7.076 km - Gate to Hell

We never really thought about how infrastructure can increase people´s flexibility so much, until we started to hit the road in Turkmenistan. The roads are existent, but that is as much as you can say about it. Putholes everywhere so we were only able to reach a top speed of 50 km/h…making the whole trip from Turkmenbasy to Ashgabat of 500km rather bumpy, long and painful.

When we finally reached Ashgabat we realised that all the money (Turkmenistan is a country rich of oil and gas) is invested in building marble palaces in Ashgabat (the capital) instead of improving the infrastructure. Even though we arrived late to Ashgabat due to the worst road conditions we have ever seen, we decided to continue driving to the "Gate to Hell", a must-see when you are in Turkmenistan!

So we found ourselves in the middle of the night on a bumpy road looking for a red light at the horizon of the sky. As it was getting later and later and we realized that we would not be able to find it, we decided to camp somewhere close to the road. As we turned into what seemed to look like a road, we realized we actually drove straight into the desert and got stuck in the soft sand after 3 meters. This was going to be a loooong night. While we were trying to get the car out of the sand at 2 am a car with a Turkmen family stopped and offered to help us out. This was our first encounter with Turkmen hospitality.  When we finally managed to get out and more or less explained that we were looking for the gas crater, they indicated we should follow their friends car. One hour later we ended up at a bar in the middle of the desert waiting for a jeep to bring us to the gas crater. An unbelievable and surreal experience, but we made it in the end and it was unforgettable. 

Check the video and judge for yourself!