Before leaving town we visited the Russian market and shopped for two days. It's crazy how much we can buy with so little. Our budget is $1 for breakfast, $1.50 for lunch , and $2.50 for dinner...per person...and we eat really well as you are learning.
We headed north out of Ashgabat, saying goodbye to the city of love. A wide two lane paved road greeted us. Farmland was quickly replaced by scrub and sand.
We stopped by an irrigation canal for lunch and enjoyed a wonderful spread prepared by cook team one.
Back on the road it was more sand and scrub, dotted by the occasional camel. Late afternoon we stopped at a sink hole appropriately named "water crater." It was formed about 50 years ago and was full of ground water.
Next was another crater (sinkhole) only this time it had bubbling mud at the bottom and several gas flares. It's getting hot in the desert! Sorry no photo. Getting close to the edge was more than I could handle.
We set up camp in a hollow behind a small ridge and enjoyed our official first night in camp dinner of spaghetti with meat sauce.
After dark our jeep driver showed up and took us to the fire crater. The crater was about eight km from the camp. As we approached we could see the light from the fire. The crater was awesome with flames coming up the sides. The heat was intense and we were just able to get close enough to get photos. Too close and our hair and eyebrows would get singed. The last photo is me jumping up into the air just a few feet from the edge...well, it was a dare from one of the younger family members...what else could I do!
Spectacular volcano!
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