everything was returned at 5pm...dry this time. (Except for my cycling shorts, which hold water like sponges. I hung them outside to dry – the one benefit of the heat here.)

The only internet cafe in town is closed on weekends, so I'll have to wait until we leave Turkmenistan to get online. Nicole found a phone center and made a call back to Australia for the bargain price of US$4 per minute. She had to pay in advance, and give them her passport, and tell them the phone number...all of which was recorded.

Went to the local bazaar, which had a lot of parents with there small children going back-to-school shopping. Colorful notebooks, pens, and backpacks were on display – exactly like they would be back home.

I skipped Paul's tour of the Merv ruins and spent most of the day reading in my air conditioned hotel room. Washed my bike around 6pm, once the sun had lost some of its power.

Hard to believe that August is over. I moved out of residence on May 7th and have been traveling ever since. Started cycling with Al more than 3 months ago! Less than 3 weeks until we enter China...the last country of the trip!

Bright fabrics in the local market. The women here love to wear bright clothes:

The local market:

Small statue of a Turkman in the central sqaure:

Winds Change

Camp near Tejen to Mary
August 30th
121km (66m vertical)

Tougher day today. A few small changes made a big difference: First, our tailwind became a headwind. Thus, instead of cruising at 30km/h we were struggling at 20km/h. Second, the clouds disappeared and the sun was out. And third, the roads got a bit rougher. It was still a dead flat ride, however the monotonous scenery did little to distract us from the wind and heat. Thankfully, the temperature only got to 102F by 1:30pm when we reached the hotel, which seemed fair enough given the stories we've heard of 125F days!

Before lunch the police decided to stop riders again and gather us in a group. I'm really not sure what they were trying to accomplish. Within 5 minutes of letting us go, the faster riders were out of sight of the slower riders. And the road that we're on is the only thing cutting through the dusty landscape. Where do they think we'll go other than where the road takes us?

The precise directions to the hotel were supposed to be given out at lunch, but no one's cell phones worked so the tour leaders at the hotel couldn't send the directions back to the tour leaders at the lunch truck. Instead, flagging tape was put at each turn, and our local guide met us as we entered Mary and told us where to go. Even with these two navigational aids, 200m down the road the police flew up beside us – full lights and sirens blaring – and waving madly for us to follow them to the hotel.

Managed to successfully order dinner at a restaurant without a picture menu or english speaking staff. (The key was communicating “Which of these dishes do you think is good?” with hand gestures.)

The hotel has no internet connection. Its tough to reach the outside world here...which is clearly deliberate. Someone is even blocking our cell phone signals. The phones have coverage, but a message shows that the calls are being blocked. Big brother is watching.

Lonely road through the desert:

Smart cows find shade in the middle of the day:

This guy has 2 camels in his backyard!

Police Escort

Camp near Kaka to Camp near Tejen
August 29th
119km (431m vertical...seems too high to me)

Last night, as soon as the sun went down, the insects came out. Huge ants and plenty of mosquitoes. They must be nocturnal. If I lived in this heat, I would be too. Very windy night and a brief rain shower too. With 1,000 year old ruins next to us made of mud and straw, this area clearly does not get much rain. Counting on this, riders were up in the middle of the night trying to find the rain flys for their tents.

Up at 5:30am and on the road by 6:45am to beat the heat. Thankfully, it was overcast all morning, so the sun was not a problem. Throw in flat roads (albeit a bit bumpy) and a tail wind, and we had another quick day. Averaged 27.3km/h (new record) and got to camp before noon.

For most of the ride, a police car with its lights on drove a few hundred meters in front of Nicole and I. Since we were the first to leave camp, he must have thought that we were the lead riders...even though Al and Nick passed us early in the morning. I was happy to have the escort though, since we didn't risk getting stopped at any of the police checkpoints, and we were able to follow him to tonight's bush camp.

Paul gave a talk about Turkmenistan tonight. He said its more liberal now than it was 8 years ago...hard to believe. Turkmenbashi, the former leader who named the city after himself, was a real character. He changed the names of the months to family member names among other strange acts.

A dump truck with a lot of hitchhikers:

I brake for camels...they are much bigger than they look:

Police escorting Nicole around a wide load:

More camels wandering around freely at the side of the road:

Police State

Ashgabat to Camp near Kaka
August 28th
124km (722m vertical...although that seems high to me!)

