Day 23: The Day with the Runs
Tuesday 9th August
Still mesmerised by what lay before us
at the Door to Hell we got up around sunrise, brushed the gigantic grasshoppers
off our tents and packed up for the road. Marigold soon communicated to us her
disgust at the atrocious quality of the roads. Simon the sump guard
enthusiastically said hello early on in the day but by the end he was so
battered and bruised that he could barely let out a whimper. Bathtub Bilbo on
the other hand was embracing the adventure and incredibly was as solid as ever
despite the appalling roads.
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| The Turkmenistan Desert |
We stopped for lunch in a small town
not far from the border and hunted around for a place to eat. To our surprise
we stumbled across a niche little café that resembled a year 7 disco hall. The
room was lit up by those spinning spherical rave lights you can buy from Argos
for £7.99, and a super convincing full size stuffed tiger lay in one corner. Cal
from Two and a Half Men was the first to be rattled as he walked past it. They then
gave us some traditional meat pasties, which although at first tasted nice Alf
and Caleb’s rear ends disagreed with later on. Unsympathetic congratulations
were passed on to both for becoming the first to succumb to traveller’s
diarrhoea.
After a lot of dithering, we finally
settled on a farmer’s field to camp for the night only a few kilometres away
from the Uzbekistan border. A very comfortable night for all except Alf and
Caleb whose bouts of rusty rain meant they slept in the squat position.
