I woke up remarkably late given how uncomfortably I slept. The fact that a local farmer decided to graze his sheep on the scrub around out camp whilst himself riding his motorcycle didn't help matters. We made a fire to boil some water for a much needed coffee and had a simple, but fililng breakfast witht he Italians. One last visit to the crater confirmed that it was still alight and after packing up the camp and saying our goodbyes, we were off again, heading for the Uzbek border. It was to be another long drive on our last day in Turkmenistan. I would have loved to have spent longer here and meet more of the country's people, but alas money doesn't allow. Also the fact that most people are inherently worried about being seen talking to foreigners (who for all intents adn purposes are considered spies by the state) and being implicated. For most of the locals it is simplest to keep communication to just a quick "hello" and "where are you from" rather than anything else. This is, of course, frustrating as it hasn't let the real heart of Turkmenistan open up to me.

The drive to the border, near Konya-Urgench, was along several hundred kilometres of very bad road full of potholes. I found myself lurching from side to side regularly. At one point I managed to actually fall asleep, only to be woken up by when my head smashed into the seat infront. Dimitri had clearly missed the gaping pothole in the road. Joe was as unaware too and his head smashed into the front windo, leaving a spectacular series of cracks in the glass. Fortunately he wasn't hurt. Dimitri was unworried though and drove on almost as if nothing had happened.

At around 4pm, we made it to the former silk road town of Konya-Urgench where we were given a cursory tour - from the car. Actually, not a lot remains and the city actually moved to present day Urgench, 150 km north, (in Uzbekistan) when the Amu-Darys river changed its course.

We passed through customs with the usual passport checks by everyone and anyone, copious amounts of hand shaking and said goodbye to Dimitri. From the border we headed to the nearest town Nukus, the capital of the Karakalpakstan region of Uzbekistan. Sadly though it wasn't much and the hotel we stayed in did little to improve our impressions of the city - the rooms were decrepit, the staff surly and the water didn't work. Another long day of difficult road (even in these modern times) meant that we were more than willing though to take any bed and get some sleep.

 Desert Sands

The crack in the windscreen, with a confused looking Joe and local!