Turmenbashi to Nebitdag
Hot, hot and maybe just a little bit hotter! Add in a headwind here or there and...wow! The hotel here is cool, clean and elegantly comfortable. The smiles of many of the riders say it all. The ride today was pretty flat the whole way although there was a 5km climb this morning. giving the riders' well-rested legs a wee wake up call. Then, really, all the riders had to do was follow the road signs to Ashgabat, dodge a bump here or there, navigate some construction on the road and avoid not becoming a melted mess on the pavement before making it to the end of the ride. A few opted to finish their ride at lunch but most pushed on through and finished at the Hotel Nebici with a cold coke or beer. The rugged sandstone mountains of the Kopte Ranges rise up on one side of us and although we did have the Caspian Sea on one side this morning, we now have a flat, scrubby landscape, dotted with a few small villages. Today, the main focus for the cyclists was trying to get enough water to drink whilst dodging working dogs and camels! Tomorrow is another riding day and guess what, it is ‘desert camp’ time! We’ll see who rides in early to get some shade behind one of the few trees that may be out there?! Turkmenistan promises to be a furnace, dotted with a beautiful rugged landscape and water has become the ‘gold currency’ in our biking world!
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Posted August 29, 2007 by Field Writer
Turkmenistan |
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