TURKMENISTAN & ONTO UZBEKISTAN

Location: Bukara, Uzbekistan
Speed: 0 MPH
Status: Having a well earned day off!

Moving on from Ashgabat it took us two days to get across Turkmenistan. We drove hour the desert for miles and miles and even saw our first camels. The temperature topped out at 47 degrees Celsius – with the window open it was still like a warm hair dryer in the face!

We stopped by the side of the road and went into the dunes to get some photos with the camels. Out of no where a farmer appeared and got some of them over for photos. He then made gestures and we established he wanted us to go to his farm where he had baby camels.

We hopped into the ambulance and followed the famer in his car, five minutes down the road we drove into a small farm. We got out and the man was full of smiles as we led us over to a pen where there were two baby camels. More photos were taken and we even tried camel’s milk which was shocking!

Hitting the road again we arrived in a town called Mary. Nearly had an accident on a roundabout when two Turkmen Lada drivers were racing nearly drove into the side of the Gobi Ambulance! Disaster averted we found a spot just off the main road to Turkmenibat (the Turkmen/Uzbek border) and settled in for the night. It was hot, uncomfortable and we only managed three hours sleep but it was all we could get.

Next morning he drove the 300KM to the Uzbek border. More desert, more 45+ degrees temperatures and more camels! Cold water was a thing of the past, it was all warm and when we did manage to get it cold it warmed up in minutes.

Arriving into Turkmenibat at around 15:00 we got horrendously lost trying to find the border. Eventually after asking everyone we saw we got to a Turkmen arm checkpoint where they demanded another 100,000 Manat and $52 which was a total pleasure to pay!!

We trucked onto Farab which was the border town and the process to exit Turkenistan began.

Driving up to gates we were told to park and go into an office. There was a very large crowd of people around the gate, we sussed the situation out we decided to wave our English passports and shout “tourist” a lot – it worked we jumped the queue!

The gate guard checked our papers and made us sit on a wall until another guard told us to follow him. We ended up in a corridor which lots of doors, they actually looked like interrogation cells. After being shoulder barged out of the way and queue jumped by lots of Turkish truck drivers we decided to play it aggressive and formed a line of bodies across the corridor which annoyed the truck drivers but got the result we wanted. At this point the man in the interrogation cell (which was actually an office) came out and took the drivers and paperwork to Customs. The others had to be process separately.

Customs was interested, we walked in got asked a bunch of standard questions like “Why are you here?” and “Where are you going?” etc. We got our stamps so that was the vehicle bit done, now it’s passport stamp time. We joined the queue, chatting amongst ourselves and Turkmen guard snapped “No talking” so we shut up! Passport stamped we went for the crossing into Uzbek, only to be told we needed to have another stamp in our passport.

We were on hour two by the time all the stamps were collected, we drove though and hit the Uzbek side of the border. The drivers we asked medical questions like “Have you ever had avian flu?” which made me laugh a bit. Then is as passport stamps followed by the customs form which was all written in Cyrillic.

It was comedy watching a bunch of English speakers trying to decipher the form. We eventually got it by asking various people. We were allowed then to bring the ambulance though to the final checkpoint.

Walking into the customs building it became apparent they were X-Raying spare wheels. This would be a real pain as it was really hot and it would take hours to get everything off our roof rack! Fortunately the old tourist card played we cleared and headed to Bukara.

Another warm welcome our fourteenth country, Uzbekistan. People were beeping their horns, waving and all smiling – I guess it’s not everyday they see a thirty year old ambulance driving down the road!

We arrived at a rather quant place called Hotel Siyavush which is run by a family. The have cold water, cold beer, air conditioning and showers so we are very happy people again! They also have Internet which is how you’re reading this now!

There are seven rally cars here and last night 16 of us went out for some food. After a night of gorging the bill came to around £3.50 a head!

Today (Monday 4th August) we’ve decided to take a day off the road and see a bit of Bukara, take care of some money and mechanical matters.

As for the roads, well there are OK(ish). We’re driving on pot holed tarmac at the moment which is shaking the poor old ambulance to bits. Before we leave on a morning we run around and tighten every nut and bolt we can find, it’s good we’ve been doing it as some have come a little loose!

We made a decision over the last few days. Together we have decided to drop Tajikistan from our itinerary. We had planned to take the Pamir Highway (essentially the old silk route) but it’s the second highest road in the world with altitudes of up to 6,000 feet. It’s a safety call really as the brakes on the ambulance are not vented and on mountain passes they get rather hot and can fade.

So with that decision in mind we’re heading up to Tashkent (the capital of Uzbekistan) and assuming the border is open we’re going to cross into Kyrgyzstan. From there it’s North into Kazakhstan and Russian before turning East one final time for Mongolia. It’s crazy to think we’ve only got four counties left!

All being well we should be into Ulan Bator by late August, right on target! But we still have at least 3,000 miles to go and the roads are only going to go down hill from here. Mongolia only has around 150 miles of tarmac and we have to drive over 1,000!

Not sure when we’ll make the next posts, it’s dependant on Internet connectivity. The site will be updated eventually but maybe delayed. We are texting our position, so you should find the map a good indication of where we are.