From Ashgabat we took to road north, I think the term road is being used here in the loosest sense. It was tarmac-ed, but there didn't seem to be any foundations to the road and obviously overloaded trucks use this route. The peaks and troughs in the road marking the lanes. Good thing we got new suspension, and raised the height of the car!

The drive took us by a set of craters. The first filled with water and you could see bubbles coming to the surface. The second a mud crater, bubbling away and with the gas alight... and the third was the infamous Darvasa Gas Crater. This man-made site is the result of Soviet gas exploration gone wrong. There is no exact information on when this occurred, but it is thought that it's been burning since the 1960's.

We set up our tent and made some dinner, then wandered over. In the daylight there didn't seem anything that spectacular about it, but as the sun went down the flames lit up the night sky. The heat coming from the crater was intense and the scale of the whole scene was picked up by Fintan - he took photos with some other people and cars for scale!

In the black night sky the crater lit up a huge area - it must be visible on GoogleEarth at least! Swarms of insects were attracted to the light and a flock of what looked like birds were feeding - only they weren't birds but bats! It was an incredible sight.