Tough times in Turkmenistan

Long days, bad weather and worse roads – Turkmenistan was a challenging country for us!

We cycled across Turkmenistan using the standard 5-day transit visa during March 2011. The 500km between the Iranian and Uzbek borders is usually simple enough, but unfortunately our 5 days coincided with 5 days of the strongest headwind I’ve ever experienced.

We were reduced to a soul-destroying 10kph average speed, and had to spend every daylight hour on the bikes. The poorly sealed road stretched to the horizon under grey skies, surrounded by vast, empty landscapes. We eventually made it after turning the pedals for 10 hours for three days back-to-back, and a couple of tantrums along the way!

Bex and I are cycling from England to New Zealand 2010-2012 https://worldcyclingtour.wordpress.com