Sat Nav/Maps and Road Conditions

[AndrewRogerson]

It should be noted that temperatures on weather sites/reports are taken in the shade. It's mostly much hotter than you see on the news.

[Kapesta]

Hi Spark,

We did more or less what you described, We drove Ashgabat - Darweza - Ashgabat - Mary - Turkmenabat. There is no road heading east from Darweza, if you want to head east, you'll need a 4x4 that can cope with sand and be prepared to make your way. On another note, you'll need a 4x4 to get to the crater itself - the road itself isn't too rough, just very sandy in parts. To get there you drive along the road to Dashoguz, and it will eventually be on the right hand side(eastern) of the road. You can see a path snaking up the dune. If you cross a railroad bridge you've gone to far, the turn off is pretty much level with a more or less paved and signposted turn off on the other side of the road. From there its about 6km to the crater, follow the biggest path which eventually heads north again.
We drove from darweza to about halfway between mary and turkmenabat, via ashgabat, in one day. gruelling but doable, the temperature was the main issue.
Hope it helps!

[PaulaPS]

Hi Kapesta,

How about a big van, will we get stuck?

Thanks

[bboti]

http://cycleroute.org/ is your new best friend.

Unfortunately, http://cycleroute.org/ is down. I prefer https://bikeroll.net that seems to be very similar.