Back on the bike for the first time in 9 days. Was excited to start again and had trouble getting to sleep last night.

The local TV station was interviewing riders at the hotel before we left, and filming us as we rode out of town. Everyone tried to give sound bites that would not get them thrown in jail. I stayed away from the reporters. Max and Clive both rode in the van today after having severe stomach troubles last night. My stomach is feeling normal again...knock on wood.

Turkmenistan is the hottest country on the trip. Riding through the desert in the middle of August is tough. The Lonely Planet says that “Only the insane and the deeply unfortunate travel to Turkmenistan in August.” Perhaps we are both. I am really looking forward to some cooler temperatures as summer becomes fall and we climb to higher (cooler) altitudes. Until then, the goal is to leave first thing in the morning, ride quickly, get to camp ASAP, and then avoid the sun for the rest of the day.

This all went well for the first half of the ride. The road was very flat and Nicole and I pushed along quickly. Our average speed for the day was 27.1km/h, my the fastest day of the trip so far. We had a quick lunch around 9:45am and then hit the road again. 10km from lunch, some police had stopped Nick, Al, and Fred at the side of the road. For some reason, they wanted to collect all the riders together before allowing anyone to continue. Very frustrating! Nick had already been waiting for more than an hour when we arrived, and the last riders in the group would be another hour or more behind us. The heat of the day was just setting in and we were wasting time at the side of the road. Nicole called the tour leader, who came back and convinced the police to let us continue separately.

Other than this interruption, we made good time and got to the camp before 12:30pm. It was 109F when we arrived, and the temperature continued to rise until mid-afternoon. My feet must have become swollen in the heat, because they were aching in my shoes.

We are camped in the desert, beside a site of ancient ruins (from 300BC). There is no running water, so I had a baby-wipe bath in my tent. The only shade was from a shack, where most of the riders huddled all afternoon. I sat in my tent and read a book until dinner. The heat and bright sun gave me a headache. The sun finally went down at 7:30pm, and only then did the temperature really start to become comfortable.

Pretty boring road:

The mountains of Iran were to our right:

This is where we camped (you can see the big blue truck in the photo):

Me in the ruins as the sun went down:

No Photos Please

Rest Day in Ashgabat
August 27th
0km

Turkmenistan is the most different country we've been in...by a wide margin. It is really not set up for tourists at all:

There are police and military EVERYWHERE. We happen to be staying near all of the government buildings, so it is probably more pronounced here, but you can't walk 500m down the street without seeing 6 different police officers.

They won't let you take photos of the government buildings, which is a real shame because they are amazing. Huge, elaborate white marble buildings with fountains and gardens. There are dozens of them down the main street. Even the banks and university buildings are impressive, and collectively they give the place a real “capital city” feel.

Its almost impossible to get cash, since there are no ATMs. (I wish that the tour company had mentioned this in Baku). There is one bank that gives cash advances on Visa cards. Another bank gives cash advances on Mastercards. A third bank will exchange our left over Azerbaijan currency for local currency. These banks are all miles from each other.

There is no internet access. The hotel has one terminal with slow dial-up access. It worked fine for e-mail but I can't add photos to the blog until I get a faster connection. Access outside the capital is almost non-existant.

There are little old ladies in traditional clothes plus constructions vests that sweep the streets using handfuls of straw as brooms.

The local currency is valued at 14,000 manat per US dollar. However, the largest bills are 10,000 manat. Their entire economy runs on 71 cent notes. Since credit cards are rarely accepted, everyone is walking around with huge fist fulls of cash. Changing $100 US gets you 140 individual bills!

The barbers here take their jobs seriously. After 2 types of clippers, 4 types of scissors, and a straight razor, mine used a large flaming Q-tip to burn off the tiny fine hairs on my ear lobes...something that I've never had done before.

Tomorrow we are back on the bikes for three days of riding to Mary.

Had to laugh at this. The strange thing is that all the words on the package are in English!

One of the impressive non-government buildings:

Rows of white marble buildings...many still under construction:

The golden statue of Turkmenbashi himself. In front, the mountains of Iran:

Another huge marble building: