The Turkmen city of Krasnovodsk (today called Turkmebashi) lies about 400 kilometres from the Kazakh town of Zhana-Ozen in the Mangystau region. It takes 15 hours to reach one place from the other, mainly because there is no road on the large part of the route, just rutted tracks meandering back and forth in the steppe that can only be traversed with a 4 wheel drive vehicle. What’s more, one has to spend several hours to pass through the Turkmen-Kazakh border crossing point.

What is there to be seen during all this time? Nothing. Completely nothing. Steppe, steppe, steppe… Dried weed… No village, no man, no animal. Emptiness.

The only settled place on the entire route is a small town of Garabogaz (formerly Bekdash) lying to the north of the Garabogaz Bay. The main occupation of the inhabitants of this town set up back in the Soviet era is extraction of salt the deposits of which are located nearby. Allegedly, the town was once green. Today it is gray and white. The sand of the desert mixes with the salt that lies all around (as can be seen in the photo).

The road from Krasnovodsk to Zhana-Ozen is one of the most deserted places I have ever been to. One feels extremely lonely and… small there.

However, traversing this route with a jeep is no feat at all. There are people who have covered it on bicycles. I encourage everyone to read their account of this incredible trip.