In the 1970s, the ground gave way when the Soviets were drilling for gas. To get rid of the accident, they tried to set the pit on fire and it has been burning ever since...so crazy. This is a big attraction in Turkmenistan and many people try to get a visa to see it!

To start, the journey from crossing the border to the gas crater was a wild time. The border itself took about 4 hours when we expected it to take around 2 hours so we started our journey later in the day than expected. The day was rather hot, it was about 43C (110F). After riding around 100 km towards the gas crater (and it taking a very very long time) our guide said he has a friend with an empty semi truck that could drive our bike near the gas crater instead of us riding it. The roads were the worst we have seen and we didn't know it was possible to have worse roads than Uzbekistan. To travel the remaining 300 km (185 miles), it would have taken us 8 hours more hours putting us at the gas crater around midnight or 1:00am. We said, "YES PLEASE" to the semi truck picking up our bike and helping us. It was crazy to load the bike into the truck, it took 7 men - phew. We confirmed that Domino is "liftable". After Domino was strapped down and secure, we jumped in our guide's air conditioned (praise God) truck and were on our way towards the gas crater.

We spent one evening out in the desert near the gas crater. The burning crater gave off so much heat, heat which was not needed in the 43C (110F) weather we were already experiencing.

We stayed in yurts for one night and it was a pretty hot night of sleep but we knocked out after the long journey to the desert. They had showers which felt incredible after a big day in the heat.