Sohbet, my obligatory guide for the next three weeks, arrived at Immigration at 5am. His car had broken down en route, and he had had to change it. My passport & entry documents - having already been thoroughly checked by two sets of officials, were then checked twice more.
At about 6.30am, as dawn broke, I emerged from immigration/customs.
Sohbet - in his mid-thirties - had studied in London on a government scholarship from age 17 to 23. His spoken English is erratic. He tends to speed up when on unsure ground, rendering himself more-than-usually incomprehensible. He is amiable, keen to talk about London and movies - and mercifully content not to talk non-stop. His commentary about Turkmenistan is unfailingly positive. His driver Murat, in his early sixties, had served in Russia in the Turkmen army.
We drive to the Hotel Charlak; a grand exterior and capacious but a mite dowdy interior.
In the afternoon Sohbet gives me a tour of Turkmenbashi. A major port - then called Krasnovodsk - under the Russians, it is surprisingly small. Some Soviet-era low-rise blocks and a Russian Orthodox church remain - but most buildings look only a decade or so old. We drive north along the coast, where Sohbet is proud to show me a succession of huge modern resort hotels. In a couple of months, the Turkmens will bring their families for summer holidays on the Caspian Sea beaches. Now the hotels and their elaborate grounds are almost deserted. Sohbet and Murat chat with the ground staff as equals, no sense of speaking down to manual labourers.
The next morning, we gather outside the hotel at 9.30.
Sohbet has brought his bike in the back of the 4WD. He is enthusiastic about riding with me, but it's immediatly apparent that he's unfamiliar with his bike. After adjusting his seat height and explaining how to use the gears - we set off.
Sohbet tires quickly, labouring up the first shallow incline - and gives up. Murat loads his bike back into the 4WD. I cycle on.
At the end of the day, Sohbet & Murat would tell me good-naturedly that they had latereach cycled about 5km.
I pedal along the edge of a 4-6 lane highway. Good surface. No hard shoulder. Few cars, very few lorries.
Slight ascent out of Turkmenbashi
Then flat
At about km15, 170m ascent over 4 kms
Then flat
South-to-north crosswind rather than headwind.
Around 30°C most of the day. Dry heat.
Almost featureless desert and desert scrub. Grasses & bushes yellow-green. No sign of Spring showers. No birdlife.
Mostly no human habitation – though a couple of times a gathering of single storey dwellings (villages?). What on earth do the inhabitants do for a living?
Thought it would be 80km ride, so caned it (and brought my own 40km best time down to 70.5 mins).
At 80km coffee & ice-cream stop – Sohbet announced 70km more, through to Balkanabat.
Thankfully still flat, but as highway turns towards South-East, so cross-wind becomes head-wind.
Sand blowing onto road causes occasional small drifts. Hit the first one at speed, slid – and nearly went flying.
Not a single sign of agriculture or livestock the entire day.
Last 10km before Balkanabat, more traffic, more buildings.
Just before Balkanabat, 4 or 5 motley single-humped camel graze the paltry grasses.
Balkanabat apparently prosperous. Modern trophy buildings for library, hospital, theatre, museum, wedding venue.