Turkmenbashi (Turkmenistan) Ashgabat (Turkmenistan)

The day started badly when the Major discovered someone had stolen one of his bags from the rear rack of his bike; it didn't contain anything irreplaceable but still aggravating. I suspect I didn't help matters by pointing out that one of the things it did contain, a towel, had in fact been "reassigned" from its previous occupation in a hotel we passed through a few nights ok and that perhaps it was God's way of indicating his/her displeasure. The concept was greeted with a resounding "Harrump!" which I took to mean generic disagreement with the concept. Whatever ones beliefs we are still left looking for a sleeping bag and a few camp site essentials at the earliest opportunity. As the day continued it didn't get much better firstly the F800 crew got separated from the rest while looking for a fuel station, when we finally figured out where we were relative to the rest Max's bike threw a chain. Luckily he had a spare chain with him, unluckily he didn't have the chain thingy tool that clamps on the joining link (as you can tell I'm an expert in chain technology) so we had to shout for help from Jeff who duly arrived and did the necessary. We're now a good hour behind everyone else and then we run smack into 30 miles of road works sticky mud mostly with the odd selection of mad drivers. At this point I have the nearest miss so far as some plonker attempts an overtake in a non existent third lane between me and an oncoming truck forcing me onto a "hard shoulder" that consists mostly of ripped up tarmac. It's a good job he took off at high speed - I was cross. Then we realise that we're nearly out of gas - for the RTW guys this was the stretch that we nearly all, and Clive did, run out of petrol on last year - so it was a great relief to see the petrolstation appear out of the dust with 245 miles on the trip meter. Finally we catch up with the other guys who have kindly hung around at a local café. Following a fast run into Ashgabat we arrive at the Grand Turkman which is a significant improvement on the hotel we had last year. I won't mention the hookers in the hotel bar, maybe I've just been away from home too long but they looked bloody attractive. When they surrounded me at the bar I naturally thought they had fallen for my suave good looks and stunning personality only to find, on opening my wallet that contained a grand sum of $20, a sudden and I might say unexpected degree of disinterest which just goes to show there's no understanding some women. Ah well!a few beers at the British pub across the street then home to bed.