Roadside Turkmenistan--July 13

In the Karakum Desert lives a prehistoric beast known as the zemzem, a desert crocodile that is rare to see. Nearly six feet long, they creep about the desert feeding on small rodents and spend the winter hibernating in their prey's furrows. If this was the American Southwest, such a creature would be captured, thrown in a pen, and billboards erected a 1000 miles in either direction: "Monster of the Desert," "Do You Dare Look!"

The zemzem is only one of the attractions of Roadside Turkmenistan. Right up there, too, is the Darvaza Gas Crater. During the days of Soviet gas exploration, immense sink holes occured, results of explosions at some loss of life (numbers the Soviets have never released). One of these giant craters shoots flames from its crevices to spectacular effect.

Out in the desert of Turkmenistan

The gas crater

The driver, the Armenian guide Angela, (this is not the Russian from the first few days), and I drive five hours north of Ashgabat, through desert with its occasional sand dunes and camel silhouettes. We turn off the road, 4-wheel drive on, and continue up and over the dunes until the gas crater appears. A few other cars are here, including a group of a dozen Slovenians. The drivers set to work laying out blankets and innumerable bottles of vodka. After a while, one of the drivers takes off into the pitch black. He returns with more vodka and some meat. They fix skewers of food over a campfire, and it's delicious.

The drivers and my guide start in on the vodka toasts and continue far into the night. When they finally pass out and their music shuts off and the Ljubljana chorus across the way quiets down, I'm comfy in a sleeping bag stretched out in the back of the Land Cruiser, alone with the stars and the flaming gas crater before me.