A barbecue and the Karakum Desert — Albion Globetrotters

The following day while loading the car to leave, I came across the British Ambassador, Sanjay Wadvani OBE, checking out the car. We had a very pleasant conversation and it transpired that we were neighbours in London! After an obligatory photograph he wished me well and I picked up Misha and Artik to go for a barbecue. We drove to a lake near Ashgabat airport in a former sports complex and proceeded to prepare lunch. Lamb shashlik, Shurpa, salads and mixed roasted aubergines and tomatoes. Shurpa is a soup that is cooked on a wood fire with lamb and vegetables. While preparing the food we had a few vodkas and Chal, which is fermented camel's milk. This sparkling drink is delicious and very healthy.

Alex with Sanjay Wadvani OBE, the British Ambassador

Following a delicious lunch we went swimming in the lake. Lots of diving and horseplay followed. There was a rowboat that we commandeered and took it in turns to row or push the boat from behind. We also took turns in teaching the security guard's five year old son to swim. Thoroughly refreshed following the swim, we turned up the speakers on the car and proceeded to dance around the car, creating our own impromptu disco. Some slices of melon later and amidst exhortations to stay, I bid everyone farewell with a heavy heart. I would have gladly stayed for many more days.

While driving to the gas crater at Darvaza, I stopped in Erbent to get some fuel and have a quick bite to eat. I ended up sharing a blanket with a lorry driver and a meteorologist, Arslan and Rashid. We had several kebabs and lots of tea. Enormous dung beetles and darkling beetles crawled a few feet away from us near the lights and the odd locust would jump around. Up above us was the most beautiful starry sky with the Milky Way gently glowing. On the road, lorries trundled through the night, young boys on motorcycles with no lights and cars from Dashoguz racing through the night to avoid the sunshine during the day. We sat for a couple of hours - when I tried to leave they would not allow me to pay the bill and insisted that they pay. No amount of arguing would make them change their mind; I gave them a tin of English tea as a thank you.

Once on the way to the gas crater at Darvaza, I was unable to find it. It is not signposted and at 3am it is not an easy thing to find. There was a slight glow on the horizon which led me to believe that I was in the right place. But there being no road I was unable to find it. I asked some lorry drivers for directions but everyone's directions were different and varied wildly. This resulted in my driving on various roads, down to train tracks, gas plants and everything possible under the sun except a gas crater. After an hour of looking around I was throughly fed-up.

Meanwhile on the horizon the glow mocked me gently, like a Fata Morgana singing its siren-call. I made up my mind to try the off road route. At that point a local chap who'd been sleeping in a jeep came up to me. Through a mixture of Russian, sign language and Turkmen he indicated that I could follow him to the gas crater. After negotiating a price he got into his car and we bombed it up like lunatics over sand dunes and lots of fine, slippery sand. I realised that there was no way on God's Earth that I would be able to find the crater on my own and understood why I'd been unable to find it. After flying 9km at speeds over 40mph on the sand we arrived at the Gas Crater. What was unusual was that it was not one continuous fire but rather a series of smaller fires which combined together to give a fierce glow. When the wind blew the heat towards me it was unbearable.

On the way down, the Beast got stuck. This wasn't very surprising as I hadn't lowered the tyre pressures or engaged the diff-lock. If anything it was a wonder that the car had managed to do so well on the sand in ordinary drive mode. After engaging the diff-lock and putting the car into a lower gear and some judicious driving backwards and forwards I got out of the sand. While driving back to the road I noticed a campsite full of Mongol Rally participants and momentarily debated whether to pitch a tent and get some sleep. I decided that the Karakum during the day after three hours sleep was perhaps not the wisest choice in the world. So it was back onto the road and I started bombing it up to Konye-Urgench. Surrounding me was the most beautiful wall of stars ever seen.

The road from Darvaza to Konye-Urgench is an interesting road. It is easily the worse road that I have driven on so far. This was a series of potholes interspersed with road. Next to the road was a sand road that had been levelled out. One of the locals had recommended driving on this rather than the main road. I gladly took their advice and belted it up this road making my own sandstorm behind me. Every so often I would have to drive on the main road, at which point I would have to swerve constantly to avoid the potholes like a demented Olympic slalom skier!

Sunrise and sunset in the desert are both incredibly beautiful. Whereas sunset is welcomed as the preface to cooler temperatures, sunrise is feared as it is the onset of fierce temperatures and punishing heat. While it was a beautiful sight, it merely led me to exhort the car to greater efforts, punishing my back and the cars suspension. In the meantime the sand of the Karakum Desert was drifting into the car. I resorted to driving in a Chaffiyeh that I'd purchased in Iran. While the prevented sand getting into my nostrils, the rest of the car was caked in dust and I had become blond!

The only way to drive and keep all the dust out.

Highlights of the drive included a bridge that was perfectly surfaced - however in a sublime twist of irony both approaches to the bridge were mud road. There was a lot of off-road driving, where it was easier to drive next to the road than on it. Villagers stared at the spectacle of a car covered in stickers belting it across stretches of road like a Dashoguz racing driver (Dashoguz drivers are renown for driving with a metaphoric brick tied to their feet). After four hours of this horrible, challenging, pockmarked road I arrived in Konye-Urgench.

A quick tour of the historic ruins of the town dating back to the times of Khwarezm, spending my last manat on fuel and some Turkmen Gok-Chai (Green tea) and it was off to the border for me. Meanwhile, the 37 degree heat at 0900 in the morning confirmed that it had been a good idea to drive through the night through the inhospitable Karakum.