Approaching the Darvaza crater we first stopped at two other smaller but similar craters.
The first was a crater filled with dark, almost greenish tinged water in the bottom. Small bubbles of gas could be seen on the surface of the water which indicated gas leaking out. By this point there was a breeze blowing across the desert and some sand was starting to be whipped up, so it was really only a cursory stop and a nice opportunity to briefly stretch the legs.
Next, after about 15 more minutes, was what was supposed to be a mud filled crater, but as it was a desert and hadn't rained for a while the 'mud' was just sand in the bottom. This one did have a small patch of fire where gas was leaking out and had been set alight. In effect it looked as though the rocks were burning.
To reach the Darvaza crater we then turned off the 'road' and onto a bunch of sandy tracks. It was another ten minutes or so off-road to reach the actual glowing crater and reason for the days trip.
In the daylight, it was more interesting to see, rather than being spectacular. There was one other 4WD there when we pulled up, but over the next 30 minutes maybe another 20 arrived. Some people walked across to the crater from the nearby yurts for the sunset and for the colour of the crater to start to take dominance.
I talked to my guide for a while standing around the edge, occasionally getting a bit of sand blown into the mouth. The other thing was when the wind swirled a particular way the hot burnt gasses from the crater would hit us. I can describe it as, yes, hot but not so much that you'd move further away. It was bearable for the generally 15-30 seconds before a different wind current moved that effect away.
After the sun had set we hopped back into the vehicle to head up the dunes away from the yurts that could be seen at the crater, to another collection of them just out of site. Here the was a bbq meat dinner (chicken, mutton, goat); more fruit than could ever be eaten; and a selection of water, juice, soft drinks. My guide and I were eating in a yurt with a Russian tour group and they'd bought along a number of bottles of wine to have with their dinner. My guide reckoned they weren't real Russians as they didn't have any vodka with them.
By now the wind was really starting to blow uncomfortably and any time stepping outside the yurt meant squinting to stop sand and dust blowing into the eyes. The locals there appeared to be getting annoyed as well. After eating and talking for about an hour, we headed back down to the crater for a look at night time. This was probably a briefer stop just due to how unpleasant the conditions were. Interesting that my phone camera seems to do a pretty good job of filtering out some of the blowing sand particles.
Then it was back into the 4WD for the four hours back to Ashgabat.
Initially this proved a little difficult as the driver couldn't see the sand tracks to get from the crater back to the main road. The blowing sand was obscuring almost all visibility, so it was a slow crawl as the driver and guide worked to try and keep us on a known path. Even when getting back to the broken tarmac there were still squall periods where sand was being whipped across the headlights and the road disappeared for 10-20 seconds at a time. It was not a great time to be driving.
I listened to a couple of podcasts to pass the time on the journey back hoping that the car stayed in one piece and that there were no stray camels or stupid driving. Our driver seemed to just stay on the side of being safe, but the speed at which some others overtook him made me more concerned about that other traffic. Another 20 minute break at the truck stop on the return journey so the driver could have a drink and a couple of smokes and then the final push to Ashgabat. We didn't stop anywhere else before my hotel. I was expecting, from others reports, that we may have had to stop to wash the (white) 4WD before entering the city proper, but maybe they figured at 1AM there would be little chance of a problem. We did still pass through about three police check points between the truck stop and the city.
At the hotel I was very glad to have a shower to wash the sand and grit off myself and everything I had taken with me.
It was for sure an interesting sight to see, but I'm not sure the single day trip journey there and back was the right way to do it. The right way of course would be to fly there and back in a helicopter, but maybe not practical! The other thought that kept playing over in my mind was imagine if the president ordered one less monument to be built and instead spent the money on building a decent road. Partly I suspect it's by design that the rural roads in TKM are in a poor state, firstly to minimise travelling, but also to stop the locals driving at 200Kmh... note also that they're paying about 2 manat per litre for fuel so it's ridiculously cheap. At unofficial exchange rates that's probably less than 10c per litre.
