Black rubber in the black sand – Karakum desert nowadays

The third day of my 5 day Visa just started. As the number of dunes of the Karakum Desert increased so did the number of the cotton fields decrease. The wind was blowing harder every minute and my average speed got down to 14kmh. As the night started to fall my stomach ached quite frequently; usually this ends with diarrhea. As the heat is unbearable during the day, the next day I launched in the dark and catch the sunrise on the road. 122km on a straight line in the desert.

It seems, not just I am suffering from the heat. Every hundredth meters there are pieces of blown up, destroyed tires along the road. And the moment when I don’t see an ugly piece of black rubber lying around, than the thrown away plastic water canisters ruin the landscape. On this day the only restaurant I found was approximately halfway on my plan, accompanied with couple of houses. I stopped here to rest a bit in the shadow. I was invited for dinner, but seeing how hygienic the place was I kindly rejected the offer and ate my own reserves. With nightfall I was just before Türkmenabat, which was really reassuring, as, according my knowledge, the border crossing is open till 6pm and I was like 50km from the border.

The next day, from the town, I sent out the postcards which the readers of the website requested from me. It was already late afternoon when I went on my way to the border crossing.

The most spectacular thing around here is the pontoon bridge on the Amu Darya. I was advised earlier to drink a cup from its water against my diarrhea. According the locals, its water cures all illnesses. When I arrived at the brownish, muddy looking river I had got the feeling that even a sip would be a death sentence for a European. I battled with heavy wind before I reached the border, but in the end I received a stamp in my pass. After 500km I left the hottest country in Middle-Asia, Turkmenistan.