So here is me and my fellow nomads, world travellers to a man, Brits, Americans, Finns, Magyars, German Austrian and French, it was like the United fucking Nations, though politics and religion were outlawed on day one! This is towards the end of our adventure.
.
I did kinda upset the bloke third in from the right on day one when I mentioned to him it was unusual to see a bloke travelling with his grand-daughter. "It's my wife" he said in a thick New York accent. I kept my gob shut and didn't let go what my inner voices were saying in harmony
"grooming alert"
He was quite wealthy as his obnoxious bragging often broke wind
"Gold Digga"
"Shut the fuck up voices" sheesh!
So having come out of the Karakoram Desert for a stop over in Turkmenbasi, it was a return today a four hour drive there and a four hour drive back. Some of it on tarmac; most of it not, barren scrubland the road running as straight as an arrow, empty apart from the camels roaming free.
Deep into the Karakum Desert we went, to see the remote Yangykala Canyon, the badlands of Turkmenistan
Often referred to as "The Grand Canyon of Central Asia" it is an amazing site to be honest, not what I was expecting
The canyon is part of the Ustyurt Plateau, a seabed that once formed the floor of the prehistoric Tethys Ocean, which when the earths plates collided millions of years ago (how the fuck do they know this?), disappeared and reformed as the Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean.
Sedimentary layers of limestone, clay, and sandstone were deposited and over the millions of years since, nature did its business, the wind the rain the baking heat causing the erosion we see today, jagged cliffs, deep ravines, in beautiful pastel shades
Known as the "Jaws of the Crocodile" a jagged bit of rock, a spot for the gram brigade to stand for selfies, only the granddaughter out of our lot preened and posed herself.
A lonely road snakes through the canyon, sadly not in the direction we are going, as it was time to turn around and retrace our route back to Turkmenbashi for a flight back to Ashgabat.
So another long and bumpy drive, leaving the canyon behind until we reached civilisation
Well I use the term loosely
Though it did have a "supermarket" proudly proclaiming above its door "No1 grocery store".
Warding off evil spirits
A tanker empties, a tanker fills up, when a settlement is this remote it is the only realistic way of water provision
Though the houses were well equipped with satellite dishes
Built to last a ZIL-130, used as a military cargo vehicle during Soviet times
Soon we really will be back in civilisation "Ashgabat" style, it was great to experience the contrast.
[//]:# ([//]:# (!worldmappin 40.45287 lat 54.71692 long d3scr))